Aside from the intelligent elements at the enterprise level such as intelligent products, intelligent R&D, intelligent services, and intelligent sales, from the perspective of factory operation alone, smart factories can be understood as the combination and integration of intelligent chain planning, intelligent production and intelligent logistics. Smart productionIncluding the application of digital intelligent equipment, intelligent post operation, robot application, intelligent detection, intelligent production line, 3D printing, related control and information system and other elements and technologies. Smart logisticsIncluding procurement logistics, production logistics, sales logistics and intelligent warehousing systems, intelligent conveying systems, intelligent unit technology, RFID technology, intelligent packaging technology, intelligent picking technology, related control and information systems and other elements and technology applications. Intelligent production and intelligent logistics achieve effective integration through the collaboration of the first chain plan, thus constituting a smart factory.
From the perspective of iterative upgrading of smart factories, intelligent production and intelligent logistics can be combined with the actual situation of enterprises, based on technical complexity, maturity, economy, feasibility and other dimensions to consider synchronous implementation, but from the perspective of the value chainSmart factories should be based on the principle of "logistics first, intelligent manufacturing last", and first take logistics as the entry point to realize the optimization and integration of the value chainRealize the value orientation of improving delivery, improving efficiency and reducing costs, and realize the ultimate mission of maximizing value creation, value delivery and value acquisition with limited resources, small investment and shortest time. In recent years, the author's team has participated in the construction of dozens of new factories and the transformation of old factories, most of which are based on logistics as the main line of planning and management, to achieve the goals of maximizing efficiency, maximizing production capacity, reducing manpower, improving the level of automation, improving digital operation, improving visualization, and improving visitability.
The development process of factory logistics operation management from industrialization-digitalization-networking-intelligence should follow the following development strategies and entry points:
1.Follow the essence of logistics thinking and flow. Raise logistics planning and management to the strategic level of the factory, establish the strategy and path of logistics development, cultivate the cognition of management personnel, especially senior managers, of logistics, especially the integration of logistics in the value chain, cultivate flow thinking and chain thinking, and guide the factory capital, time, manpower and other resources to the logistics tilt.
2.Immerse yourself in the first-chain environment, and follow the value-oriented first-chain to achieve synergy and balance in delivery level, operating costs, and operational efficiency. As shown in the figure below, delivery, efficiency, and cost are a value combination that cannot be pursued alone. Regardless of the cost, the delivery can be fast;If inventory is not taken into account, output efficiency can be very high;If you don't take into account the delivery requirements of personalized orders, there is a lot of room for efficiency and cost improvement. However, the three must go hand in hand, rely on each other, and influence each other in order to maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of the system. In the process of factory operation and management, it is necessary to coordinate, balance, know how to make trade-offs, take the plan as a means of collaboration, take inventory as the balance of the starting point, and make joint decisions through an effective coordination mechanism.
The essence of chain-logistics is synergy and balance.
3.Systematic planning, step-by-step implementation, fully considering the feasibility and economy of investment. Whether it is the introduction of automation facilities, or the integration of digital systems, or the introduction of lean logistics, we must fully combine the product, materials, processes, management foundation and other elements of the enterprise to consider the feasibility and economy of its investment. For example, many enterprises have begun to introduce automated three-dimensional library, but the positioning of the automated three-dimensional library is different, some enterprises are because of tight area, inventory is too high, in order to improve the storage capacity and introduced, some enterprises are because of too many logistics personnel, too many manual operation errors and introduced, some enterprises are used as a buffer to connect the upper and lower nodes, to achieve the whole process of pulling through, different positioning will determine the type, scale, volume, mode, capacity, Different layouts and positioning may lead to completely different planning and construction of three-dimensional libraries, and the scale of input and efficiency output are also worlds apart.
*:* on the Internet.
4.Adhere to the people-oriented, training professionals. In the smart factory environment, the logistics system is the main body, the executor of the material flow of manufacturing activities, and the completer of manufacturing activitiesThe information system with artificial intelligence is the dominant and is the core of the information flow of manufacturing activities, helping people to carry out the necessary perception, cognition, analysis and decision-making and control of the physical system, so that the physical system can operate in the best possible way;On the one hand, people are the creators of physical systems and information systems, even if the information system has a strong intelligence, this intelligence is also given by people, and the problems, goals and methods to be solved are mastered by people, on the other hand, people are the users and managers of physical systems and information systems, and the highest decision-making and control of the system must be firmly grasped by people. Fundamentally, both physical and information systems are at the service of human beings. From the perspective of operation and operation, it is necessary to make decisions based on the overall situation, emotion, trade-offs, trade-offs, etc., the system can only provide data and decision support, and ultimately managers need to make decisions based on comprehensive judgment, such as strategic decision-making, production and marketing coordination, emergency response and other issues. Therefore, no matter how intelligent and intelligent the system develops, in the foreseeable future, the operation of the factory must be people-oriented, and the factory must be committed to cultivating first-class chain talents, logistics talents, big data algorithm talents and intelligent technology talents that meet the requirements of factory development.
5.Adhere to functional integration, establish professional organizations, and adhere to extensive coordination. Logistics operation management is an effective carrier of the first chain thinking, the need to jump out of the barrier of the department, from the level of the value chain to build a logistics management organization, the future logistics operation management department and the first chain management department will be integrated, the integration of planning coordination, procurement logistics, production logistics, sales logistics, process and informatization, continuous improvement and planning and other aspects of the functions and positions, the formation of a professional logistics organization, and the first chain logistics as the center, collaborative planning, products, marketing, sales, procurement, Production and other business organizations, participate in the medium and long-term planning of enterprise operation management, first-chain network layout, short-term planning and execution, research, production, sales and inventory coordination and balance, process system construction, and digital, networked, intelligent construction and other functions, forming an integrated operation and management at the enterprise level.
6.Create an integrated planning and coordination system and establish inventory standards for each link. As mentioned above, in the first-chain logistics system, planning is a means of collaboration, and inventory is the balance of the grip, therefore, enterprises need an integrated planning and coordination system, which horizontally involves the planning between customers, stores, distributors, brands, factories, and other nodes, including sales planning, demand planning, production planning, procurement planning, logistics planning and other plansVertically, it includes the inheritance and echo between various dimensions such as long-term annual planning, medium-term production and marketing coordination plan, main production plan and operation plan scheduling. An effective planning system needs to incorporate inventory standards in order to make reasonable judgments, plans and adjustments, inventory standards include business inventory, raw material inventory, semi-finished product inventory, work-in-progress inventory, finished product inventory, channel inventory, reserve inventory, slow inventory, etc. From a plant operations perspective, most factories need to make up for logistics planning and inventory standards.
7.Establish a continuous flow based on logistics automation. In the traditional factory, there are many logistics breakpoints from the material into the factory, through experience, sub-assembly, warehousing, storage, sorting, distribution, semi-finished product temporary storage, finished product offline, finished product warehousing, storage, outbound sorting, loading and loading, there are many logistics breakpoints, plus the production itself also has many breakpoints, resulting in complex management, process redundancy, process out of control, inventory all over the factory and other problems, one more breakpoint, one more complexity and risk. Therefore, in the smart factory, it is necessary to connect the entire logistics process as much as possible with the help of robots, a**, conveyor lines, automated three-dimensional warehouses, sub-packaging equipment, sorting equipment, intelligent unitization technology, barcode identification radio frequency identification technology, station docking technology, distribution technology, etc., to realize the end-to-end continuous flow of the factory.
The key point is that it is necessary to calculate the future material flow and inventory based on the capacity planning of the factory, and select the appropriate equipment and technology in combination with the logic and capacity planning of logistics management. In such an environment, the automated three-dimensional warehouse is often no longer a simple warehouse, but a buffer and articulation between nodes, this "library" may be a small-scale warehouse, but it is the absolute center of the entire logistics system.
*:* on the Internet.
8.Multiple logistics modes coexist. On the one hand, the factory should not pursue comprehensive logistics intelligence, should be based on the characteristics of materials and products, order batches, production line mode, production process, etc., to develop a differentiated logistics model, reasonable and effective is the best, therefore, a factory may exist at the same time manual operation, mechanization, automation, intelligent logistics mode. On the other hand, in the environment of prominent personalized needs, factories have both large-scale mass production and small-batch customized production, which inevitably need to match different logistics models. Third, in a logistics system, it is necessary to meet the needs of multi-mode, multi-scene, and multi-material characteristics, so that the logistics system must cover many business scenarios, such as the three-dimensional warehouse of small material boxes of a household appliance enterprise, which needs to deal with more than 20 business scenarios, which puts forward extremely high requirements for the management logic planning, software and hardware implementation of the system.
9.Build a factory logistics operation platform and develop a logistics application app: Building a factory logistics operation platform with logistics operation logic and process as the main line will be a core component of the industrial Internet platform and will not exist independently。All logistics infrastructure, materials and information are connected to the platform to achieve digital access, process and operation data collection, two-way communication between systems and entities, and information, digitization and visual control through the logistics control tower. Looking at the many industrial Internet platform products now, there are often deficiencies in the main line of logistics, and the end-to-end digital and visual management of logistics cannot be realized, which is a very important gap, and an industrial Internet platform that does not fully consider logistics operations is obviously incomplete. Based on the industrial Internet platform, the existing logistics-related systems (such as WMS, WCS, MES, SRM, etc.) will be reconstructed in the future, and logistics apps based on various application scenarios or problems will come into being, such as: end-to-end inventory management, logistics planning, vehicle scheduling, loading and stowage, logistics equipment monitoring and operation and maintenance, energy monitoring, personnel monitoring, Production line distribution, etc., will be combined with the application scenarios of the factory to develop into logistics APP, these APPs through the industrial Internet platform to achieve interconnection. Based on the accumulation of experience and knowledge, as well as common or similar development platforms, tools, and industrial microservice component libraries (including a large number of industrial knowledge components, algorithm components, principle model components, etc.), these apps will gradually achieve standardization within or across industries, and can be replicated or generalized in a larger scope.
10. The concept of green and low-carbon runs through the entire value chain of smart factories. The production and logistics automation rate of smart factories is extremely high, and green and low-carbon requirements need to be considered in the process of planning, design, equipment selection, and system architecture. In the process of smart factory operation, it is necessary to digitally monitor the operation status of the equipment, promote the best operation and maintenance, and automatically calculate the optimal energy output scheme of the equipment based on the volume, weight, time, task and other factors, so as to reduce the efficiency and energy consumption loss of the equipment. There will be more integrated intelligent equipment management systems in equipment manufacturers, integrators, ecosystems, and enterprise clusters, which can be managed and maintained more accurately and effectively based on the big data of equipment operation of many enterprises, so as to realize the allocation of equipment between workshops, factories, and enterprises to improve equipment utilization.
On the other hand, companies can achieve significant reductions in energy consumption through intelligent energy management systems. For example, the automation rate of Changsha Gree production base has reached 62%, and the energy consumption of a single product produced by Changsha Gree has decreased by 17% year-on-year through the G-IEMS energy management system65%。In the future, the construction of intelligent energy management systems based on cities, industrial clusters, enterprise ecological groups, enterprise clusters, etc., will implement the concept of green and low-carbon development to a greater extent.