Automatic production of the whole plant will lead the enterprise to digital manufacturing - replication

     Automatic production of the whole plant leads the enterprise to digital manufacturing

The whole plant automation manufacturing is one of the important foundations of digital manufacturing.

With the continuous increase of automation equipment in the production workshop and the gradual reduction of manual labor, is it equivalent to the automation of the whole manufacturing plant in the continuous development of digital manufacturing?

First of all, digital manufacturing is not equal to the automation of the whole plant. Usually, some people think that to realize digital manufacturing, the whole factory needs to be automated first. This is actually a misunderstanding.

For example, it may take more than half a year to develop an automated production line for the whole plant. However, according to the industry innovation cycle, generally, a product is only completed within one month from the initial design to mass production. "At this time, most of the work on the production line can only be completed manually, and the speed will be faster."

When the production line is updated too quickly, high automation costs are invested, but the production efficiency is not significantly improved. Therefore, almost all product manufacturing schemes will not be completed by automatic production lines, and the assembly link is rarely completed by mechanical arms.

This leads to a profound question: what is the relationship between "people" and "machines" on the production line of "future manufacturing"? How does the relationship fit?

The flexibility of human beings cannot be replaced by intelligent machines for a long time. In other words, human beings cannot and cannot be replaced, and the relationship between human beings and machines is mutual assistance. In the next 20 years, most of the production links will still need to be completed manually.

In digital manufacturing, which production links need machines to replace labor?

When the products or materials need to be updated, the manager needs to analyze before determining whether to stop the production of relevant products. In this process, the whole factory needs to communicate with the design department, production department, R & D department, procurement department, etc. However, these links can be completed by changing the data in the data center system. Once the data is adjusted, the interconnected systems and software will be automatically updated and the latest production solutions will be calculated.

                                                                                 Whole plant automation intelligent factory

The essence of light industrialization is to improve quality, not to reduce cost

Labor cost is considered to be the reason for the decline of competitiveness of manufacturing enterprises in recent years. However, enterprises should not only focus on the cost of manufacturing links, but also on the cost of supply chain. Even in labor-intensive enterprises, the human cost is only a part of the overall cost, not all.

Moreover, from the beginning, digital manufacturing is not only to reduce costs, but also to improve product quality. High quality does not mean high cost. The domestic manufacturing industry is encountering a development bottleneck. The management of many manufacturing enterprises like to discuss cost control, but quality is the core competitiveness of enterprises.

In order to improve the overall quality, digital manufacturing should first act as a "correction officer" with the help of the machines on the automatic production line. For example, when a worker screws a screw less, the machine will automatically send a warning to prevent the product from entering the next production link. With the help of the machine, the probability of manual errors will be reduced. To eliminate manual errors in the production process through machine "inspection" is only the basis for ensuring product quality. In the product quality composed of production quality, R & D quality and raw material quality, digital manufacturing is more necessary.

Towards industry 4.0, automatic management is the key

In the stage of digital manufacturing, the management efficiency can be effectively improved through data interaction. It is not the level of production line automation but the level of enterprise management that measures whether an enterprise really moves towards industry 4.0. In order to realize automatic management, it is necessary to realize that people are completely obedient to "computers" in management, which is the future of intelligent manufacturing.

For the gap between the digital factory and the intelligent factory, the key point is whether to truly realize automatic management.