[Analysis of the Industrial Control Market in China] Intelligent manufacturing focuses on the production field, but it is also a full-process, end-to-end transformation process, which will cause dramatic changes in the entire ecological chain including R&D, production, products, channels, sales, and customer management. The vision of intelligent manufacturing is beautiful, but realizing it is a tough transformation path. Compared with the world's advanced manufacturing powers such as the United States, Germany and Japan, the intelligent manufacturing path of Chinese companies is bound to be quite different.
After the financial crisis that broke out in 2008 severely undermined the global real economy, revitalizing the manufacturing industry has become a consensus among all countries. The direction of revitalization is to develop intelligent manufacturing by leveraging advanced information technology, which is known as "Industry 4.0". In the "Made in China 2025" action plan released in May this year, China also takes intelligent manufacturing as its main direction of attack.
Intelligent manufacturing focuses on the production field, but it is also a full-process, end-to-end transformation process, which will cause dramatic changes in the entire ecological chain including R&D, production, products, channels, sales, and customer management.
For industrial enterprises, in production and factories, it is still based on scale, standardization and automation, but it also needs to be endowed with new characteristics such as flexibility, customization, visualization and low carbonization. On the business model side, a disruptive change will occur - the model where producers influence consumers will be replaced by a model where consumer demand determines product production. At the national level, it is necessary to establish an industrial Internet that is more secure and reliable than the consumer Internet.
The driving force behind this transformation comes from the wide application of the "Internet" (smart products, omni-channel marketing, and industry ecosystem), which gives manufacturing enterprises the opportunity to directly face consumers and upstream and downstream partners, obtain previously inaccessible data at an acceptable cost, and thus be able to better understand customer needs and obtain market feedback on products.
Based on this insight, enterprises can redefine and design their own R&D, production processes and supply chain systems, achieving personalized delivery while attaining economies of scale, enhancing their production efficiency and asset utilization rate, and reducing energy consumption and pollution.
The path to realizing intelligent manufacturing
It sounds like there are many benefits, but how exactly can they be achieved? It can be divided into three stages.
The first stage is to quickly lay a solid foundation for the enterprise's transformation. Only by taking control of oneself can one support the transformation. Reorganize the existing R&D, supply chain and financial human resources management processes, and build an integrated operation system through the implementation of ERP and PLM(Product Lifecycle Management) systems. In addition, enterprises need to establish process standards, data standards, and corresponding control systems, and then obtain customer and product data through intelligent products, omni-channel marketing, or the upstream and downstream ecological chain system, thereby gaining consumer and product insights to support subsequent transformation.
In the second stage, by integrating customer and product insights, integrate other data resources both inside and outside the enterprise to build its own big data system. Under the guidance of this system, rebuild its own R&D, customer service, production, supply chain and logistics systems in accordance with the principles of intelligent manufacturing such as consumer-centeredness, personalization, flexibility and mass customization.
In the third stage, based on the intelligent product platform, omni-channel platform and big data system, cross-border innovation of the ecological chain will be achieved, the back-end integrated operation system will be strengthened, and the global expansion of enterprises will be supported.
In the transformation towards intelligent manufacturing, high-end solid wood furniture manufacturer Markor Home Furnishing is at the forefront of The Times.
Markor Home Furnishing and IBM have been cooperating in the field of informatization since 2012. At first, the cooperation between the two sides was limited to the construction of traditional ERP systems. Since 2014, Markor Home Furnishing has begun to attempt to transform from traditional manufacturing to intelligent manufacturing, and the cooperation between the two sides has deepened accordingly. IBM took five measures to help Meike Home Furnishing build the first smart factory in the field of solid wood furniture.
Firstly, introduce CNC robots and other automated equipment, which can replace manual artisans to automatically carve patterns on solid wood furniture. Secondly, assemble flexible assembly lines to meet the demands of personalized and large-scale customization; Thirdly, establish an efficient and precise in-plant logistics system. The task of this in-plant logistics system is to be responsible for the production mobilization of the entire factory, automatically allocate raw materials and finished products, and achieve full automation of the factory's production plan. Fourth, establish an intelligent system that connects sales channels, automatically converting sales orders into production demands within the venue and breaking them down into specific production tasks. Fifth, by digitizing the design, integrate the ERP system with the production execution system.
Recently, Markor Home Furnishing, in collaboration with IBM and Apple, has jointly developed an interactive marketing APP for retail stores targeting high-end users. Users can conduct personalized selection, color design and matching of solid wood furniture through the APP on the iPad. Then, these confirmed orders will be directly sent to the back-end system, automatically entering the production cycle of selection, material matching and machine processing.
According to industry norms, the delivery cycle of solid wood furniture is usually 120 days. Through the smart factory, Meike Home Furnishing hopes to shorten the delivery cycle to within 35 days. Without increasing personnel, it aims to double its output value and achieve non-traditional digital growth for Meike Home Furnishing.
When Markor Home launched this project in 2012, there was no successful reference worldwide, and it was unknown whether the transformation could be successful. The inherent complexity of the patterns and veneers of solid wood raw materials poses significant difficulties for standardization. Meanwhile, the clients of Meike Home Furnishing are all high-end consumers with strong personalized demands. Ensuring personalization while achieving standardization is a huge challenge.
It is precisely because of the representativeness and typicality of its transformation that Markor Home Furnishing was selected into the 2015 intelligent manufacturing pilot list of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People's Republic of China in July this year, becoming the only furniture manufacturing and retail company among the 46 pilot companies.
It should be emphasized that the transformation of the R&D and production ends alone is not the entirety of intelligent manufacturing. The front-end transformation based on channel and consumer insights is also an important part. Only when the two are combined and complement each other can the end-to-end full-chain intelligent manufacturing transformation be completed.
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