In today's era of intelligence, intelligent manufacturing is not an unfamiliar word, what is intelligent manufacturing? To put it bluntly, intelligent manufacturing is a new manufacturing model, which integrates the advanced manufacturing paradigms of lean production, flexible manufacturing, agile manufacturing and cloud manufacturing.
Specifically, there are three stages of development in this intelligent manufacturing, just like three steps, namely digital manufacturing, networked manufacturing and intelligent manufacturing. These three phases are interlocking, like a relay race, one after the other to push the manufacturing industry forward.
However, there is a big problem here. When many companies promote digital manufacturing, it is easy to fall into misunderstandings. Today's article will give you an analysis of these misunderstandings, and analyze the three stages of intelligent manufacturing for you, hoping to help friends with intelligent manufacturing needs!
First, the three stages of intelligent manufacturing development
At the beginning of its birth, the concept of intelligent manufacturing may be understood more as a technological innovation that focuses on the manufacturing process of products. However, with the rapid development of digital technology, smart manufacturing has gone beyond the initial definition and evolved into a broader and far-reaching manufacturing model.
In the evolution of intelligent manufacturing, a variety of different manufacturing paradigms have emerged, such as lean manufacturing, flexible manufacturing, agile manufacturing, and cloud manufacturing, which have played an active role in promoting the transformation of the manufacturing industry. However, these paradigms are relatively independent from each other, and there is a lack of a unified system and architecture, which brings considerable challenges to enterprises in the transformation process. In order to solve this problem, Academician Zhou Ji proposed three basic paradigms of intelligent manufacturing: digital manufacturing, networked manufacturing and intelligent manufacturing. These three paradigms are connected with each other and gradually unfolded, representing three successive stages of the development of intelligent manufacturing.
1. Digital manufacturing
Digital manufacturing constitutes the cornerstone of intelligent manufacturing, and its core lies in the digitalization of all links. Through the application of digital technologies and systems, the information and business of design, manufacturing, marketing and service can be digitized, and a digital thread covering the entire product life cycle and the entire value chain of the enterprise can be built. This not only promotes the transformation and upgrading of enterprise manufacturing models, such as the realization of personalized customization and digital manufacturing supply chain, but also goes beyond the digital transformation of a single production line or equipment, as well as the construction of a single information system.
The significance of digital manufacturing lies in the fact that it opens up the data link within the enterprise and ensures the seamless flow of data information in the manufacturing process. Through in-depth analysis of this data, companies can gain real-time insights into equipment, production lines, and entire plant operations.
2. Networked manufacturing
Networked manufacturing, also known as Internet + manufacturing, is the result of further expansion on the basis of digital manufacturing. It leverages the power of industrial Internet and industrial cloud technology to connect enterprises into a tight manufacturing ecological network.
In this network, enterprises are no longer isolated islands, but interdependent nodes in the ecological chain. Through resource sharing and integration, enterprises can optimize the allocation of resources in the industrial chain and provide more agile, efficient and high-quality products and services for the market and users.
3. Intelligent manufacturing
Intelligent manufacturing, as a representative of a new generation of intelligent manufacturing, is the deep integration of artificial intelligence technology and advanced manufacturing technology. Its core feature is the ability of the entire manufacturing system to perceive and learn, which heralds the core driving force of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
At this stage, artificial intelligence will permeate all corners of the enterprise and bring revolutionary changes to the manufacturing industry. The application of artificial intelligence in manufacturing and operations management will improve product quality, production efficiency, and optimize the decision-making process. Robots use device connectivity and machine learning to enable precise collaboration on the production line. The delivered product, as a carrier of artificial intelligence, will have the ability to be state-aware and autonomous decision-making, interact with users and the environment in real time, and completely change the existing product and service experience.
These three paradigms—digital manufacturing, networked manufacturing, and intelligent manufacturing—do not exist in isolation, there is no clear boundary between them, and they do not replace each other, but they are integrated with each other in continuous evolution and upgrading. On the basis of realizing digital manufacturing, enterprises gradually superimpose networked and intelligent capabilities through industrial Internet platforms or industrial cloud platforms, and naturally transform to networked manufacturing or intelligent manufacturing, forming a cycle of sustainable development.
Second, digital manufacturing is easy to fall into the misunderstanding
In the journey of mainland manufacturing enterprises towards digital manufacturing, facing a series of challenges and misunderstandings, let's take a look at your enterprise and see how many of them have been achieved:
1. Idealization of the pursuit of unmanned factories
Some companies are too idealistic in their pursuit of "unmanned factories" or "black light factories". They believe that the construction of a digital factory is a process of full automation and robotization, so they have invested a lot of money in automation equipment and production lines.
However, the reality is that without sufficient digital foundation, pure automation equipment or production lines can only solve local problems, and cannot realize the penetration of manufacturing data links, so they cannot fully realize their potential. Some companies have purchased expensive automation equipment, but due to the lack of technical teams and high maintenance costs, they end up having to leave these equipment idle.
In addition, it is unrealistic to overemphasize "machine substitution". In the future of intelligent manufacturing, people are still the indispensable core. The integration and collaboration of man, machine and system is irreplaceable by automation equipment. Even in high-tech electronics companies with a high degree of automation, production planning and critical decision-making still require human involvement.
2. Too much emphasis on intelligence and neglect of digital construction
When promoting digital manufacturing or intelligent manufacturing projects, some enterprise managers overemphasize intelligence and ignore the construction of digital infrastructure. For example, they may not have realized the automatic collection of equipment data and the networking of the workshop, and they are eager to realize the intelligence of the production process; Or when there are a lot of information silos and IT/OT has not yet been connected, they are rushing to build a digital twin of the factory. Such intelligent construction, even if completed, is only a superficial project and cannot bring substantial value to the enterprise.
The realization of intelligent manufacturing cannot be achieved overnight, and it is impossible to achieve a qualitative leap by only relying on one or two suppliers to implement a few projects. Enterprises need to pay attention to the construction of digital infrastructure, and when purchasing equipment or systems, they should consider whether they have open data interfaces or service interfaces, and gradually build a digital network for the interconnection of internal equipment and systems. On this basis, we will gradually promote the construction of intelligence.
3. Treat MES as intelligent manufacturing
In the wave of intelligent manufacturing, some companies regard MES (Manufacturing Execution System) as a synonym for intelligent manufacturing, and believe that the introduction of MES system is a key step to achieve intelligent manufacturing. This realization has led to a sudden and lively MES market, which had been relatively quiet. It is undeniable that MES is a key component of enterprises to realize the digitalization of production, but the scope of smart manufacturing is much more than that.
4. Industrial equipment is on the cloud
The cloud of industrial equipment is gradually emerging in the manufacturing industry in mainland China, especially for small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises, and this trend is becoming more and more significant. Although the device cloud is crucial to the enhancement of the industrial Internet platform and the construction of the ecosystem, the specific business value and business model it brings to enterprises still need to be further clarified and strengthened.
In the production world, there is an urgent need for immediacy of data. Before 5G technology was widely adopted, uploading device data to the cloud for centralized management and application may not always directly solve practical problems such as improving production efficiency or reducing unplanned equipment downtime. At present, this process is more supportive of macroeconomic data analysis.
Therefore, the manufacturing industry is facing a series of problems: frequent changes in the market environment, serious waste of production capacity and raw materials, difficulties in product profit and cost control, abnormal loss of key talents, etc., enterprises can not take the digital construction of the manufacturing industry as a child's play, but must implement some plans, establish an accountability mechanism, and achieve real cost reduction and efficiency increase!
3. Summary
With the continuous deepening of intelligent manufacturing, we are standing on the threshold of a new era of industrial innovation. By analyzing the three stages of development of intelligent manufacturing—digital manufacturing, networked manufacturing, and intelligent manufacturing—the process and development direction of the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry are revealed. At the same time, it points out some common misunderstandings that enterprises may encounter in the process of digital transformation, such as the idealized pursuit of "unmanned factory", overemphasizing intelligence and ignoring digital infrastructure, etc., which remind manufacturing enterprises to be more cautious on the road to transformation.
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