·Siemens Amberg factory: realized the mixed line production of multi-variety industrial computer, and the product qualification rate is as high as 99.9988%
FANUC Company: Realized a high degree of automation and intelligence in the production process of robots and servo motors, with a maximum of 720 hours of unattended operation
Schneider Electric: Full automation of electrical switch manufacturing and packaging
Harley-Davidson Corporation of the United States: Extensive use of intelligent manufacturing cells composed of machining centers and robots to achieve mass customization
·Mitsubishi Electric Nagoya production: The new robot assembly line that uses man-machine combination has significantly improved the output per unit production area
Heavy truck giant MAN: built a complete in-plant logistics system and established a material supermarket
The importance of developing intelligent manufacturing to China's manufacturing industry and even China's economy is self-evident. As a professional media in the field of manufacturing, Advanced Manufacturing Omnimedia has been focusing on the development of intelligent manufacturing for a long time, helping China's manufacturing transformation and upgrading, and striving to achieve "Made in China 2025". "promoter. Advanced Manufacturing Omnimedia will successively launch intelligent manufacturing topics, trying to comprehensively and deeply analyze the development of intelligent manufacturing from the aspects of intelligent manufacturing industry chain, intelligent factories, intelligent equipment, intelligent products, intelligent services, industrial transformation models, and industrial cluster development. In order to outline the whole picture of intelligent manufacturing, for more information, please pay attention to the advanced manufacturing micro-signal (ID: amdaily) or the advanced manufacturing website (http://www.amdaily.com).
The second issue of intelligent manufacturing topic: intelligent production - the main line of intelligent manufacturing (factory/workshop digitization), from the construction of intelligent factories and important links to understand the intelligent production process.
The series of intelligent manufacturing topics have been updated on the advanced manufacturing public account. Please follow the advanced manufacturing WeChat public account (ID: amdaily) for more information on intelligent manufacturing topics.
In recent years, major economies around the world have vigorously promoted the revival of manufacturing. Under the upsurge of Industry 4.0, Industrial Internet, Internet of Things, and cloud computing, many outstanding manufacturing companies around the world have carried out smart factory construction practices.
According to Zhou Ji, President of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, intelligent production is the main line of intelligent manufacturing, and intelligent factories are the main carrier of intelligent production. With the application of a new generation of artificial intelligence, in the next 20 years, Chinese enterprises will enter a new generation of smart factories that are self-learning, self-adapting and self-controlling. The integration of a new generation of artificial intelligence technology and advanced manufacturing technology will revolutionize production lines, workshops, and factories to a historic new height, and will fundamentally improve the quality, efficiency and competitiveness of the manufacturing industry. For quite some time in the future, the intelligent upgrade of production lines, workshops and factories will become a major battlefield for promoting intelligent manufacturing.
1. The connotation and construction focus of smart factory
Smart factory is an important carrier to realize intelligent manufacturing, mainly through the construction of intelligent production system and networked distribution of production facilities to realize the intelligentization of production process. Smart factories already have autonomous capabilities, which can collect, analyze, judge, and plan; use overall visual technology to make inferences and predictions, and use simulation and multimedia technology to augment the reality to display the design and manufacturing process. Each component in the system can form the best system structure by itself, and has the characteristics of coordination, reorganization and expansion. The system has the ability of self-learning and self-maintenance. Therefore, the smart factory realizes the mutual coordination and cooperation between human and machine, and its essence is human-computer interaction.
The man-machine-material law ring is an abbreviation for the five main factors affecting product quality in the total quality management theory. Person refers to the person who makes the product; machine refers to the equipment used to make the product; material refers to the raw material used to make the product; method refers to the method used to make the product; ring refers to the environment in which the product is manufactured. Smart production is a multi-dimensional integration process that takes the smart factory as the core, connects people, machines, methods, materials, and loops.
In the architecture of the smart factory, the five elements of quality management have also changed accordingly, because in the future smart factory, humans, machines and resources can communicate with each other. Smart products "know" the details of how they are made and what they are used for. They will proactively respond to the manufacturing process, answering questions such as "when was I made", "what parameters should be used to process me", "where should I be sent", etc. The smart factory prototype built by enterprises based on CPS and industrial Internet mainly includes physical layer, information layer, big data layer, industrial cloud layer, and decision-making layer. Among them, the physical layer includes hardware devices at different levels in the factory, starting from the smallest embedded devices and basic components, to sensing devices, manufacturing equipment, manufacturing units, and production lines, all of which are interconnected. Based on this, a vertical integration environment that is "testable, controllable, production and manageable" is built. The information layer covers all aspects of the company's business operations, including R&D and design, manufacturing, marketing services, logistics and distribution and other business management activities, as well as the resulting crowd-creation, personalized customization, e-commerce, visual tracking and other related businesses. On this basis, the horizontal integration environment of the internal value chain of the enterprise is formed to realize the circulation and exchange of data and information.
Both vertical integration and horizontal integration are based on CPS and the Industrial Internet. The interconnection of manufacturing systems such as products, equipment, manufacturing units, production lines, workshops, and factories, as well as their integration and unification with different business links of the enterprise, is achieved through data application and The industrial cloud service is realized, and at the decision-making level, it supports the highest decision-making of the enterprise based on product, service, and equipment management. These together build a complete value network system for smart factories, providing users with end-to-end solutions.
Due to the obvious differences in the product manufacturing process, the focus of discrete manufacturing and process manufacturing in the construction of smart factories is different. For discrete manufacturing, products are often assembled from multiple parts and components through a series of discontinuous processes. The process contains many changes and uncertain factors, which increases the difficulty and matching of discrete manufacturing production organization to a certain extent. Complexity. Enterprises often arrange the location of production equipment according to the main process flow, so as to minimize the transmission distance of materials. Order-oriented discrete manufacturing enterprises have the characteristics of multiple varieties and small batches, and their process routes and equipment are more flexible. Therefore, discrete manufacturing enterprises pay more attention to the flexibility of production, and their smart factory construction focuses on intelligent manufacturing production lines.
2. Main construction modes of smart factories
Due to the different production processes in various industries and the different intelligence situations in various industries, smart factories have the following different construction modes.
The first model is from the digitization of the production process to the smart factory. In the fields of petrochemical, steel, metallurgy, building materials, textiles, paper, medicine, food and other process manufacturing, the internal driving force for enterprises to develop intelligent manufacturing lies in the controllable product quality, focusing on starting from the digital construction of production, based on quality control requirements from product end control to product end control Full process control transformation.
The second model is from smart manufacturing production units (equipment and products) to smart factories. In discrete manufacturing fields such as machinery, automobiles, aviation, ships, light industry, household appliances and electronic information, the core purpose of enterprises developing intelligent manufacturing is to expand product value space, focusing on starting from the automation of a single device and product intelligence, based on production efficiency and product performance improvement to achieve value growth.
The third model is from personalization to connected factories. In the field of consumer goods manufacturing, such as home appliances, clothing, and home furnishing, which are closest to users, the focus of enterprises to develop intelligent manufacturing is to fully meet the diversified needs of consumers while achieving economies of scale in production, focusing on the innovation of large-scale personalized customization models through the Internet platform.
3. Key Links of Smart Factory Development
The focus of intelligent production is to apply advanced technologies such as human-computer interaction and 3D printing to the entire industrial production process, and to monitor and collect data for the entire production process to facilitate data analysis, thus forming a highly flexible, personalized and networked system. industrial chain.
3D printing
3D printing is a disruptive and innovative technology, and has been called the most important manufacturing technology innovation of the 20th century by the Natural Science Foundation of the United States. 3D printing can be introduced into the entire manufacturing process, which can save costs, speed up progress, and reduce material waste. In the design process, with the help of 3D printing technology, designers can gain greater freedom and creative space, and can focus on product form creativity and functional innovation without considering the influence of shape complexity, because 3D printing can complete almost any shape. Item build. In the production process, 3D printing can directly generate parts from digital models, without the need for special mold making and other processes, which not only saves costs, but also accelerates product launch. In addition, traditional manufacturing processes often generate scrap in the process of casting, polishing and assembling parts, while the same part can be formed in one shot using 3D printing with little or no scrap. In the distribution link, 3D printing may challenge the existing logistics distribution network. In the future, parts no longer need to be purchased and transported from the original manufacturer, but the 3D printing model file will be downloaded from the manufacturer's online database, and then quickly printed locally, which may lead to the loss of the parts warehousing and distribution system all over the world. The meaning of existence.
After nearly 40 years of development in 3D printing, leading companies have begun to achieve significant profits, market recognition has risen rapidly, and industry revenue growth has accelerated. According to the typical product life cycle theory, technological products often show the characteristics of accelerated growth from the introduction period to the growth period. It is judged that the current 3D printing industry is entering the accelerated growth period.
Chart: Global 3D printing equipment shipment growth from 2008 to 2015
Source: Cyrillic Research
The entire 3D printing industry chain can be roughly divided into three parts, the upstream basic accessories industry, 3D printing equipment manufacturers, 3D printing material manufacturers and supporting enterprises, and the downstream is mainly the major application areas of 3D printing. The 3D printing industry in the usual sense mainly refers to 3D printing equipment, materials and service companies.
Chart: 3D printing industry industry chain
3D printing has formed a complete industrial chain. Each link of the industrial chain has gathered a group of leading enterprises. Globally, equipment companies represented by Stratasys and 3D Systems play a leading role in the industry chain, and these equipment companies are usually able to provide materials and printing services, such as having a strong voice.
Chart: TOP5 Global Industrial/Professional 3D Printing Equipment Shipments in 2015
Source: Sai Rui research finishing
Human-computer interaction
In the future, various interaction methods will be deeply integrated, so that smart devices will more naturally synchronize with human biological responses and processing processes, including thinking processes, kinesthetics, and even a person's cultural preferences. This field is full of various novelties. possibility.
With the accelerated pace of technological integration, the information exchange method between humans and machines is moving towards a higher level, and new human-computer interaction methods are gradually applied in the field of manufacturing. It is embodied in two aspects: the flexibility of intelligent interactive equipment and the application of intelligent interactive equipment in the industrial field. In the production process, the intelligent manufacturing system can independently undertake tasks such as analysis, judgment, and decision-making, highlighting the core position of people in the manufacturing system. Machine intelligence and human intelligence are truly integrated, complementing each other and complementing each other. The essence is man-machine integration.
sensor
China has basically formed a relatively complete industrial chain structure, with continuous improvement in materials, devices, systems, networks and other aspects, with 6,000 kinds of independent products, and three major sensor production bases have been established in China, namely: Anhui Base, Shaanxi Base and Heilongjiang base. The government has put forward guidelines for accelerating the development of the domestic sensor industry, and the future development of sensors will be improved in the direction of intelligence.
Industrial software
The construction of smart factories is inseparable from the extensive application of industrial software. Industrial software includes two categories: basic and application software. Among them, systems, middleware, and embedded belong to the scope of basic technologies and are not closely related to specific industrial management processes and technological processes. The industrial software mentioned below mainly refers to application software, including operational software. Management, production management and R&D design software, etc.
Under the background of "Made in China 2025", it is the general trend for industrial enterprises to change their development models and accelerate the integration of industrialization and industrialization. The demand for industrial software and information services will continue to increase, and China will continue to maintain its status as a new force in the growth of the global industrial software market.
Specifically, in 2016, product research and development categories such as CAD, CAE, CAM, and CAPP accounted for about 8.3% in my country's industrial software industry, and information management categories such as ERP, CRM, HRM, etc. accounted for about 15.5%; production control Classes such as MES, PCS, PLC accounted for about 13.2%; the remaining 63% were embedded software development.
In terms of sub-regions, North China and East China are the regions with the most industrial software applications, accounting for about half of the country in total. In terms of provinces and cities, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, and Jiangsu are regions with strong industrial software, accounting for about half of China's industrial software. more than half of the market size.
Industrial software such as MES (Manufacturing Execution System), APS (Advanced Production Scheduling), PLM (Product Life Cycle Management), ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), and Quality Management are widely used to realize the visualization and transparency of the production site. When a new factory is built, digital factory simulation software can be used to simulate equipment and production line layout, factory logistics, and ergonomics to ensure a reasonable factory structure. In the process of advancing digital transformation, it is necessary to ensure the safety of data in factories and the safety of equipment and automation systems. When detecting defective products through professional testing equipment, not only can they be automatically separated from qualified products, but also the reasons for quality problems can be analyzed through software such as SPC (Statistical Process Control).
cloud manufacturing
Cloud manufacturing means that manufacturing enterprises integrate advanced information technology, manufacturing technology and emerging Internet of Things technologies. Data such as factory production capacity and process are concentrated on the cloud platform. best performance.
The picture shows the concept of cloud manufacturing and the process from traditional manufacturing, to intelligent manufacturing, to intelligent manufacturing, to today's cloud manufacturing.
In China, we can see that there is a group enterprise cloud manufacturing service platform for aerospace complex products developed by Aerospace Science and Industry Group, which has access to the group's affiliated institutes and bases and has rich manufacturing resources and capabilities; CRRC Group is geared towards rail transit equipment. The group enterprise cloud manufacturing service platform has opened up the research and development, design, manufacturing, repair and service of rail vehicles, construction machinery, electromechanical equipment, electronic equipment and related components and other products; cloud manufacturing platforms for small and medium-sized enterprises have also appeared one after another. In the equipment manufacturing, luggage, shoes and hats and other industries.
Cloud manufacturing provides a new concept and model for manufacturing informatization. As a nascent concept, cloud manufacturing has huge development space in the future. However, the future development of cloud manufacturing still faces the challenges of many key technologies. In addition to the comprehensive integration of technologies such as cloud computing, Internet of Things, semantic Web, high-performance computing, and embedded systems, knowledge-based manufacturing resources cloud-based, manufacturing cloud management Technologies such as engine, cloud manufacturing application collaboration, cloud manufacturing visualization and user interface are all important technologies that need to be overcome in the future. Follow the Advanced Manufacturing WeChat public account (ID: amdaily) for more intelligent manufacturing information.
Summarize
Building a smart factory is undoubtedly an important way for a manufacturing enterprise to transform and upgrade. At the same time, it should focus on the medium and long-term development strategy of the enterprise, and reasonably plan the construction blueprint of the smart factory according to the characteristics of its own products, processes, equipment and orders. On the basis of promoting standardization and standardization, starting from the most urgent problems that need to be solved, we will promote the construction of smart factories pragmatically.