What is a smart factory?
The basic structure of the smart factory includes:
① Infrastructure layer: the enterprise should first establish a wired or wireless factory network to realize the automatic delivery of production instructions and automatic collection of information on equipment and production lines; the formation of an integrated shop floor networking environment, to solve the problem of networking between devices with different communication protocols, as well as between PLC, CNC, robots, instrumentation/sensors and industrial control/IT systems. IT system networking problems, etc.
② Intelligent equipment layer: mainly contains intelligent production equipment, intelligent testing equipment and intelligent logistics equipment
③ Intelligent production line layer: in the process of production and assembly, through the sensors, CNC systems or RFID automatically production, quality, energy consumption, equipment performance (OEE) and other data collection, etc., to achieve automation and intelligence.
④ Intelligent Workshop Layer: On the basis of equipment networking, it realizes the traceability of the production process, reduces the inventory of work-in-progress, and applies the human-machine interface (HMI), as well as mobile terminals, such as industrial tablets, to realize the paperlessness of the production process.
⑤ Factory control layer: realize the monitoring of the production process, real-time insight into the operation of the factory through the production command system, and realize the collaboration between multiple workshops and the scheduling of resources.
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Smart factory construction, these pits do not jump!
① Blindly buy automation equipment and automated production lines.
② Not yet realized the automatic collection of equipment data and workshop networking.
③ Factory operations layer is still a black box. There is still a lack of information system support in the factory operation, the workshop is still a black box, the production process is still difficult to realize the whole traceability, and production management is closely related to the manufacturing BOM data, working hours data is also inaccurate.
④ Equipment performance is not high. The production equipment is not fully utilized, the health status of the equipment is not effectively managed, often due to equipment failure caused by unplanned downtime, affecting production.
⑤ Frequent information and automation silos.
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How to promote the construction of smart factory?
① Overall planning for smart factory. The construction of the smart factory needs to realize the information integration of IT systems and automation systems; to deal with heterogeneous data from various sources, including equipment, production, materials, quality, energy consumption and other massive data; should be carried out scientific plant layout planning, to meet the requirements of the production process, optimize the business process on the basis of improving the efficiency of logistics, and to improve the degree of comfort of the workers at work.
② Establish a clear standard for smart factory. In the construction of smart factories, companies often ignore the establishment of management and technical standards, which can easily lead to a lack of data standards, one thing more than one code; the implementation of operational standards is not in place; the lack of equipment management standards, different equipment using different communication protocols, resulting in equipment integration difficulties; management processes are complex, mismatch between jobs and rights; the implementation of quality control standards are not in place, resulting in a lot of batch quality problems. Therefore, there is a need to establish clear standards for smart factories.
③ Emphasize the construction of intelligent production lines. Intelligent technology can be used to integrate industrial robots, machining centers, and equipment with a low degree of automation to make them more flexible and improve production efficiency.
④ Active application of emerging technologies. In the future, emerging technologies such as AI and big data will be applied in large quantities to equipment maintenance and personnel training in factories.
Building a smart factory is an ongoing process. As far as manufacturing enterprises are concerned, whether it is the choice of software, hardware, equipment, it is necessary for the corresponding partners to have the ability to support intelligent manufacturing and the strength to build a smart factory.