Series 2: Visit and exchange of German Industry 4.0 benchmark enterprises
After enjoying the feast of Hannover Messe, students want to know more about the practical application and technological innovation of Industry 4.0 and look for cooperation opportunities. Under the arrangement of Global Benchmarking Division of Keli Consulting, we conducted on-site visits and in-depth exchanges with representative enterprises of German Industry 4.0 such as BMW Factory, Siemens Factory, KUKA Robot, Continental Automotive Electronics and festo. The whole visit was guided, translated and answered by experts, which won unanimous praise from the students.
First stop: BMW factory
Highlights: For BMW Group, BMW factory plays an evolutionary and revolutionary role, one is the evolution of traditional models, and the other is the revolution of I models.
The BMW factory * * * has 4 100 employees, 80% of whom are blue-collar and 8% are women, and employees come from 35 countries. There are motors and special motors, panel workshop, injection workshop, carbon fiber workshop and casting workshop. There is a research and development center for carbon fiber in the United States.
It produces 900,000 pieces of exterior decoration parts, 270,000 panels, 88,000 motors and 6,543.8+0.8 million cast crankshafts every year, among which the types of motors exceed 1000, and the motors after 654.38+0962 can be repaired and replaced, which has strong product life cycle traceability, follow-up and maintenance capabilities.
As one of BMW's 29 production bases in the world, the factory has a history of 50 years, including carbon fiber production for 12 years. It is not only the R&D and production base of BMW's light body and electric vehicle, but also the important parts production base of BMW in the world. It plays the role of evolution and revolution, one is the evolution of traditional mode, and the other is the revolution of I mode.
Second stop: Siemens factory
Highlight: A production line has reached the level of 3.5 20 years ago. The site management of the whole factory is completely perfect, and improvement billboards can be seen everywhere in the workshop corridor.
Their main products are circuit breakers and protectors. The production lines here are basically more than 20 years ago, not counting Industry 4.0, ranging from 2.0 to 3.0, but one of the fully automatic production lines built 20 years ago is quite shocking! The three-dimensional design of the buffer station can maximize the production capacity of each machine, and the design of the material conveyor belt is simple and ingenious. Festo motors are widely used to realize X-Y lifting and translation, transport materials across aisles, machines and other obstacles, and extend to the ceiling. There are almost no six-axis robots in the tall building, only two or three Scara manipulators. The overall feature is large and compact. The production of conductive copper sheet is to automatically realize stamping, bending and precision assembly by using a large punch, and produce 50 copper structural parts in one minute!
Siemens and BMW's workshops have a common feature. The corridor of the workshop is covered with improvement billboards, and tools such as Six Sigma and Lean Improvement PDCA are stuck on the wall for engineers to solve problems on the spot. Objectively speaking, the application of six sigma, lean improvement and other tools is the basis for realizing Industry 4.0. As a leader in lean production, Six Sigma and other fields, scientific consulting has rich experience and can help customers realize the transformation and upgrading of Industry 4.0.
Third stop: KUKA robot
Highlights: Understand how to realize man-machine cooperation, machine-to-machine cooperation, the transition from six-axis robot to seven-axis robot, and the upgrading of automation and the realization of intelligence.
KUKA Robot was built in 1898. It started in the lighting industry and later focused on making robots. KUKA takes today's prediction of tomorrow's customer demand as its corporate philosophy, and occupies the forefront of the robot industry with innovation and technological leadership. As early as 1973, KUKA has developed and produced the first generation of six-axis robots. 1966, the world's first robot based on pc control system was successfully developed, thus opening the era of mechatronics. Up to now, industrial robots involve electronics, plastics, casting, food, automobiles and other industries.
At the scene, we can see that a CNC machine tool is served by a robot in the cutting workshop. The machine tool is processed for 40 minutes, and then a KUKA robot with a load of 500 kg completes post-processing such as drilling for 20 minutes and puts it on the component rack. Adding a linear axis to the robot can serve two CNC machine tools at the same time and complete the post-processing of four components. This will not waste the productivity of the robot.
A giant robot named Giant has a self-weight of 4.6 tons and a grasping force of 1.3 tons. When people touch it, it will feel the pressure and stop automatically, realizing the cooperation between man and machine. KUKA robots are basically built in KUKA factory! In order to ensure the life of the robot 15 years, it is suggested that it should be overhauled after three and a half years of continuous operation. The new product Argyros small six-axis high-speed robot can work in a very narrow space.
The iiwa light seven-axis robot, which made a splash in front of Obama and Merkel at the exhibition, is the latest model, which shows that KUKA is also changing to miniaturization. AGV equipped with iiwa robot abandons the magnetic track, uses the light sensor to automatically learn the transportation route and perceive obstacles, and freely transmits materials in the workshop according to the material code, which is quite sexy and makes passers-by want to flirt with her, and its value is almost out of the chart!
Fourth stop: Continental Electronics:
Highlights: three-dimensional warehousing and logistics, fully automated material distribution. Automatic feeding is unmanned, and it only takes 15 minutes from ordering to starting production.
Founded in 187 1, the company is headquartered in Hanover, and its main business is automotive electronics. It was originally owned by Siemens and was spun off a few years ago. The factory employs about 700 people, with an annual output value of1300 million euros. The group's annual output value is 70 billion euros, with 50 factories/kloc-0 and employees * * *180,000. More than half of them are electronic products. The factory produces 24 hours a day, and * * * produces 250 different electronic products. Each car has more than 50 electronic components. Electronic lock, automobile computer, sensor for measuring waste gas, pressure sensor, acceleration sensor, etc. Produced here, some new technologies are being applied. For example, the shifter adopts the ceramic process of 1400 degree low temperature treatment. There are 22 unified SiPlace SMT lines here, which shows that although they are separated from Siemens, the relationship between them is still very strong.
The production line here is closest to Industry 4.0, basically reaching the level of 3.5. All parts have two-dimensional codes. A 36-meter-high three-dimensional warehouse consisting of 654.38+10,000 boxes can be automatically fed in the center of the workshop by circulating rail cars. The space from the ceiling to the floor of the workshop is used to transport materials. It only takes 15 minutes from placing an order to starting production, and there are six automatic material ladders in one workshop. The intelligent factory system can remind all materials of consumption. Because of the huge output, there is no need to change lines. Materials only stay in the factory for 8 hours, complete SMT production in 4 hours, and provide flexible delivery arrangements in the other 4 hours.
AGV, which is in the trial display stage, realizes automatic feeding and reminds to receive materials. This is an indispensable part of 4.0, but to be smarter and more flexible, it needs to be continuously upgraded.
Fifth stop: Fseto factory
Highlights: Digital innovation has been fully applied in factory layout, workpiece processing, efficient logistics, precision assembly and energy efficiency management. Lean production, high efficiency, energy saving and environmental protection have also achieved excellent examples.
This factory is festo's largest in the world. In the name of science and technology factory, we provide cylinders, cylinder islands and electronic components to customers all over the world. The expansion was completed on 20 15. The factory covers a total area of 66,000 square meters and employs more than 1200 people. Festo invested 70 million euros in the expansion of the factory, aiming at meeting the market demand in the next 5 ~ 10 years. The factory takes global competitiveness as its core value, focusing on five aspects: smart products and smart equipment, close cooperation in boasting field, lean production, effective energy saving and learning factory. As a benchmark enterprise, 20 16 received German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The whole factory optimization based on manufacturing value chain runs through the whole process of factory construction and production, and digital innovation has been fully applied in many aspects such as factory layout, workpiece processing, efficient logistics, precision assembly, energy efficiency management and so on. Through various modules, the cylinder control and electric cylinder control are integrated to realize the integration of gas and electricity and build the industrial 4.0 bridge.
After the visits and exchanges of the above five German Industry 4.0 representative enterprises, the students were quite shocked, well aware of their own gaps, and felt a sense of urgency and crisis. I hope that I can speed up my self-transformation and improve my all-round innovation in intelligent logistics, informationization, digitalization and automation after returning to China. The students present are very grateful to the professionalism and meticulous attitude of scientific consultation for arranging such a careful route and itinerary. And agreed to visit the above five enterprises again at the same time and on the same route three years later, and compare the development speed of German Industry 4.0 and Made in China 2025, as well as their respective development processes.
Scientific consultation is willing to build a bridge for Chinese and German enterprises and promote cooperation and exchanges between the two sides. And I hope that in the subsequent development process of domestic enterprises, based on Made in China 2025, I will contribute my strength to help enterprises achieve leapfrog and development.
Keli Consulting Global Business Standards Department can customize the line according to your needs. Please contact us if you have any enterprises you want to visit!