The world is setting off a new round of industrial revolution with intelligent manufacturing as its core. The deep integration of the new generation of information technology and manufacturing industry is now triggering profound industrial changes and forming new modes of production, industrial forms, business models and economic growth.

China, known as the world's "manufacturing center," is starting an unprecedented industrial revolution based on the concept of "Industry 4.0" pioneered by Germany. One of the most prolific workshops in the world was gradually replaced by the unmanned factory in which the machinery roared.
"Made in China 2025" is based on the current overall level of development of China's manufacturing industry, raising the level of intelligence in the manufacturing sector and transforming itself to unmanned factories and smart manufacturing. This is the inevitable model.
Germany and China have different manufacturing bases. German industrial equipment and workshops are well-made, industrial robots are well established and widely used, and embedded systems and automation engineering have very specialized skills.
Therefore, Germany's "Industry 4.0" is a measure formulated for a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation. Rely on the solid technical foundation, we can directly carry out the information technology reform.
Compared with the world advanced level, China's industrial manufacturing level needs to accomplish the dual tasks of automation and information transformation at the same time.
However, this latter advantage has given China's manufacturing industry an opportunity to build a smart factory and speed up its transformation and one-stop operation.
[Material basis of intelligence is automation]
Starting from the automation of a single device and the intellectualization of products, it is imperative to link the intelligence of key processes and the substitution of key positions to realize the improvement of production efficiency and product efficiency. This is the material foundation of intelligence.
With the maturity of technology and the reduction of cost, the widespread application of intelligent devices such as industrial robots and mechanical arms has enabled the unmanned manufacturing in the factory to become possible.
In recent years, the rapid development of China's robot market. In 2014, China's industrial robot sales reached 56,000 units, becoming the world's largest industrial robot market.
It is estimated that the sales volume of industrial robots will reach 150,000 units by 2020, with 800,000 units in stock. By 2025, the sales volume of industrial robots will reach 260,000 units, maintaining the number of 1.8 million units.
At the production site, industrial robots have achieved large-scale integrated applications in welding, handling, painting, processing, assembly, testing, and cleaner production. In addition to saving labor and increasing productivity, more importantly, it works more evenly, with better stability, controllable product quality and traceability. This is an important reliance on digital management to improve product quality!
Combined with the automated production line, CNC machining centers, intelligent robots and CMMs, and all other flexible manufacturing units can automate the scheduling of production scheduling, automatic loading and unloading of workpieces, materials and tools, and achieve unattended fully automated production mode.
Further research is needed on key technologies such as visual processing, situational awareness, pattern recognition, self-implementation decision making and visualization to improve 3D positioning, modeling, searching and interaction of robotic products to improve control performance, human-computer interaction performance and reliability Performance, enhance the ability of robot to reconstruct and adjust the deviation adaptively, and ultimately realize the robot's ability to perform sophisticated tasks in a man-machine coexistence environment.
[Intelligent information base is interconnected]
The maturity of the Industrial Internet of Things has provided a new breakthrough in manufacturing automation.
The Internet of Things refers to various kinds of information sensing devices that collect in real time any information needed by any object or process that needs to be monitored, connected, and interacted. The purpose of the Internet of Things is to realize the necessary information of objects and objects, people and objects, all objects and networks Connect, easy to identify, manage and control.
The traditional automation factory, through the wired internal network, realizes the networked communication among some devices and devices in the workshop, and the Internet of Things realizes the intelligent and interactive between people, devices and systems through the wireless and wide area communication methods seamless connection.
The core information equipment of the Internet of Things is the key basis for achieving information acquisition and real-time communication in all aspects of the manufacturing process. It mainly includes basic communications equipment, control systems, new industrial sensors, manufacturing equipment, equipment and instrumentation and testing equipment, industrial information security products.
Specifically, they include high-speed industrial switches adapted to harsh industrial environments, high-speed industrial wireless routers / repeaters, industrial low-power long range / near field communication devices, fast ad hoc industrial wireless communication devices, industrial protocol converters / Gateways, industrial communication conformance testing equipment and other industrial communication network infrastructure equipment;
Distributed control system with field bus communication function, programmable control system, industrial computer system, embedded control system and data acquisition and monitoring control system; photoelectric sensor, proximity sensor, high resolution vision sensor, high precision flow sensor low Power consumption, high precision, high reliability of new industrial sensors, detectors;
RFID chips and read-write devices, industrial portable / handheld smart terminals, industrial IoT gateways, industrial wearable devices and other human-machine interaction devices; IPC firewall / gatekeeper, disaster recovery system, active defense system, intrusion detection equipment Information Security Products.
On the basis of these ubiquitous devices, it is necessary to formulate the interface technical standards for manufacturing device information interoperability, the overall framework for interoperability of protocols and protocols between devices and devices, and between devices and systems so as to build a smart, high-speed, secure Reliable industrial communication network, people, equipment and products in real-time Unicom, accurate identification, effective interaction and intelligent control.
[Intelligent management system is adaptive control]
In the material and information based on the realization of the intelligent manufacturing process, but also need to establish an intelligent automated management system.
This requires on-line component analyzer, on-line non-destructive testing equipment, online high-precision three-dimensional digital ultrasonic flaw detector, online high-precision non-contact geometric accuracy testing equipment, and many industrial sensors with the need to promote manufacturing process simulation optimization, digital control, Information real-time monitoring and adaptive control, and then realize the intelligent control of the whole process.
In the case of automated production of uninterrupted units, remote view of the production status within the management unit, unattended intelligent management of production tasks, the entire production site without human involvement, the real "no one" intelligent production.
This is the intelligent manufacturing control system. No one from the production site, no one to the production process, this is another layer of leap.
However, providing basic management of production activities, realizing autonomous safety and control, making production processes transparent and intelligent, and further enhancing the efficiency of production operations is only the first level of an intelligent management system.
Second, it should realize the interoperability and comprehensive management of people, equipment, environment and materials, and realize the quality information collection and quality tracing in the process of intelligent manufacturing.
Finally, with the help of information transmission, the entire production process from the order to the completion of the product is optimized and managed between the enterprise and the supply chain. In the form of two-way interaction, the planning, production and resources are closely coordinated to reduce the internal of the enterprise Value-added activities, effectively guide the operation of the factory production process, improve business ability to deliver on time.
From production management to dynamic control, this is the ability of precision manufacturing, agile manufacturing and transparent manufacturing that the manufacturing industry has been pursuing for decades.
These are the "neural" systems of a smart factory that rely on the rapid development of information, communications, computing technology and artificial intelligence management achievements in recent years to comprehensively improve the capabilities and levels of intelligent manufacturing.
At present, the most advanced Haier central air-conditioning intelligent factory, for example, through complex and sophisticated layout, to achieve a total factor, end-to-end system interconnection, driving the whole process of the realization of information and Internet awareness.
[Intelligent control brain is big data analysis]
Just to achieve production management, is not yet a complete smart production. It is the highest level of intelligence to comprehensively solve the "information fault" phenomenon between the automated production on site and the upper management system and the analysis of production decision making using big data analysis.
In the intelligent factory, the powerful information management infiltrates every link of the enterprise's industrial chain. The production line of the enterprise runs at a high speed and is produced by the production equipment. The amount of data collected and processed is much larger than that of the computers and artificially generated data in the enterprise. Real-time is also higher.
At production sites, data is collected every few seconds and can be used to perform many forms of analysis including plant turn-on rate, spindle run rate, spindle load rate, run rate, failure rate, productivity, equipment utilization (OEE ), Parts pass rate, quality percentage. Even able to track each workpiece in the machining process detailed data.
First of all, in the production process improvement, the use of these big data, you can analyze the entire production process to understand how each step is performed. Once a process has deviated from the standard process, an alarm signal will be generated which will more quickly identify errors or bottlenecks and will make it easier to solve the problem.
As another example, in energy analysis, using sensors to monitor all production processes centrally in an equipment manufacturing process can detect abnormal or peak energy consumption conditions, thereby optimizing energy consumption in the manufacturing process, performing all processes, Analysis will greatly reduce energy consumption.
Finally, over time, it is also possible to create a virtual model of the product's production process, simulate and optimize the production process, and when all the process and performance data are rebuilt in the system, this transparency will help the manufacturing company improve its Production Process.
Make use of big data technology and visualization of production data to ensure that decision makers and managers at all levels can master changes in the production site in the shortest time, make accurate judgments and formulate rapid response measures to ensure that the production plan is reasonable and rapid Amendments, and ultimately realize the full and effective utilization of resources, smooth flow of production, thus maximizing production efficiency.
Or to the current state-of-the-art Haier central air-conditioning interconnection plant, for example, the transformation and upgrading of its intelligent factory to achieve the production plan and the line side of the inventory information interconnection, material delivery to the station timing, the industry's first container assembly line intelligence, the industry's first Intelligent energy management system, the world's largest intelligent interconnection test bed technology and other applications to achieve with stakeholders, the whole process of real-time, seamless user Internet, information interconnection, virtual reality mode.
[Smart factory is an inevitable trend of factory upgrade]
"Made in China 2025" clearly put forward to push forward the comprehensive reform of China's manufacturing industry through the construction of a smart factory.
Nowadays, manufacturing in China is facing a trendy atmosphere. With the rapid rise of labor costs, manufacturing industry is still big but not strong. In terms of industrial structure, resource utilization efficiency, informationization, quality and efficiency, etc., The gap is clear. The task of upgrading and leapfrogging development is pressing and arduous.
If an enterprise can not meet more and more complex needs in time, it will be left behind by its competitors in the new round of technological revolution and industrial change.
To promote smart manufacturing is the fundamental path to solve the problem that manufacturing industry in our country is becoming stronger and stronger. In our opinion, there is an urgent need to speed up the automation and intelligentization of traditional production equipment in various industries.
In the key industries and enterprises with good basic conditions, they should classify and implement highly integrated automated manufacturing, intelligent management process reformation, pilot demonstration and application promotion to establish a standard system of intelligent manufacturing so as to achieve vertical, horizontal and end-to-end integration and Realize equipment, products and systems industrialization.
Today, China has a well-known large-scale white-chip manufacturing company headed by Haier. It has made "rare" smart factories in the global home appliance field. It is also constantly upgrading and evolving iteratively, and is leading the way in manufacturing changes. Amazing.
The implementation of smart factories will significantly improve China's manufacturing industry and promote related businesses to provide products of higher quality and more in line with the consumer demand of the masses to serve the supply-side reform in China. In the course of standard setting and implementation, the Group will consolidate its ownership of technical layout and improve its independent voice. This will provide an important guarantee for our country to seize the commanding height of the new round of industrial revolution and compete for the right of speech in the international market.
Based on a comprehensive forecast of the status quo of China's manufacturing industry and the diversification of market demands, the upgrade speed of China's smart production facilities and digital workshop / factory will be further accelerated in the next 5 to 10 years. Demand will also increase significantly. It is expected that the market size of China's intelligent manufacturing and information equipment will continue to grow at about 30% growth rate.