With the continuous advancement of the “Made in China 2025” strategy, the traditional manufacturing industry is facing a historic crossroads of transformation and upgrading to intelligent manufacturing. But in the process of transformation to intelligent manufacturing, what kind of new mode, new idea and new path should traditional manufacturing adopt?

Recently, hosted by Wanli Group, the Intelligent Manufacturing Practice and Prospect Forum of “Gathering Wisdom to Embark on a New Journey in a New Era” was held in Guangzhou. Representatives of state-owned enterprises from Guangzhou Intelligent Manufacturing Industry Alliance, representatives of domestic advanced intelligent equipment enterprises, representatives of multinational technology companies, consulting companies and investment banks, Nearly 200 people, including industry associations, scholars from well-known universities and media, participated in the forum.

The forum brought together leaders, industry representatives, experts and scholars from both the supply and demand sides of manufacturing industry, high-tech industry, investment industry and financial industry. It went through the complete industrial chain from technology research, equipment development, production practice, industry policy and capital support, and explained and analyzed the methods and demonstration of the transformation from traditional manufacturing to intelligent manufacturing in an all-round and multi-angle. We will actively explore ways to transform and upgrade the whole industry.

At the forum, Qiao Xuefeng, vice president of Rockwell Automation (China) Co., LTD., delivered a keynote speech entitled “Building an Interconnected Enterprise to help Intelligent Manufacturing”. Combined with Hefei Wanli Co., LTD., a tire manufacturing enterprise jointly invested by Wanli Tire Co., LTD., a subsidiary of Wanli Group Co., LTD., and Hefei Jianghuai Automobile Co., LTD., The first case of a full-process automation, all-dimensional green and all-field intelligent tire factory in China was built, and Rockwell Automation’s interconnected enterprise solution based on the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) was shared, and how to help China’s tire industry realize intelligent manufacturing. Rockwell Automation is the intelligent manufacturing solution supplier of the Intelligent Chemical plant of Hefei Wanli Tire Company.

The tyre industry has also developed rapidly with the increase of vehicle ownership in our country. However, one reality is that the middle and high-end of the domestic tire market is occupied by multinational enterprises, while the independent innovation ability of domestic tire enterprises is weak, the overall level of technology research and development is low, the overall basic research of the industry is weak, the technical standards are only limited to the tire product itself, and the production process control and equipment still lag behind the international advanced level. Technical standards and inspection methods need to be improved and perfected. Domestic tyremakers, on the whole, are big but not strong, and their profit margins are slipping year by year.

How can this be changed? Hefei Wanli intelligent factory is a successful practice and attempt to become a new benchmark of tire green wisdom.

According to Qiao Xuefeng, in the Hefei Wanli Intelligent Factory project, through Rockwell automation full process MES system and related solutions, to achieve the integration of management information network and process control network, to provide Hefei Wanli factory with production, technology management, quality tracking, warehousing logistics, sales and other data information, Two-way seamless connection of data from PCS to ERP can be realized to effectively eliminate information islands, complete integrated management and control of the production process, conduct data interaction with various information system platforms of the group, and improve the enterprise information management platform system.

At present, Rockwell Automation MES system has been running for about a year, providing a strong guarantee for Hefei Wanli Tire to achieve 2 million production capacity, while bringing obvious value.

Through MES system to drive the whole production line, the realization of the whole field of intelligence, the whole process of automation, all-round green, become a “fast, good, provincial” intelligent factory. “Fast” means that the production time of the whole process of a single tire is reduced from 48 hours to 30 hours, and the per capita output value reaches 3,25,800 yuan/year, three times that of the traditional model, which is also the highest production efficiency of the domestic tire industry. “Good” means that the consistency of products is greatly improved, the qualified rate of products is as high as 99.99%, and the quality control system is better guaranteed. “Province” means to realize zero discharge of industrial wastewater and low discharge of waste gas, saving 400,000 tons of water and 26 million kilowatt hours of electricity every year.

“In fact, Rockwell Automation has been committed to the automation and informatization of the tire industry for more than 30 years.” “The tire industry has always been one of the key industries of Rockwell Automation, our integrated control platform and network platform in the tire industry market share advantage is very big, we have a professional team in the tire industry to help customers create intelligent manufacturing solutions. Other tire connected enterprises include Goodyear, Michelin, Pirelli, Double Star, Qianjin, Double Money, Pearl River and many other domestic and foreign tire brands.”

Qiao Xuefeng pointed out, “With consumption upgrading, labor shortage, global competition and other macro market factors driven, as well as the development of technology, traditional manufacturing to intelligent manufacturing change is the general trend.”

Qiao Xuefeng also stressed that the status quo of various industries and enterprises is different, the realization of intelligent manufacturing is not achieved overnight, must be phased, planning. “But most importantly, business leaders must have an innovative philosophy and be open to advanced technologies and solutions.”

He suggested that for new factories, enterprises must first have a vision, set up a clear goal around this vision, and based on this goal, develop a complete intelligent manufacturing roadmap, such as how to layout the factory network, what kind of control platform to build, what kind of information standards to determine. For the intelligent transformation of the old factory, the first step is to carry out a comprehensive assessment of the whole factory, determine the upgrading needs, and then work closely with the solution supplier team to develop clear short-term, medium-term and long-term upgrading goals according to the actual situation, and implement them step by step.