Outlook｜First experience of the factory of the future

when we talk about the future,

What are we talking about?

Future factory, future community, future village,

Future parks, future transportation, future hospitals...

now,

The future form led by digital reform,

already manifested in

All aspects of production, life and ecology in Zhejiang.

Internet, big data, artificial intelligence,

Based on next-generation information technology such as 5G,

Not only to promote industrial form, economic structure,

lifestyle optimization,

Thinking concepts have also been reconstructed and innovated.

future,

This seemingly abstract concept,

It is not the illusory and imaginary,

Nor is it just a castle in the air.

It is either an industrial manufacturing that subverts the traditional model,

Perhaps it is the beautiful China with green water and green mountains,

or urban and rural

Thousands of our pleasant smiles

...

◆ The special topic of this issue of "Lookout"—— "Looking at the Future in Zhejiang" , here are two of them:

First experience of the factory of the future

Open a new era of intelligent manufacturing

Meet the Future Community

A Future Rural Experiment

First experience of the factory of the future

Article | "Look" News Weekly reporter Yuan Zhenyu Shang Yiying Wei Yijun Tang Tao

In "The Competitive Advantage of the Shop Floor," economist William Lazonick writes that every industrial revolution began on the shop floor.

Today, a new transformation is brewing in Zhejiang's manufacturing workshops - the factory of the future.

What is the factory of the future? What does the factory of the future look like? A few days ago, a reporter from "Outlook" News Weekly took these questions and walked into several iconic future factories in Zhejiang Province.

The assembled engine in the smart workshop of Chunfeng Power’s future factory (photographed on January 5, 2022) by Jiang Han

Black Light Factory

Different from the scene of busy people and bright lights in the traditional workshop, the future factory of Robam Electrical Appliances located in Linping District, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, is dim in the huge workshop, only the orderly "exchange of information" and production assembly between machines.

Through the weak natural light, one can vaguely see that on an automatic stamping and forming production line for smoke hoods, the flat steel plates are transformed into finished products after punching, shaping, cutting and other links, and the robotic arm places them on a On the flatbed truck, the AGV trolley (a transport vehicle equipped with electromagnetic or optical automatic navigation devices that can drive along the specified navigation path, has safety protection and various transfer functions) will drag away the flatbed trucks that are neatly filled with finished smoke hoods .

The fume hood stamping and forming production line is only a small production link in the 50,000-square-meter workshop of this kitchen appliance company. According to statistics, a total of 284 sets of automation equipment, tens of thousands of "data points", 16 production lines and 27 AGVs are installed in this workshop.

Yu Chao, manager of the external relations department of Robam Electric, said that this future factory, which cost more than 500 million yuan to build, focuses on digitalization, networking, and intelligent transformation. Cloud computing achieves unity in key capabilities such as architecture, interface, and management. At the same time, it can respond to customer needs in real time, dynamically adjust design, procurement, production and logistics solutions, and realize the full value chain management of user-centered and data-driven business.

Since its operation, Robam's future factory has achieved a significant effect of "cost reduction and efficiency increase": The product pass rate has been increased to 99%, the production efficiency has been increased by 45%, the product development cycle has been shortened by 48%, the production cost has been reduced by 21%, and the operating cost has been reduced by 15%.

low carbon factory

In the Jushi Fiberglass Future Factory, which covers an area of ​​about 200,000 square meters, the production equipment is lined up in sequence, thousands of glass filaments are pouring down from the top of the production equipment, and a large number of industrial robots are busy. The glass filaments made of ore are very thin, and some have a diameter of only 1/20 of a human hair. This requires very high drawing technology.

Behind the "magic" of turning stone into silk, the energy consumption for producing 1 ton of glass fiber is only 0.36 tons of standard coal, which is far lower than the national and industry standards. Previously, the theoretical consumption of 1.3 tons of standard coal was required to produce 1 ton of glass fiber.

Low-carbon production condenses a lot of the latest science and technology, and digital twins are one of them. Combined with the glass fiber intelligent manufacturing system architecture, 3D simulation modeling of the entire process and key equipment can reproduce the entire process of the manufacturing process in a virtual environment, display the full life cycle of the product, and realize the digitization and intelligence of production operations.

While the energy consumption is greatly reduced, the waste silk wastewater is also utilized to the greatest extent. "Waste silk and waste water are no longer discarded or discharged, but recycled. This not only reduces costs, but also eliminates environmental pollution." Zhu Huishun, deputy general manager of Jushi Group, said.

In Jushi's spacious intelligent control center, huge display screens cover the entire wall, and carry out digital and visual monitoring of the whole process of the glass fiber production line with an annual output of 150,000 tons.

Zhu Huishun said that through the construction of an industrial big data center, it is possible to collect and efficiently process over 40,000 points of data in real time, and at the same time seamlessly connect with external platforms such as logistics. Such a production management system has been promoted from the headquarters in Tongxiang, Jiaxing to production bases in Chengdu, Sichuan, Jiujiang, South Carolina, Suez, Egypt, etc., realizing intelligent manufacturing, globalization of production and sales, precise management and control, and harmonious development under digital empowerment change.

Factories will "think"

In the future factory of CHINT low-voltage electrical appliances, each circuit breaker on the production line is divided into "four rooms" inside, and components such as electromagnetic system, thermal tripping system, arc extinguishing system, and operating mechanism are distributed.

Just in this square inch, the manipulator flashes and moves, displaying hard-core "craftsmanship", and completing continuous actions such as stamping, welding, and precise assembly of various small parts without error. This company independently designs, manufactures and owns independent intellectual property rights of the small circuit breaker full-process automatic production line, It only takes 1.2 seconds to produce a circuit breaker.

In addition to being efficient, what is even more amazing is that The circuit breakers that are being "incubated" can communicate and interact with production equipment, control their own manufacturing process, inform the production equipment of what the production requirements are, when they need to replenish raw materials, and what the next step is, basically realizing the "birth of the product." "It's up to the circuit breaker to decide.

Behind this efficient "dialogue" between machines is Chint's integrated enterprise formed by using Internet of Things, 5G, big data and other technologies, integrating IT/OT data, and integrating CRM, PLM, virtual simulation, SRM, MES and other systems The digital platform realizes vertical integration from manufacturing core equipment to production of industrial big data, and horizontal integration of the value chain from customer needs to R&D, production and sales.

Gao Jun, director of the production and operation department of Chint Electric, said that after the implementation of the Chint Future Factory project, the operating cost has been reduced by 43%, the production efficiency has been increased by 335%, the product development cycle has been shortened by 22%, and the comprehensive energy utilization rate has increased by 8%. The numerical control rate reaches 100%.

Open a new era of intelligent manufacturing

Article | "Look" News Weekly reporter Yuan Zhenyu Shang Yiying Wei Yijun Tang Tao

If iron gray is the symbolic color of the industrial age, then, In the manufacturing enterprise known as the factory of the future, information technology, digitalization, intelligence, low-carbon and other characteristics make the background of industrial civilization present more magnificence and mystery.

In 2020, Zhejiang Province took the lead in proposing the concept of the future factory, and released the list of future factories for two consecutive years. It intends to drive more enterprises and industries to transform, upgrade and update by creating a benchmarking enterprise of intelligent manufacturing that fully integrates the new generation of information technology and advanced manufacturing.

"The factory of the future is not only an upgrade of the manufacturing model, but also a restructuring of productivity and production relations. It is a stage of evolution to the 'factory of the future'." Lan Jianping, deputy director of the Zhejiang Development Planning Research Institute, said.

▍Cultivate new intelligent manufacturing echelon

Zhejiang defines it like this factory of the future ——Following the goals of upgrading the value chain, improving competitiveness, and achieving good economic and social benefits, integrate and apply new-generation information technologies such as digital twins, artificial intelligence, and 5G, and follow the overall requirements of production process reengineering, organizational reshaping, and data fusion applications, Combining the characteristics of the industry and the reality of the enterprise, focus on application scenarios such as digital design, intelligent production, digital management, green production, safety management and control, network collaboration, personalized customization, service extension, etc., and carry out new technology applications and new model innovations, Strive to form reproducible and scalable solutions and cases for more companies to learn from and empower the intelligent transformation of the industry.

Based on this, Zhejiang divides future factories into leading-type "head goose factories", champion-type "chain master factories", platform-type "collaborative factories" and technology-type "hard core factories".

Looking at the "Guidelines for Future Factory Construction" in Zhejiang, we can find that this standard is based on the practical experience of Zhejiang's future factory construction, benchmarking domestic and foreign advanced technology standards for intelligent manufacturing, and researching and formulating the basic principles, scope of application and construction requirements of future factory construction .

Yu Yadong, Manager of Information Department of Jushi Group, said, Basic scientific breakthroughs provide us with an opportunity to build future factories. Future factories are not only automated and unmanned, but also an organic combination of digital, market, and humanities. Advanced algorithms are used to reduce production costs, and artificial intelligence technology is used to improve production quality, production efficiency and Production costs are further optimized.

"In the further cultivation process of the future factory, it is necessary to combine the physical factory and the virtual factory to form a digital 'twin', realize the self-operation and management of the entire factory, and interact with the market-side management and manufacturing, and vertically connect the industrial Internet. "He said.

The factory of the future often occupies a pivotal position in the industrial chain, and it also drives the simultaneous improvement of the entire industrial chain and industrial clusters.

Yueqing City, Wenzhou has the largest electrical industry cluster with the most complete facilities in China, and it is also the place where Chint Group started. In recent years, Chint has played a leading role in the industrial chain, relying on the Chint Industrial Internet PaaS cloud configuration platform, promoting low-cost, modular equipment and systems, lowering the digital threshold for small and medium-sized enterprises, driving upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain to carry out basic transformation of the industrial Internet, and establishing Intelligent manufacturing equipment company, providing non-standard automation equipment research and development, manufacturing and technical support services for the industry.

"Chint leads the high-quality development of the digital transformation of industrial clusters with the construction of future factories. At present, it has driven the digital transformation of more than 600 sets of equipment from suppliers and led the coordinated development of more than 400 core suppliers in the industrial chain." Nan Cunhui, chairman of Chint Group, said.

It is reported that as of now, Zhejiang Province has identified 32 future factories, built 423 provincial-level digital workshops and smart factories, formed a digital workshop-smart factory-future factory new smart manufacturing echelon cultivation system, and built a new smart manufacturing transformation and development model for characteristic regions. . The average production efficiency of enterprises has increased by 59.7%, production costs have been reduced by 16.45%, product development cycles have been shortened by 34.22%, and energy utilization rates have increased by 17.51%.

▍Machine and Human

The factory of the future does not fall from the sky. It has long been established in Zhejiang Province.

Since 2012, Zhejiang Province has taken the lead in carrying out "machine replacement" in the country, guiding and encouraging Zhejiang manufacturing factories to use machines to replace simple, repetitive, high-intensity, and high-risk positions, while improving product quality and production efficiency.

In the five years from 2013 to 2017, the per capita labor productivity of industries above designated size in Zhejiang Province has increased by 51.2%, and the number of robots in service in Zhejiang Province is far ahead, laying a solid foundation for Zhejiang's manufacturing from automation to intelligence.

Beginning in 2018, Zhejiang Province began to implement an upgraded version of "machine substitution" - an intelligent transformation and upgrading action. At present, there are 263 provincial-level digital workshops and smart factories in Zhejiang, and more than 405,000 enterprises have migrated to the cloud. The equipment numerical control rate of typical enterprises in key manufacturing industries has reached 60.7%, and the industrial equipment networking rate has reached 42.3%. The industrial digitalization index ranks first in the country. one. The factory of the future is an advanced version of intelligent manufacturing.

Yu Chao, Manager of the Outreach Department of Robam Electric, said that before realizing the factory of the future, Robam Electric has undergone two key transformations: the first was the "machine replacement" that began in 2010; the second was the intelligent transformation in 2015 , built the industry's first digital intelligent manufacturing base.

With the deepening of the intelligent transformation of the manufacturing end, Robam Electric has found that it is not enough to transform the manufacturing end only. Enterprises need to master more accurate data around the production and sales links. Only with finer neural networks and more complete data collection can they help enterprises to do business. make better judgments. In this way, Robam's future factory came into being.

While bringing great liberation to productivity, the factory of the future also brings about the reconstruction of productivity and production relations, and in the process reflects the humanistic care and humanistic value for employees.

The number of employees has doubled, the production capacity has increased by ten times, the highest per capita output has reached 800 tons per year, and the compound growth rate of comprehensive production capacity in the past ten years has exceeded 20%. This is the report card handed over by the future factory of Xinfengming Group, a leading chemical fiber enterprise.

Behind the report card is the company's long-term people-oriented development strategy. Zhuang Yaozhong, chairman of Xinfengming Group, said that the company has established three major career development channels of management, technology, and professionalism, formulated job standards for each level, and opened up the three major sequences at the same time; established six training systems, and carried out internal training from 2020 to now. Qianchang, adhering to the working mode of "Famous Teachers Leading Apprentices, Inheriting Ingenuity", provides each employee with a development path and room for growth.

"The significance of the future factory to the employment is not only to reduce, but to let the production line production personnel and management personnel gradually shift from the previous single job to multi-skilled work." Wang Qinghe, general manager of Minth Future Factory, said that management personnel are the core For example, the previous management model was mainly aimed at "people" or real physical equipment, while the current management focuses on production data indicators, while considering production safety at a deeper level.

▍From 1% to the future

During the interview, the reporter learned that Guided by the cultivation of future factories, Zhejiang Province explores in depth the reconstruction of enterprise form, the innovation of manufacturing methods, and the reorganization of element resources, multi-level, full-link, and all-round empowerment of digital transformation of enterprises, and creates a development path that continues to win the future in the new era .

Dai Qinya, chief project supervisor of Hangzhou Jiepai Transmission Technology Co., Ltd., said that the future factory not only redefines the digital management model that connects the business end to the management end, but also redefines the new technology forms such as human-machine collaboration, data collection, and low-carbon environmental protection. Defined factories, workers, and the entire manufacturing industry to modernize industrial economic development.

Zhejiang Province has a well-developed private economy, with 50,000 industrial enterprises above designated size, a large number of small and micro enterprises, and more than 4,000 professional markets. How do these economic organizations get on the express train of the factory of the future? Some interviewees suggested that the construction and promotion of future factories should do a good job of "calculus", proceeding from reality, to achieve continuous optimization of production methods and organizational methods.

The Chunfeng Power Future Factory, which is engaged in the production of motorcycles, is also one of the first batch of future factories in Zhejiang Province. The six production lines are all intelligent and flexible production lines, which can meet the needs of mass production and customized production at the same time.

"The factory of the future is not unattainable, we are also gradually transforming and improving on the original basis." Gao Qing, executive deputy general manager of Chunfeng Power, said that we have all encountered the problems encountered by traditional manufacturing enterprises in the process of transformation and upgrading. The future factory does not necessarily win with large-scale hardware and software investment, but can achieve its own comprehensive benefits and core competitiveness in stages according to its own industrial characteristics, and gradually realize the strategic goals of the enterprise.

"Let 1% become the biggest driving force for the future." Lan Jianping said, Enterprises should pay full attention to the strength of 1% as they move towards the factory of the future or a higher-level future factory. A 1% increase in product qualification rate, a 1% decrease in energy consumption, a 1% increase in capital flow, and a 1% decrease in personnel requirements... 1% progress for thousands of companies is a huge change and strength for the entire economy.

For the competent government departments, it is particularly important to guide the formation of a hierarchical cultivation system based on hierarchical classification. Shen Yao, head of the Digital Economy and Intelligent Manufacturing Section of the Economic and Information Bureau of Linping District, Hangzhou City, said that the enthusiasm and ability of leading enterprises to cultivate future factories are generally high; Create a horizontal map of new intelligence, and promote them to build smart factories and digital workshops in an orderly manner; small and micro enterprises with a large volume and wide area focus on providing services, and encourage the development of a batch of low-cost, low-threshold, and fast-deployment applications and services , support small and micro enterprises to carry out digital management improvement, intelligent technological transformation, etc.

The relevant person in charge of the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Economics and Information Technology stated that the future factory is the core unit of the modern industrial system, with data resources as the key element and a new generation of information technology as the means, through the establishment of new production organization methods and management service models, to achieve A new type of modern organization that is innovative, efficient, green, and coordinated development, including the future factory of industry, the future farm of agriculture, the future market of the service industry, and the digital factory of the information industry.

Lan Jianping said that the "future factory" will be an upgraded version of the future factory. The future factory no longer depends on the physical "factory" concept, but the scenario-based application of a new generation of information technology in the economic operation process. It is the basic unit of economic value-added based on digital technology, and it embodies digitalization and digital civilization all the time. , can be copied and promoted in large quantities, so as to fit into various fields of economic development.

A hundred years ago, the torrent of the times pierced the sky with the glory of industrial civilization. Looking at the present, a new era of intelligent manufacturing of digital civilization is quietly opening. Here, old and new alternate. Here, Vientiane is updated.