Intelligent manufacturing brings changes to production mode

The concept of intelligent manufacturing follows“ Industry 4.0” And“ Made in China 2025” It is well known that if the Internet has changed people's consumption mode, intelligent manufacturing will completely change the production mode and reconstruct the realization mode of the entire value chain. Its impact is ten or even a hundred times greater than that of the Internet in the consumption field. One only realizes information connection in the value circulation link, while the other realizes information connection in the value creation link.

This involves not only the information communication between people, but also the information communication between people and equipment, people and products, equipment and equipment, equipment and products, that is, the so-called information physics (CPS) is integrated to make everything connected.

According to the bill passed by the United States in 2016, the definition of intelligent manufacturing is:

Advanced technologies in information, automation, monitoring, computing, sensing, modeling and networking:
1. Digital analog manufacturing production line, computer controlled manufacturing equipment, monitoring and interaction of production line status, management and optimization of energy consumption and efficiency in the whole production process.
2. Modeling, simulation and optimization of plant energy efficiency.
3. Monitor and optimize the energy-saving performance of buildings.           
4. Modeling, simulation and optimization of product energy efficiency and sustainable performance, including the use of digital models and additive manufacturing to enhance product design.
5. Connect manufacturing products to the network to monitor and optimize network performance, including automated network operations.
6. Digital connection of supply chain network.

The American definition overemphasizes the technical level of intelligent manufacturing. If we look at how to create value for customers from the perspective of the whole society and the whole enterprise, I think intelligent manufacturing is“ Through advanced technologies in information, automation, monitoring, computing, sensing, modeling and networking, we can realize the design and connection of the whole product life cycle;. Information, automation, monitoring, computing, sensing, modeling and networking are only technical means, and the ultimate goal is to realize the design and connection of the full life cycle of products.

Imagine that under the support of these advanced technologies, the value chain and business model of products from design to manufacturing delivery and even after-sales service will be redefined.

First of all, we need to study the characteristics of customers' personalized needs, such as the color and size of clothes, car seats, interior upholstery, etc. We need to plan when designing, use modular design to match the characteristics of personalized selection, and CBB shared component structure to achieve Lego toy style personalized selection. To some extent, personalization in its full sense cannot be realized or realizedAlitalia, a large European airline with 6000 flights, saved $15 million in fuel costs a year, transforming itself from a hardware supplier to a value-added service provider.

Therefore, intelligent manufacturing is not simply the application of advanced technologies such as information, automation, monitoring, computing and sensing. It needs to plan and design in advance, with the goal of realizing the connection of the whole life cycle of products. If there is no planning and design, you will find that these information systems, automation, monitoring, computing, sensing, etc. are independent and can not be integrated to play a role. We often see many enterprises have several to dozens of various IT systems, which have turned into information islands, and data cannot be shared for analysis and decision-making.

The automation investment is very high. As a result, many products are not well standardized, and the utilization rate is low. The investment will not be recovered in 10 years. Not to mention the interconnection between people, products, equipment and data, these production resources are designed separately and never considered as a whole. In this case, no matter how advanced the technology is, it is impossible to realize real intelligent manufacturing.

In the next 20 years, intelligent manufacturing will bring disruptive changes to the production mode. With the decline of the demographic dividend, the manufacturing industry must double its efficiency and halve its costs to support the benign development of the economy. For most Chinese enterprises, re planning the value chain process and business model of R&D - procurement - production - marketing - after-sales through lean thinking can improve efficiency and cost performance by 30-50%, and the rest can be achieved through intelligent manufacturing