The Road to Smart Manufacturing for SMEs: Dilemma and Breakthrough

In recent years, intelligent manufacturing has become a general consensus for enterprise development. However, so far, more small and medium-sized enterprises have not made significant progress in developing intelligent manufacturing, and are still facing many transformation difficulties. Compared with large enterprises, small and medium-sized enterprises generally have problems such as informatization, weak automation foundation, and talent gap.

Cai Qinan, general manager of Advantech (China) Industrial Internet of Things Business Group, said: "There are two main reasons why the transformation of SMEs to intelligent manufacturing has not been as fast as expected. The first is cognitive problems. Those who believe that the transformation and transformation of intelligent manufacturing is only technology, so the urgency of enterprise transformation is not so strong. However, intelligent manufacturing involves the whole industry chain and the whole process scope, not only the dimension of technology. This requires business operators It is necessary to change the way of cognition and transformation, starting from the upgrading of technology, combined with the overall strategy of enterprise strategy, business model and even market demand transformation, so as to truly bring the ultimate value of improving the competitiveness of enterprises. The second is the problem of talents, because intelligent manufacturing involves cross-border Therefore, rather than cultivating 'specialists', we should cultivate more 'generalists', that is, to be able to think from the perspective of the whole industry chain or the whole process." It is understood that as early as 2010, Advantech Technology Just put forward the development strategy of the Internet of Things, and is committed to becoming a "smart planet". As a multinational company focusing on IoT, automation, and embedded computing industries, Advantech has nearly 40 years of experience in industrial IoT solutions. In recent years, Advantech has actively promoted IoT software and hardware solutions centered on edge intelligence and the WISE-PaaS industrial IoT cloud platform. It not only promotes intelligent transformation in its own factories, but also assists small and medium-sized manufacturers to accelerate the transformation of intelligent manufacturing.

Faced with the transformation problem, Cai Qinan believes that the key to breaking through is that, rather than "newly built", small and medium-sized enterprises should gradually advance in the way of "upgrade and transformation".

The status quo of smart manufacturing transformation of SMEs

Cai Qinan said that from the perspective of the status quo of smart manufacturing transformation of SMEs, the development of three dimensions has a greater impact on it: First, the technological level , including from materials to equipment; the second is the manufacturing management and talent level; the third is the market demand-driven level.

"In fact, the improvement of equipment production efficiency and production technology for small and medium-sized enterprises is inseparable from the cultivation of intelligent talents." He believes that compared with the vigorous development of the Internet economy, which has attracted a large influx of talents, more Young people are not willing to devote themselves to the development of the real economy. They believe that the manufacturing industry takes longer to settle and refine, and the development speed is not as fast as the Internet industry. At the same time, the scale and strength of manufacturing enterprises are not strong enough, and the factory equipment is outdated and other inherent impressions, resulting in a situation of insufficient manufacturing talents and insufficient talent reserves.

“At this point, the most important thing is that the government should be the driving force behind the transformation of the entire industry. From a policy perspective, we should first focus on cultivating manufacturing talents and experts in basic research, and at different levels. To promote the development of talents, from high-level supervisors to middle-level department managers, to grass-roots skilled workers, comprehensive re-education and comprehensive skills improvement of talents; from the perspective of public opinion, young people should be guided to do some innovations and breakthroughs that the country needs. Reshaping social values, allowing young people to re-understand the manufacturing industry, pay more attention to the manufacturing industry, and change the inherent cognition of the manufacturing industry."

From the perspective of market demand, the rapid development of China's e-commerce Innovative development has promoted the digital transformation of the manufacturing industry, promoted the development of flexible production and customized manufacturing, and accelerated the pace of industrial transformation and upgrading. Cai Qinan said that in the current field of intelligent manufacturing, the market demand for on-demand, flexibility and flexibility is driving enterprise reform. Compared with large enterprises investing huge funds in the intelligent upgrade of basic equipment, small and medium-sized enterprises should further think about how to face a small number of diverse production forms. "This kind of service-oriented manufacturing is the most quickly implemented part for small and medium-sized enterprises. In this industry chain, small and medium-sized enterprises should pay special attention to the connection between upstream and downstream, and quickly realize their own flexibility in the networked structure. Manufacturing. And this is also the advantage of small and medium-sized enterprises, which can further exert their core advantages in the process of combining upstream and downstream."

Three steps towards intelligent manufacturing

small and medium-sized enterprises There are three steps for an enterprise to move towards intelligent manufacturing, namely equipment networking, data visualization, data analysis and optimal management. Cai Qinan pointed out: "There is no need to throw away all the equipment, but to connect the own equipment to the Internet, upgrade to intelligence, and do it step by step."

The first is the networking of equipment. It is understood that Advantech launched a strategic plan for intelligent manufacturing transformation in 2011. It not only achieved its own successful transformation, but also helped many small and medium-sized enterprises to achieve intelligent manufacturing transformation over the years. In the process of contacting a large number of enterprise cases, Cai Qinan found that due to the lack of awareness of data, most enterprises mainly invest heavily at the IT level, but do not pay much attention to the OT level. With the development in recent years, enterprises have gradually realized that there is a large amount of data that can be mined in OT, equipment and on-site, so more and more enterprises have begun to invest heavily in this level and realize the value of data.

Next is data visualization, as well as data analysis and optimization management. Cai Qinan mentioned that in the past, many companies invested heavily in "visible" automation, that is, robots. However, as the industry grows, companies will start investing in the "invisible" automation - data.

After the production data is visualized, managers can quickly analyze the data on site, and can continuously improve the production results. He gave an example. For example, if there is a problem with the quality of a product, the reason is that the vibration range of the equipment exceeds the normal value. The enterprise can find the problem through abnormal data, but if there is no data analysis and management, it may have to wait until the equipment has obvious problems. to know the reason. "Only through in-depth mining and analysis of these data can we bring the next growth momentum and bring more innovation breakthroughs."

Overall planning, phased implementation

For small and medium-sized enterprises In terms of enterprises, Cai Qinan believes that overall planning should be adopted and the implementation should be carried out in stages. Every step that small and medium-sized enterprises take should be taken step by step to avoid excessive trial and error costs and risks, resulting in a situation that does not meet expectations and is irreversible.

The first is global planning. From the determination of business operators, to the process of importing equipment and data, plus policy support and supporting measures, a comprehensive consideration must be given. He suggested that when planning globally, make sure that the system architecture is an open architecture. "In this architecture, data-driven must be fully realized. The new digital architecture, that is to say, through a data center, the various subsystems can be effectively connected, and this is based on a data-driven technical architecture."

This is followed by a phased implementation. Cai Qinan took a customer of Advantech's auto parts manufacturer as an example. The factory began to contact customers from major international manufacturers such as TOYOTA, BOSCH, and BMW seven or eight years ago. These large factories have a high degree of automation, but as a small and medium-sized enterprise, this manufacturer automation capabilities are insufficient. Therefore, in order to better serve these large international factories, the company developed a small department based on the original manufacturing conditions. The main function of this department is to automate the connection between the plant's equipment, production order and customer enterprises. For example, some large enterprises will use SAP software, but small and medium-sized enterprises generally do not use this software due to their limited funds and scale. Therefore, this manufacturer has developed a tool on its own system, which is compatible with the SAP of international manufacturers. software to connect. Through this connection method, the manufacturer is closely connected with the information, information and data of upstream customers.

“When it comes to intelligent manufacturing, there is a saying I like very much, it is called 'data-driven data-driven', which drives enterprise transformation by customer needs. By connecting data, we can connect the future, connect customers, and connect Market. Take the initiative to open up data with big factories, otherwise the company's market will become smaller and smaller." Cai Qinan said.

He suggested to import gradually in the way of "point, line, surface", that is, start with a piece of equipment, then go to a production line, and then go to a project. By adding some sensors, collectors, edge control and gateways, it can help existing equipment to extract key data. With the data obtained by the controller, you can see the relevant information of the device. Through data analysis, enterprises can understand the health status and usage of equipment.

Secondly, it must be data-driven and flexible. Cai Qinan said: "For example, the manufacturer in the above case used the quality system when connecting with TOYOTA at the beginning, but after half a year, he may find that he needs to install the energy management system, and then the automatic dust removal system, etc. , which requires the middle-office system to be able to achieve elastic expansion. In the process of digital transformation, we will have six different functional systems, but many small and medium-sized enterprises cannot have six modules together. For example, according to market demand, the most urgent It is to digitally upgrade the production management and manufacturing modules; after half a year, it is found that the power consumption is very large, and the energy management system is also required."

Cai Qinan believes that small and medium-sized enterprises must focus. "Focus is the survival essence of small and medium-sized enterprises, because small and medium-sized enterprises cannot spread too much, but they can start to invest in the digitalization of a part of equipment to closely connect with upstream and downstream customers. I think this is the realization of small and medium-sized enterprises. Intelligent manufacturing is a very critical transformation method."

Photo/Cai Qinan