What are the four driving forces of intelligent manufacturing?

Since the concept of Industry 4.0 has been published, every April, a new trend about the future development of the world's manufacturing industry will start in Germany and sweep the world in an instant. This year's smart manufacturing whirlwind is no exception. After three years of exploration and accumulation, Industry 4.0, an all-encompassing abstract concept, has become more and more subdivided and concrete.
Compared with the past, this round of hot discussion about smart manufacturing focuses more on the four sub-subjects, namely:

Digital Factory

Industrial Internet of Things (Industrial IoT)

Human-Machine CollaboraTIon

Intelligent Manufacturing Ecosystem

The four themes are all derived from Industry 4.0, interrelated and common development, which contains the key to unlocking the future of intelligent manufacturing.

The digital factory is a comprehensive utilization of software technology, network technology, communication technology, and various other supporting technologies to help the manufacturing industry by digitally integrating the plant R&D design, process path planning, production engineering, production execution, and service value chain. Enterprises accelerate production speed, increase production efficiency and flexibility to cope with the increasingly fierce market competition.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology "Made in China 2025" will give priority to promoting the digitalization, networking and intelligent development of manufacturing industry as the first of the eight major actions of manufacturing transformation. It believes that digitalization is an important direction for the future development of the manufacturing industry, as well as "industrialization" and "information." The only way to integrate.

Coincidentally, the leading companies of German Industry 4.0 also regard digital factories as one of the indispensable conditions for the realization of Industry 4.0. The significance of the digital factory is evident.

In 2017, the first year of the Industrial Internet of Things, from GE Predix to Siemens MindSphere, ABB AbilityTM, SAP Leonardo, to the space cloud network INDICS, Sany Heavy Industry's roots, the manufacturing tycoons have joined the Industrial Internet of Things. The war, the strategic focus has now leap to the cloud, and the "web" has undoubtedly become the only way to seize the highest point of market competition.

Industrial IoT is committed to the interconnection and integration between digital virtual bodies and physical entities. Based on this, data is collected and analyzed to assist enterprise management decision-making. This is precisely in line with the development direction of digitalization and intelligence. . As for the implementation method, it is the Eight Immortals crossing the sea, each showing its ability. It is trying to use the common software and platform to break the industry barriers, in order to effectively solve the common problems between different industries, thus helping the manufacturing enterprises to reduce costs and improve efficiency. victory? Or is it based on the know-how and historical accumulation of vertical professional fields, and the German faction that invites partners in various fields to build an ecosystem together becomes mainstream? Or is it that the Chinese faction that is good at using the middle way will eventually win? Let us wait and see!

“Machine substitution” was once considered to be a key link in reducing costs and improving efficiency to achieve transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry. However, practice has proved that this concept is too idealistic, and people are still an indispensable part of the intelligent manufacturing process. Since the current robotics technology can only replace some simple repetitive manual labor, it is far less flexible than humans, so there is still a long way to go before the distance is completely replaced by labor.

How to make a better collaborative relationship between machines and people, seeking the fast, efficient and durable machine and the perfect integration between human flexibility and wisdom is an important issue in the future development of intelligent manufacturing.

The world robot giant represented by KUKA and ABB has already learned about this important trend. In recent years, it has been pushing the human-machine cooperation robots to the market. The local robot manufacturers represented by Shenyang Xinsong are obviously not far behind, and they are closely following them. .

But does the two-armed collaborative robot on the market really represent the whole of human-computer collaboration? Or is it just "only to be shaped, to be proud of it"? Perhaps the real intelligence that is waiting in front of us is the artificial intelligence that comes to the fore...

As we all know, smart manufacturing, industrial 4.0, is not a single technical problem, but a complex system engineering that needs to be promoted from top to bottom and step by step. Correspondingly, the format created by the company is also brand new. Suppliers who provide a single product or service can no longer survive in a complex ecosystem. They need to find partners who can complement each other and support each other to build collaboration. The system can survive in the fierce market competition.

In addition, in the intelligent manufacturing ecosystem, the competition between enterprises will be characterized by cross-domain, fragmentation, and virtual imagery. The “targeting analysis” will become more and more ineffective, and whether a company can continue to maintain its competitive advantage. It is not enough to analyze the same kind. It is necessary to integrate the boundaries between different fields and understand the evolution and characteristics of the entire ecosystem in order to extend its advantages.

The four themes are interlocking, interpreting the future of smart manufacturing with different perspectives. Why do companies have a deeper understanding of the four major trends and get real-life experience?

Shenzhen International Advanced Manufacturing and Smart Factory Show helps you to see the four trends. From December 21st to 23rd, 2017, Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center will meet with you to create a smart future!