Series II: Visiting and Exchanging with German Industry 4.0 Benchmarking Enterprises
After enjoying the feast at the Hannover Messe, all the trainees have visited BMW factories, KUKA Robotics, Continental Automotive, Continental Automotive Electronics and Industry 4.0 Benchmarking Business Unit in Germany in order to have a more in-depth understanding of the practical application of industry 4.0 and technological innovation, and to look for the opportunities for cooperation. Under the arrangement of Global Benchmarking Division of C&T Consulting, they made on-site visits and in-depth exchanges with representative enterprises of Germany Industry 4.0, such as BMW factory, Siemens factory, KUKA Robotics, Continental Automotive Electronics, Festo, etc. The whole visit was guided by experts, who were able to provide guidance and guidance to the participants. The whole visit was guided and translated by experts, answering questions and solving puzzles, which was unanimously praised by the participants.
The first stop: BMW factory
Highlight: This BMW factory plays the role of evolution and revolution in two fields for BMW Group, one is the evolution of traditional models and the other is the revolution of i-models.
This BMW plant*** employs 4,100 people, 80% blue-collar, 8% female, with employees from 35 nationalities. There are electric and special motors, a panel shop, an injection molding shop, a carbon fiber shop and a casting shop. There is a R&D center for carbon fiber in the US.
Each year, the factory produces 900,000 pieces of exterior trim, 270,000 panels, 88,000 electric motors, and 1.8 million pieces of cast crankshafts, of which more than 1,000 types of motors are available for repair and replacement after 1962, and it has a strong ability to trace, follow up, and maintain the life cycle of its products.
The plant, as one of BMW's 29 global production sites, has a 50-year history, of which carbon fiber production has been 12 years old. It is both the R&D and production base for BMW's light body and electric vehicles, and an important parts production base for BMW globally. It plays a role in two areas, evolution and revolution, one for the evolution of traditional models and the other for the revolution of i-models.
Second stop: Siemens factory
Highlights: A production line from twenty years ago has already reached the level of 3.5. The whole factory is completely and very well managed on site, with improvement Kanban boards everywhere in the workshop corridors.
Their main products are circuit breakers and protectors. The production lines here are basically more than twenty years old, not quite Industry 4.0, between 2.0 and 3.0, but one of the fully automated production lines built twenty years ago is still quite impressive! The three-dimensional design of the Buffer station can maximize the use of each machine's capacity, the material conveyor belt design is simple and ingenious, using a large number of Festo motors to achieve X-Y lifting, panning, across the aisles, machines and other obstacles to achieve material transfer, the height extends to the ceiling, and almost did not see the lofty six-axis robots, there are only two or three Scara robots. The overall characteristic is large and compact. Conductive copper sheet production is even more using a large stamping machine to automatically realize the stamping, bending and precision assembly, a minute to produce 50 copper structural parts!
Siemens and BMW workshop has a *** with the characteristics of the workshop corridor everywhere is to improve the Kanban board, six sigma, lean improvement PDCA tools such as charts posted on the wall for engineers to solve problems on the spot. Objectively speaking, the application of tools such as Six Sigma and Lean Improvement is the basis for realizing Industry 4.0. As a leader in the field of Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma, C&T Consulting has a wealth of experience and can help customers realize the transformation and upgrading of Industry 4.0.
Stop 3: Kuka Robotics
Highlights: Learn how to realize human-machine collaboration, machine-to-machine collaboration, transition from six-axis to seven-axis robots, as well as automation upgrades and intelligence realization.
Kuka Robotics was founded in 1898, starting in the lighting industry and later focusing on robotics. Kuka to today anticipate the needs of tomorrow's customers as a corporate philosophy, innovation and technology leadership to occupy the forefront of the robotics industry. As early as 1973, Kuka has developed and produced the first generation of six-axis robots, and in 1966 because of the successful development of the world's first pc control system-based robots, thus opening the era of mechatronics. To date, industrial robots are involved in various industries such as electronics, plastics, casting, food and automotive.
At the site we saw that the cutting workshop uses a robot to serve a CNC machine tool, the machine tool processing 40 minutes, and then a load 500 kg Kuka robot to complete the drilling and other 20 minutes of post-processing and placed on the parts rack. By adding a linear axis to the robot, it is possible to service two CNC machines and post-process four types of parts at the same time. This way the robot's capacity is not wasted.
A giant robot called Giant, with a weight of 4.6 tons and a grip of 1.3 tons, can be touched by a human hand and will automatically stop when it senses pressure, enabling human-machine collaboration and machine-to-machine collaboration. basically Kuka robots are building Kuka robots in Kuka factories! In order to ensure the robot's 15-year lifespan it is recommended to overhaul it once after three and a half years of continuous operation. The new product Agilos small six-axis high-speed robot can operate in very confined spaces.
And the iiwa lightweight seven-axis robot, which made a splash in front of Obama and Merkel at the show, is the latest model, showing that Kuka is also moving towards miniaturization. The AGV with the iiwa robot ditches the magnetic rails and uses light sensors to automatically learn transport routes and sense obstacles, and then freely transports materials around the shop floor according to material codes, which is quite sexy and makes passersby want to flirt with her, so her face value is just about to explode!
Fourth stop: Continental:
Highlights: three-dimensional warehousing and three-dimensional logistics, fully automated material distribution. Automatic material supply unmanned operation, from the order to start production in just 15 minutes.
Founded in 1871, the company is headquartered in Hanover, and its main business is automotive electronics, originally under Siemens, which was spun off a few years ago. The plant has about 700 employees and an annual output of 1.3 billion euros. Group-wide 70 billion euro annual output, 150 factories, **** 180,000 employees. More than half are electronics, and the plant produces 24 hours a day,*** producing 250 different electronic products. There are more than fifty electronic components per vehicle, electronic locks, car computers, sensors for measuring exhaust fumes, pressure sensors, acceleration sensors, etc. are produced here, and new technologies are being applied such as ceramic technology for gear shifters with a 1400-degree cryogenic treatment. There are 22 SiPlace SMT lines here, which shows that although the company is separated from Siemens, the relationship is still strong.
The production lines here are the closest to Industry 4.0, basically at 3.5 level. All parts have two-dimensional code, by 100,000 bins composed of 36-meter-high three-dimensional warehouse through the cycle of shuttle railcars to achieve in the workshop in the center of the automatic feeding unmanned operation, the use of the workshop ceiling to the floor of the space to transport the material, from the order to start production in just 15 minutes, a workshop six automatic material ladder. The smart factory system alerts the consumption status of all materials. Because of the huge output, there is no need to change the line, the material stays in the factory for only 8 hours, 4 hours to complete the SMT production, and another 4 hours to provide flexibility and other shipping arrangements.
The AGVs in the trial demonstration phase enable automatic material feeding and alerts for receiving materials. This is a necessary part of 4.0, but to be more intelligent and more flexible, it needs to be constantly upgraded.
Stop 5: Fseto Factory
Highlights: Digital innovations are applied comprehensively in plant layout, workpiece processing, efficient logistics, precision assembly and energy efficiency management. Lean production, energy efficiency and environmental friendliness have all been achieved at the same time.
This factory is Festo's largest factory in the world, under the name of Technology Factory, supplying cylinders, cylinder islands and electronic components to customers worldwide, and the expansion was completed in 2015. The total area of the factory is 66,000 square meters, with more than 1,200 employees.Festo has invested a total of seventy million euros in the expansion of the factory, based on meeting the market demand in the next 5 to 10 years. The plant places global competitiveness as a core value, focusing on five areas: smart products and smart devices, close cooperation in the field of quaaludes, lean production, efficient energy saving and learning factory. As a benchmark company it hosted German Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2016.
The overall optimization of the factory based on the manufacturing value chain runs through the whole process of factory construction and production, and digital innovation is comprehensively applied in various aspects such as plant layout, workpiece processing, efficient logistics, precision assembly and energy efficiency management. It also integrates cylinder control with electric cylinder control through various modules to realize gas-electric **** integration and build a bridge to Industry 4.0.
After visiting and communicating with the above five representative German Industry 4.0 enterprises, all the trainees were quite shocked and y aware of their own gaps, and generated a sense of urgency and crisis, hoping to accelerate the pace of self-transformation and upgrading after returning to China, and perfecting the all-around innovations in intelligent logistics, informatization, digitization, automation, etc. All the trainees were very grateful to KLM for their efforts to help them to achieve this goal. All the participants were very grateful for the professionalism and meticulous attitude of KSC in arranging such a detailed itinerary. They agreed to visit the above five companies again three years later at the same time and route to compare the development speed of Germany Industry 4.0 and Made in China 2025, as well as their own development process.
C&T Consulting is willing to build bridges between Chinese and German companies to promote cooperation and communication between the two sides. And we hope to contribute to the subsequent development process of domestic enterprises, based on Made in China 2025, and help them realize leapfrog and development.
The Global Business Benchmarking Department of C&T Consulting can customize the route according to your needs, if you have any enterprises you want to visit, please contact us!