In the next decade, the fourth industrial revolution will enter a new era of decentralized production. Industry 4.0 realizes intelligent manufacturing and real-time management through the network technology that determines the manufacturing process. The production equipment in intelligent manufacturing has the functions of perception, analysis, decision-making and control, which is the integration and deep integration of advanced manufacturing technology and information technology. In the process of intelligent production, sensors and intelligent diagnosis management system are interconnected through the network, from program control to intelligent control, so that the manufacturing process can be optimized in real time according to the changes of manufacturing environment and manufacturing process, and the quality and production efficiency of products can be improved.
Industry 4.0 needs to solve four major problems.
Industry 4.0 is a transformation from mass production to mass customization, from centralized production to networked collaborative production in different places, and from traditional manufacturing enterprises to cross-border integrated enterprises. The final report of the German Industry 4.0 Working Group pointed out that there are still four major problems in realizing Industry 4.0: standardization, complex system management, communication infrastructure construction and network security.
(1) Standardization: If the factory wants to network all kinds of goods and services inside and outside, many contents such as communication methods and data formats need to be standardized.
(2) Complex system management: After the actual production process is coordinated with various business management systems, the whole system becomes more complex and more difficult to manage.
(3) Communication infrastructure construction: mainly refers to the construction of communication infrastructure suitable for industry and with high reliability.
(4) Network security: After the factory is connected with the outside world, the risk of malware intrusion and network attack will be further enhanced, so it is necessary to formulate countermeasures and solutions to ensure network security.
In the future, China's manufacturing industry will face the same problem. Therefore, strengthening cooperation with Germany in Industry 4.0 may help to solve these problems in a forward-looking way and pave the way for the future development of manufacturing industry.
The last industrial revolution?
In the future manufacturing field, information technology will be deeply applied as never before. The development of Internet technology is bringing subversive and revolutionary influence to the development mode of traditional manufacturing industry. The wide application of information technology can perceive, collect and monitor a large amount of data generated in the production process in real time, promote seamless connection and collaborative manufacturing of production processes among enterprises, realize intelligent analysis and decision optimization of production systems, and make intelligent manufacturing, networked manufacturing and flexible manufacturing become the direction of production mode reform. To some extent, manufacturing internetization or industrial internetization is becoming a general trend.
As far as products are concerned, with the wide penetration of information technology in the manufacturing field, Internet technology, artificial intelligence and digital technology are embedded in traditional product design, making products gradually become intelligent terminals based on the Internet. Automobile is not only an electronic product, but also a network product in the future. It is also a large-scale mobile intelligent terminal with a brand-new man-machine interaction mode. Cars will be made into experience tools including hardware, software, content and services through Internet terminals.
From the manufacturing mode, the centralized production of the factory will change to the network collaborative production. Information technology enables enterprises in different links to share information, quickly find and dynamically adjust partners around the world, integrate superior resources among enterprises, and realize global decentralized production in R&D, manufacturing, logistics and other industrial chains. This also gives traditional information technology enterprises more opportunities to participate in manufacturing, and traditional manufacturing enterprises are transformed into cross-border integration enterprises. Enterprise production has shifted from the traditional product manufacturing as the core to providing rich products and services until it provides customers with overall solutions. The boundaries between Internet enterprises and manufacturing enterprises, manufacturing enterprises and service enterprises are increasingly blurred.
Because material products and services will be replaced by information stored and processed by computers, no matter from the perspective of manufacturing mode or products. Then, the manufacturing industry itself will no longer exist, or there will be no breakthrough after automation and intelligence.
Legend 1: Industry 4.0 is a revolutionary change.
German enterprises never talk about "revolution", "subversion" and "destruction".
To paraphrase Dr. ChristianPatron, a production expert of BMW Group Industry 4.0, to Sina Finance: "In BMW Group, continuous improvement of the production system is a daily work. Industry 4.0 is the next step in line with BMW's logic and is by no means a' revolutionary change'. "
BMW Group confirmed to Sina Finance that they started to participate when they named Industry 4.0. At present, there are some topics of public debate, which were first summarized from BMW's factories, and some are even in the rolling stage. Some attempts by this car company to transform the production process were later listed as "Industry 4.0" production methods.
After that, they gave Acatech a lot of advice. BMW participated in the CyProS project designed for the network physical system, which was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Another project is to study how to greatly improve profitability in robot-based automation process.
For each module of Industry 4.0, German companies don't have a molding document, but they are already doing it.
"In the automotive industry, the supply chain is crucial. Our biggest attempt in the past few decades is how to connect with each other and reduce inventory. Coincidentally, the German government put forward the concept of Industry 4.0 and then stopped. " Wolf-HenningScheider, a member of the board of directors of Bosch Group in Germany who will be the chairman of the board of directors of Mahler in Germany at the end of March this year, said in an exclusive interview with Sina Finance.
"We can now have a clearer understanding of the demand for some parts in the entire supply chain. For example, we produce electric auxiliary braking system, the key component of unmanned driving. The parts are produced in six Bosch factories and then assembled in one factory. In the context of Industry 4.0, we always know the status of each component in the supply chain. "
"We have a factory that has adopted the basic principles of Industry 4.0 and is trying different indicators to evaluate the effect of Industry 4.0." Wolf-HenningScheider confirmed to Sina Finance.
Wolf-HenningScheider added that they are also discussing with customers, that is, some manufacturers, and even testing projects with some customers. The information security of Bosch's production links has also been tested.
At present, Bosch Group has a special software company to deal with information security issues; Production of specialized hardware to ensure the safety of sending and receiving information; Therefore, like other leading industrial enterprises in Germany, we are also solving the problem of information security while realizing information exchange.
"Industry 4.0 is actually about creativity: gaining competitiveness through technological innovation. (Internet of Things) is a part of Industry 4.0. Machine-to-machine dialogue, machine-to-machine dialogue to produce parts, and complete the whole production process according to the set procedures, thus improving product quality and liberating manpower. " RolandBerger, a German corporate strategist, founder and supervisor of roland berger Strategic Consulting Company, said in an exclusive interview with Sina Finance. He emphasized that even the "Internet of Things" needs "things" to play well, and automation equipment is the bearing and foundation.
Legend 2: Industry 4.0 can reduce the total production cost by 40%
Previously, it was speculated that "Industry 4.0" directly connected people, equipment and products in real time, and the factory accepted orders from consumers to directly prepare materials for production, eliminating the sales and circulation links, and the overall costs (including labor costs, material costs and management costs) decreased by nearly 40% compared with the past.
German companies and experts are not in a hurry to come to such a conclusion.
Dr ChristianPatron, an expert in the production of Industry 4.0 in BMW Group, bluntly told Sina Finance: "Everyone is looking for the best solution to optimize costs, and BMW is no exception. But now, many fantasies about Industry 4.0 are simply impossible in reality. BMW will never participate in a similar debate on cost reduction ratio, nor will it support unfounded estimates. "
"It is difficult to use a specific figure to explain how much cost reduction Industry 4.0 can bring. The cost reduction space of a single product is different. We believe that the greatest significance of Industry 4.0 is to reduce inventory, which is very significant. Another point is to better meet market demand. " Wolf-HenningScheider told Sina Finance frankly.
"Nowadays, every customer wants a unique car, or at least a customized menu. If we follow the traditional mode of production, it will bring about a sharp increase in costs. But the Industry 4.0 era can respond quickly enough. "
Scheider believes that Industry 4.0 also has a great significance, that is, when the market situation changes slightly, this change will be directly fed back to the production line from the terminal without any time difference. Now, it still takes time to walk the whole value chain, and it also needs to be transferred from one planning system to another.
By adopting the concept of Industry 4.0, the whole value chain can be optimized, and the whole production process will be more effective, with less inventory and faster production. This is the embodiment of cost saving, but it should not be measured by a simple percentage in any case.
"Industry 4.0 may reduce production costs by 40% to 50%, but this account is not calculated like this. In fact, Industry 4.0 can increase production capacity by about 40%. In traditional manufacturing, labor costs account for 20% of production costs, and other costs include raw materials, machinery and equipment and third-party services. Therefore, if the production capacity is increased by 40%, the overall production cost will be reduced by about 8%. In this 8%, you should consider that the wages and benefits of workers have improved. " Roland berger believes that the correct cost calculation method should be like this.
"Industry 4.0 is not equal to' unmanned production', and it may not even be the deepening of automation. In fact, the key of Industry 4.0 is to adopt reasonable application programs of new technologies to provide the most ideal support for workers' production process. For example, through the combination of robots and manpower, robots can undertake heavy physical labor, which can greatly improve the unreasonable workflow. "Dr. ChristianPatron, an expert in industrial 4.0 production of BMW Group, concluded with Sina Finance.
In addition, the popular "leanproduction" is actually nothing more than responding to customer needs quickly and reducing useless and redundant links in all production processes. This mode of production can maximize efficiency in "diversified" and "small batch" production.
Legend 3: Industry 4.0 is a German problem.
BMW Group has 29 factories in 4 continents 14 countries. Just for this reason, ChristianPatron thinks that Industry 4.0 is a global problem, which is equally important to every factory in the world. The same is true for other German multinational companies.
Bosch Group's Industry 4.0 project is also operating on a global scale, and each module is carrying out different Industry 4.0 projects. Bosch factories around the world are also looking for project opportunities tailored to local conditions and then promoting them around the world.
No matter from production to sales, Industry 4.0 is not a problem in Germany, but German enterprises are advancing at the most orderly pace. They want to be leaders.
German artificial intelligence research center and 20 top industrial enterprises and research institutions built an intelligent factory in Kaiserslautern, Germany. Among German enterprises, Siemens, which focuses on automation technology and industrial software systems, has been expanding all businesses related to vertical IT systems. Over the years, every software acquisition of Siemens is to integrate and update the technology they think is needed in the industrial 4.0 era.
"Industry 4.0 has put information security issues on the agenda. But this is not just Germany's problem. Data protection eventually needs a global cooperation agreement-obviously it will not be implemented for the time being. Then step by step, starting with each factory, country and region's own data protection regulations. Eventually, one day, the protection of information security will become the norm like protecting property and protecting patents. " Roland berger told Sina Finance.
There is a long list of daily cooperative organizations and R&D projects of some German enterprises. These cooperations are not limited to many international research institutions. For example, Georgia Institute of Technology is very good at the cooperation between humans and robots. For robot assistance in automated assembly, MIT is very active in cooperation; Munich University of Science and Technology is the absolute strength for the research and development of ROSIndustrial control software.
The great potential of Industry 4.0
"Industry 4.0 has great potential, especially in the' tailor-made' link for market demand. Industry 4.0 is a good path to connect planned production with customer needs more quickly and meet the diversified needs of customers. " Xie De told Sina Finance.
SaskiaE, spokesman for the production department of BMW Group? Bauer told Sina Finance: Of all the attempts about Industry 4.0, only "people" can look at a product from the perspective of consumers. Many high-end manufacturers believe that only "people" can guarantee the high quality of products.
SaskiaE bauer believes that BMW Group's production system needs a high degree of flexibility, and manpower can quickly adapt to new procedures and better cope with market fluctuations.
BMW believes that Industry 4.0 must first ensure the interoperability of equipment and must not threaten the operational safety of workers themselves; Secondly, both equipment and products should be protected from abuse or unauthorized use. Therefore, the network security problem encountered by Industry 4.0 is a very broad concept. In order to ensure safety, the production team and it experts need to cooperate to achieve the goal.
Roland berger concluded: If Industry 4.0 can reduce the production cost by 8%, it is by no means a big number. Of course, in the electronics industry, such as mobile phone production, because labor costs account for a higher proportion, the cost reduction will be higher. On the whole, the products in the Industry 4.0 era are not mainly about cutting costs, but reducing costs, and the product quality can be greatly improved. This is the significance.
Roland berger also believes that Industry 4.0 can bring another benefit, that is, the quality of life of workers will be greatly improved.
Why do you say that? In the Internet of Things era, manpower will be transferred to do more software development or quality control, and their physical pressure will be reduced a lot-liberating manpower, which was reflected in the previous three industrial revolutions.
In the era of Industry 4.0, industrial workers will have a more comfortable working environment, and their welfare benefits will be greatly improved, which I am afraid many entrepreneurs in China have not paid attention to.