Interpretation of smart factory
Regarding smart manufacturing, I believe that its connotation is to realize the intelligence and innovation of the entire manufacturing value chain, and further enhance the deep integration of informationization and industrialization. Intelligent manufacturing combines information technology, advanced manufacturing technology, automation technology and artificial intelligence technology. Intelligent manufacturing includes developing intelligent products; applying intelligent equipment; building intelligent production lines from the bottom up, building intelligent workshops, building smart factories; practicing intelligent R&D; forming intelligent logistics and supply chain systems; developing intelligent management; promoting intelligent services; Intelligent decision making. At present, the "intelligence" of intelligent manufacturing is still at the level of Smart. The intelligent manufacturing system has the ability of data acquisition, data processing and data analysis. It can accurately execute instructions and realize closed-loop feedback. The trend of intelligent manufacturing is to realize "Intelligent". Intelligent manufacturing systems enable self-learning, independent decision making, and continuous optimization.
At present, smart manufacturing has become a hot spot in the industry. In 2015, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology approved 46 intelligent manufacturing pilot demonstration projects and 94 intelligent manufacturing projects, and issued the National Intelligent Manufacturing Standards System Construction Guide (2015 Edition). Many enterprises are eager to try and hope to achieve “less people†by promoting intelligent manufacturing. Reduce costs, respond flexibly to market changes, and better meet customer needs.
So, what exactly is smart manufacturing? What categories are included? At present, there is no consensus in the industry. The explanations given by experts from different backgrounds are often very different. Many concepts are flying all over the sky, which is easy for manufacturers to be at a loss. Therefore, I want to analyze this problem systematically from the perspective of manufacturing companies, hoping to play the role of the original source. What is certain is that the word "manufacturing" of intelligent manufacturing is broad and refers to "manufacturing", not just production (ProducTIon).
Many concepts related to smart manufacturing
Listed below: Digital Manufacturing:
1. This is a kind of software technology, which refers to the simulation and software process of the product, as well as the equipment layout, logistics, ergonomics, etc. of the workshop. The main software includes Siemens TecnomaTIx and Dassault Systèmes. Delmia. In CIMdata's definition of PLM, DM belongs to one of the areas.
2. Digital Factory: Digital Factory refers to all aspects related to product manufacturing value chain from product development, process, manufacturing, quality and internal logistics. Supported by digital software and automation systems, real-time Data collection and analysis. This concept is used by Siemens. Siemens has a digital factory group that specializes in providing related products and solutions. Siemens Chengdu Electronics Factory is also known as the digital factory. The factory has widely used RFID and machine vision to realize the mixed flow production of industrial control products. An important sign of the digital factory is the support of MES (Manufacturing Execution System) software and WMS (Warehouse Management System) software.
3. Smart Factory: There is currently no uniform definition of smart factories. According to Prof. Scheer, a business process expert, the bottom layer of Industry 4.0 is called the Real TIme smart factory. Compared with the digital factory, the intelligent factory mainly emphasizes the automation of the collection of production data, measurement data and quality data. It does not require manual input of information, and can realize real-time analysis of collected data and realize PDCA cycle. SAP has an MII system (manufacturing integration and intelligence) that enables multi-dimensional analysis of plant data.
In the pyramid of intelligent manufacturing, intelligent products and intelligent services can help enterprises bring innovation in business models; intelligent equipment, intelligent production lines, intelligent workshops to smart factories can help enterprises achieve innovation in production models; intelligent R&D, intelligent management, Intelligent logistics and supply chains can help companies achieve innovation in their operating models; intelligent decision-making can help companies make scientific decisions. The ten technologies of intelligent manufacturing are closely related, and manufacturing companies should gradually and rationally promote the application of these ten smart technologies. The following is an explanation of these technologies.
1. Smart products
Smart products typically include mechanical, electrical, and embedded software with memory, sensing, computing, and transmission capabilities. Typical smart products include smart phones, smart wearable devices, drones, smart cars, smart home appliances, smart vending machines, etc., including many smart hardware products. Smart equipment is also a smart product. Companies should think about how to add intelligent units to their products and increase the added value of their products. For example, adding sensors to construction machinery can locate products and monitor the status of key components, laying the foundation for intelligent services.
2. Intelligent service
Based on sensors and the Internet of Things (IoT), the state of the product can be sensed for preventive maintenance and repair, to help customers replace spare parts in time, and even to help customers bring business opportunities by knowing the status of the product. It can also collect big data from product operations to assist companies in making marketing decisions. In addition, by developing an APP for customer service, the company is also a means of intelligent service, which can provide targeted services for products purchased by enterprises, thereby locking users and launching service marketing. One of the world's leading PLM companies, PTC Corporation of the United States has invested heavily in the field of Internet of Things and service lifecycle management, becoming one of the leading companies in the field of intelligent services. The most famous case of intelligent service is that the US GE company will sell the engine to sell the flight hours.
3. Intelligent equipment
Manufacturing equipment has gone through mechanical equipment to CNC equipment and is now gradually developing into intelligent equipment. The intelligent equipment has a detection function, which can realize on-machine detection, thereby compensating for machining errors, improving machining accuracy, and also compensating for thermal deformation. In the past, some precision equipment required high environmental requirements. Now, with closed-loop detection and compensation, the environmental requirements can be reduced. One of the most basic requirements for intelligent equipment is to provide an open data interface that can support device networking. Foreign countries call M2M (machine and machine interconnection). The 3D printer is essentially a CNC equipment, not a smart device.
Japan's MAZAK intelligent machine tool is equipped with intelligent functions for machining heat displacement, cutting vibration, machine tool interference, spindle monitoring, maintenance, table dynamic balance and voice navigation. It can monitor the machine running status and conduct independent feedback. Thereby greatly improving the efficiency and safety of machine tools. Typical intelligent manufacturing equipment also incorporates automated loading and unloading equipment, and some equipment manufacturers also offer dedicated CAM software, such as the HOMAG Group's woodworking center. DMG MORI has launched the latest composite machining center LaserTec65 which has been combined with additive manufacturing and cutting (reduced material manufacturing) to quickly produce blanks through the additive manufacturing process of laser surfacing. Trumpf's laser cutting machining center enables three-dimensional cutting, and multiple laser machining centers can share laser sources. These are all smart gear. For industrial robots, robots that perform processes such as spraying, handling, and welding in accordance with fixed instructions cannot be called smart equipment. However, if you have machine vision, you can accurately identify the workpiece, or automate the assembly, automatically avoid workers and Other functions, and even achieve human-machine collaboration, it belongs to smart equipment. For example, ABB's dual-arm robot YUMI is a model for intelligent industrial robots. With the wide application of composite materials, intelligent equipment for composite processing and equipment will have broad market demand.
On the basis of forming simulation, the academician Li Dequn of Huazhong University of Science and Technology applied the intelligent technology of automatic setting of process parameters and adaptive injection to the injection machine, and proposed the smooth optimization of injection speed for online inversion and the secondary closed-loop control of the process curve. Developed an intelligent injection machine. The energy consumption of its intelligent injection machine is lower than the highest energy consumption standards in China and Europe. The key indicators such as response time and positional accuracy have reached the international advanced level, which has significantly improved the repeatability, yield and automation of injection molding products. Academician Li Dequn introduced that this intelligent injection machine has built-in artificial intelligence algorithm and has machine learning ability. Through three experiments, the most suitable injection parameters can be accurately found to ensure product quality. This device is not only Smart, but also has Intelligence.
4. Intelligent production line
Companies in many industries rely heavily on automated production lines such as steel, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, food and beverage, tobacco, chip manufacturing, electronic assembly, automotive and parts manufacturing to achieve automated processing, assembly and inspection, and production of some mechanical standard parts. Automated production lines, such as bearings, are also used. However, equipment manufacturing companies are still dominated by discrete manufacturing. The key point of technological transformation of many enterprises is to establish automated production lines, assembly lines and inspection lines. U.S. Boeing’s aircraft assembly plant has established a U-shaped pulsating assembly line. Automated production lines can be divided into rigid automated production lines and flexible automated production lines, and flexible automated production lines generally have buffers. In order to improve production efficiency, industrial robots and hanging systems are increasingly used in automated production lines.
At present, many automobile OEMs have realized mixed-flow production, and a variety of models can be assembled simultaneously on one assembly line. The automated production line in the food and beverage industry can adapt DCS or PLC systems to change the process route to produce a wide range of products. The automotive industry is implementing an lamp system to achieve fault alarms on the production line. The assembly line of the automotive industry is often composed of a number of assembly lines, such as the assembly line of the body and the chassis, which are assembled into the final product. In the assembly process, mixed flow production is achieved by Just In Sequence. At present, enterprises in the automotive, home appliance, rail transit and other industries are in a strong demand for automation and intelligent transformation of production and assembly lines. Many enterprises are gradually transforming key stations and high-pollution stations into robots for processing, assembly or loading and unloading. .
At present, the application of intelligent production lines in China's manufacturing enterprises is still in its infancy, but it is bound to be the direction of development. The characteristics of the intelligent production line are: in the process of production and assembly, the data can be automatically collected by sensors or RFID, and the real-time production status can be displayed through the electronic board; the quality inspection can be performed by machine vision and various sensors, and the automatic rejection is not performed. Qualified products, and SPC analysis of the collected quality data to find out the cause of quality problems; able to support mixed production and assembly of a variety of similar products, flexible adjustment process, adapt to small batch, multi-variety production mode; flexible, If there is equipment failure on the production line, it can be adjusted to other equipment production; for manual operation, it can give intelligent tips. In fact, I think that the assembly line of Siemens Chengdu Electronics Factory has reached the level of intelligent production line.
5. Intelligent workshop
A shop usually has multiple production lines that either produce similar parts or products or have an upstream and downstream assembly relationship. In order to realize the intelligence of the workshop, it is necessary to collect and analyze the information such as production status, equipment status, energy consumption, production quality and material consumption in real time, and carry out efficient scheduling and reasonable scheduling. Therefore, no matter what manufacturing industry, manufacturing execution system (MES) becomes an inevitable choice for enterprises.
At present, China's MES market is very popular. The international big-name automation manufacturers Siemens, Rockwell, GE, Schneider Electric have MES software platform, management software giants SAP, ORACLE, EPICOR provide MES software, Germany's MPDV, PSI, domestic Zhejiang University, Zhongli, Yishang, BenQ, Aipu Gonghua, Yuangong International, Languang Innovation, Guangzhou Suwei and other manufacturers are also very active. In addition, the Advanced Production Scheduling (APS) system has also entered the vision of manufacturing companies, and has begun preliminary practice to achieve scheduling based on actual production constraints. The mainstream manufacturers include Japan's ASPROVA and Germany's JobDISPO APS (Languang Innovation). Distribution), domestic Yongkai, Andafa, Yipuyou, etc., Yuangong International also provides APS solutions. APS software requires very high accuracy for basic data such as equipment capacity and working hours.
For the pharmaceutical, food and other industries, the state has mandatory traceability requirements, and it needs to pass industry certification such as GMP, so it is more urgent to promote MES. The digital manufacturing (DM) technology mentioned above is also a supporting tool for intelligent workshops. It can help enterprises to carry out equipment layout according to the designed production capacity when building a new factory, improve logistics efficiency and improve the comfort of workers.
MES is a workshop-level integrated management system that can help enterprises significantly improve equipment utilization, improve product quality, achieve traceability of production processes and prevent errors in feeding, and improve production efficiency. It should be emphasized that pure discrete manufacturing companies can also apply MES systems, but the application of MES systems is closely related to the production model of the enterprise. If a purely discrete manufacturing company implements MES and then transforms it into an automated or intelligent production line, the MES system may be pushed back. Therefore, companies need to be cautious when conducting MES applications. The intelligent workshop must establish a wired or wireless factory network to enable automatic release of production instructions and automatic collection of equipment and production line information. For machine manufacturers, DNC technology can be used to upload equipment status information and processing codes. Currently, there are mature products such as Languang Innovation, Gallup and Indy Zhiyuan. In addition, the realization of the paperlessness of the workshop is also an important symbol of the intelligent workshop. Enterprises can apply the three-dimensional lightweight technology to transfer the design and process documents to the workstation. Shanghai Mingshang Intelligent Company has developed an intelligent gateway that can convert production site data based on different manufacturers' communication protocols into OPC standards, solving the problem of information communication in the workshop. Yuangong International United Asia Control, Hangxing, Zhongkechuansi and Advantech launched a device networking solution, a platform for networking PLC, CNC, robotics, instrumentation/sensors and industrial control/IT systems, unified configuration monitoring and 3D Live and implement simulated production.
There is an emerging technology that can display the data collected by the MES system in real time in the virtual 3D shop model. It not only provides the VR (virtual reality) environment of the workshop, but also displays the actual state of the device to achieve virtual and real integration. Siemens and PTC use this technology as a typical application for Digital Twin. German PSI and Wuhan Chuangjing also own such products, and Tianhe Software has helped Haier Jiaozhou plant achieve related applications. In addition, there is a typical application in the intelligent workshop, that is, the video surveillance system not only records the video, but also monitors, identifies and alarms the environment and personnel behavior of the workshop. For example, if a worker does not wear a helmet, enters an area that is not allowed to enter, or falls to the ground, it can automatically alarm. In this regard, Samsung has had a successful practice. In addition, smart workshops should be intelligent in terms of temperature, humidity, cleanliness control and industrial safety (including safety of industrial automation systems, safety of production environments and personnel safety).
6. Smart factory
A factory usually consists of multiple workshops, and a large enterprise has multiple plants. The difference between smart factories and digital factories has already been mentioned. A general consensus is that there are only automated production lines and a large number of robots, not smart factories. As a smart factory, not only the production process should be automated, transparent, visual, and lean. At the same time, product testing, quality inspection and analysis, and production logistics should also be closed-loop integrated with the production process. Information sharing, on-time delivery, and collaborative work are required between multiple workshops in a factory. Some discrete manufacturing companies have also established production command centers like process manufacturing companies to command and dispatch the entire plant to detect and solve unexpected problems in a timely manner. This is also an important symbol of smart factories. Smart factories must rely on seamlessly integrated information systems support, including the five core systems of PLM, ERP, CRM, SCM and MES. The smart factory of a large enterprise needs to use the ERP system to develop a production plan for multiple workshops (ProducTIon planning), and the MES system performs detailed production scheduling according to the production plan of each workshop. The granularity of MES scheduling is day and hour. Even minutes. MES is an enterprise-level real-time information system. The selection of MES must not allow each workshop or branch to be independent.
Samsung has carried out the practice of mobile factories. Workers can inquire about work orders through smart phones, can open video conferences, maintenance personnel encounter difficult problems, can seek expert answers through mobile video, and provide RFID with barcode and barcode scanning interface. This is also an innovative practice of a smart factory. Some companies have realized the intelligentization of tool management. By implanting an RFID chip on the tool holder, the entire life cycle of the tool is managed to improve the service life of the tool. Intelligent factories should also pay attention to the use of intelligent testing instruments, and the test results directly enter the information system without manual intervention. Looking ahead, AR (Augmented Reality) technology will also be used in smart factories. Workers with AR glasses can “see†the working position that needs to be operated. For example, where the bolts need to be tightened, the tightening torque is OK, and there will be corresponding prompts to improve the working efficiency of the workers.
Recently, GE Corporation of the United States announced the opening of the industrial Internet platform Predix. I understand that Predix is ​​actually an integrated development platform for smart factories. GE is trying to seize the position of "industrial operating system" and become "Microsoft" in the smart factory field. And Cisco's Internet of Everthing (IOE) philosophy, technology and solutions can also support smart services and smart factories.
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