The sudden COVID-19 epidemic has brought great challenges to economic and social development, and a number of new forms of manufacturing, represented by unmanned factories, black light workshops, and non-meeting production, are becoming an important tool for “Made in Chengdu” to hedge the impact of the epidemic and resolve uncertainties and risks.

ACU-01B 3HNA024871-00103 Back to a classic theory of business management called the “smile curve” : the two ends of the curve, which are tilted high, are the design and sales parts of the manufacturing industry, which are considered to have the highest value added, while the trough of the curve is reserved for the factory end, which is the manufacturing part.

At present, with the evolution of a new generation of technology, many Chengdu enterprises such as New Hope Dairy and Tongwei Solar are no longer willing to continue to play the “bottom support” role in this classic curve. In their “unmanned factories”, artificial intelligence has replaced boring jobs, and online digital management systems have replaced paper records, while spawning many more creative roles. Under the epidemic crisis, through the observation ACU-01B 3HNA024871-00103 window of “unmanned factories”, we see the bright future of manufacturing.

The smart workshop runs 24 hours a day

You don’t need more than one man on duty

The intelligent workshop of New Hope Huaxi Dairy has been transformed into an “unmanned factory” that operates 24 hours a day but does not require many people to be on duty. In the process of the reporter’s more than 1 hour visit, the ACU-01B 3HNA024871-00103 whole process can not see a drop of milk, even the workers working in the workshop can not touch a drop of raw milk…

Workshop is the most basic unit of manufacturing, but also the window of intelligent transformation and upgrading. By means of remote operation and maintenance, big data, artificial intelligence and other comprehensive means, the intelligent workshop of New Hope Huaxi Dairy has been transformed into an “unmanned factory” that operates 24 hours a day but does not require multiple people to be on duty. This is also the highest level of intelligence among New Hope Dairy’s 14 factories around the world.

Wang Shaojun, general manager of the digital technology Department of New Hope Dairy, said that everything has two sides, and the epidemic is an opportunity for remote, mobile and intelligent industries and applications. “If the traditional manual operation is still relied on in the past, not only the error rate is high, in case someone is infected, the whole team has to be isolated, which has a very big impact on on-site production.”

Robots work in the automated production workshop of New Hope Dairy

ACU-01B 3HNA024871-00103 In the process of the reporter’s visit for more than 1 hour, the whole process did not see a drop of milk, even the workers working in the workshop did not touch a drop of raw milk. After the raw milk into the factory is packed into the “Big MAC” sealed milk storage tank, through the winding, different thickness of the pipe for processing, standardized production to avoid milk and human and air contact, and to ensure the environment of bacteria-free.

“Take valve control as an example. Before the intelligent transformation, there were 1,600 valves on the production line, and eight production management personnel were required for daily operation.” Today’s intelligent equipment can do such a single repetitive but very high health and safety requirements. The tanks and pipes are also cleaned automatically after each milk production. Only 2 to 3 workers per production line are required for mobile inspection. Wang Shaojun said that after the full implementation of the digital transformation strategy, the factory’s labor efficiency (the output of one person) increased by about 19.2% in the two years from 2017 to 2019. The operating efficiency of the device is improved by 13.5%.

ACU-01B 3HNA024871-00103 Outside the workshop, “smart storage” also shows wonders. The reporter saw that in the automated three-dimensional warehouse of about 20 meters high, a box of finished dairy products was “sent” on the transmission belt by the mechanical arm, and entered the first layer of the 19-meter-high shelf at a constant speed along the track. Immediately, the “shelf success” message is displayed on the control screen in real time. In addition to the staff in the automatic control room, there are rarely workers working in the warehouse site.

Changes are also taking place in new industries. Entering the production plant of Tongwei Solar (Chengdu) Co., LTD., located in Shuangliu District, Chengdu, a white corridor greeted the reporter’s eyes. Through the clear glass on either side, industrial robotic arms can be seen busily working among the rows of equipment. There are very few workers in the huge factory. Monopolizing 15% of the global market, the cost is only 70% of the competitors, Tongwei through “intelligent manufacturing” to achieve this result.

In September 2017, Tongwei Solar’s world’s first Industry 4.0 high-efficiency battery production line was officially put into operation. The average cell conversion efficiency is up to 22.5%. At present, Tongwei has achieved a total of 13GW of cell production capacity, and the product cost is the lowest in the world. It is understood that the company has planned to complete the construction of the smart factory within three years, so that it will become a smart factory that integrates customers, factories and suppliers closely with engineering, production and supply chain 3D based on the information physical system.