The road of intelligent manufacturing for modern printing and packaging enterprises --- Lihua intelligent manufacturing implementation case

Foreword

In the 40 years since the reform and opening up, China has achieved world-renowned achievements, the Chinese economy has undergone tremendous changes, and it has become the world ’s second largest economy. This relies on the Communist Party of China to creatively open up an inclusive, diverse, efficient, stable, and pragmatic The path of governing the country and governing the country, and leading the entire Chinese people to work tirelessly and hard forward, the results achieved also benefit from the "bonus" brought by the important national policy of reform and opening up;

However, with the continuous development and progress of science and technology, the tasks given by the times are different. With the changes in the global economic environment and international forms, it has brought new challenges and tests to China's economic growth and business environment. Based on various complicated situations, how to keep pace with development and keep pace with the times has become a common problem faced by the country and enterprises. Intelligent manufacturing was born under this background; the author will explain how modern printing and packaging enterprises find the right direction on the road of intelligent manufacturing from the three dimensions of theory, practice and case.

One, Correct Understanding of Intelligent Manufacturing
There is no authoritative definition of intelligent manufacturing in the world. In 1988, Professor PKWright of New York University and DABourne of Carnegie Mellon University published the book Intelligent Manufacturing, which was first proposed. The concept of intelligent manufacturing, and pointed out that the purpose of intelligent manufacturing, after more than 30 years of development and evolution, each country and region understand and develop differently. The following figure shows the definition and understanding of smart manufacturing in various countries:

[Understanding of Intelligent Manufacturing in Various Countries]

According to the understanding of intelligent manufacturing in the above countries, it can be seen that the understanding of intelligent manufacturing varies from country to country; and our country has a more comprehensive and detailed understanding. Is this good or bad? Of course, there are good and bad sides. On the plus side, a comprehensive and systematic cognitive intelligent manufacturing enables everyone to have a deeper and comprehensive understanding of intelligent manufacturing. On the negative side, everyone is confused about what exactly is smart manufacturing? What to do with smart manufacturing.

The author believes that the understanding of intelligent manufacturing should not be too complicated, the simpler the better. It is simply understood as: the production process of self-analysis, decision-making, and action formed by the deep integration and fusion of modern information technology and software and hardware facilities (equipment, tooling, fixtures, etc.) after standardizing the product realization process. Each enterprise should determine the smart manufacturing that is in line with the actual situation of its own enterprise. Do not follow the trend or the trend. Don't serve smart manufacturing, but serve smart manufacturing for us. It's important to understand this.

Second, the evolution history of intelligent manufacturing

The prototype of intelligent manufacturing actually evolved from digital. The use of CNC machine tools as early as the early 1960s marked the arrival of the digital age. This period is only a single machine, a single equipment. After 10 years of digital summarization and conversion, with the increase in the complexity and variety of products, various products need to be integrated, and the first batch of 2D software for designing and comparing information has emerged. By the middle of the 20th century, local area networks began to appear and began to upgrade to 3D and simulation. By the end of the 20th century, with the acceleration of industrialization, large-scale and mass manufacturing began to prevail. Simple local area networks and single software could not meet the needs of manufacturing. All the information in the entire manufacturing process began to be connected and integrated. At this time, various small manufacturing systems began to appear, and the local area network and the local area network were interconnected. By the beginning of the 21st century, society was developing rapidly, information was moving at a high speed, and a new era was coming. The interaction between the Internet and things, the interaction between individuals and enterprises, between enterprises, and the interaction between enterprises and governments, etc., have brought about the advent of the intelligent era.

Looking back again, the implementation process of intelligent manufacturing is a process from digital to networked to intelligent implementation and development:

[Evolution of Intelligent Manufacturing]

Three, pillars for implementing smart manufacturing

The historical evolution of intelligent manufacturing was discussed above. And how to implement smart manufacturing? You need to consider the three pillars of smart manufacturing:

[Evolution of Intelligent Manufacturing]

1. pillar is smart products

The first thing to consider is what is the purpose of promoting smart manufacturing. Obviously, the enterprise is pursuing the value of the enterprise through products, not how stylish the enterprise is. The customer's first demand is how the product can add value and value to the customer, rather than the modern and fashionable production line.
Any kind of enterprise, no matter how high-end and intelligent the production equipment and process, but the packaging products produced are general packaging products, without intelligent elements and genes, then the development of the enterprise will be limited. Because this packaging product has a short life cycle and low threshold, it is always replaced by a company with lower cost than you. Products are the social-oriented performance of an enterprise. The goal of smart manufacturing is products, not smart manufacturing itself. If smart manufacturing cannot produce smart products, smart manufacturing will lose the significance of the times.

Therefore, when any enterprise considers how its intelligent manufacturing develops, the first thing it should think about is how to realize the intelligence of its products. Even if the production process is not partly or completely intelligent, and intelligent products can be made, then enterprises should first consider the issue of product intelligence.
Product intelligence is a necessary trend today and into the future. In the future, with the advent of 5G and 6G, everything will be closer and closer; therefore, all products must be intelligent to varying degrees. Will not be eliminated by the times, intelligent manufacturing is investable and constructive.

2. pillar is intelligent process

Intelligentization of product realization process. Products from conceptual design, product design, process design, material selection and matching, material circulation, production process, product circulation must be digitalized, networked, and intelligent to achieve the entire process, global intelligence, and global intelligence Ultimately, the benefits of intelligence can be maximized.

3. pillar is smart equipment

Equipment is the carrier of intelligence. All intelligent means must be realized through equipment, and the realization of equipment intelligence is the “point” of the production process. If an enterprise wants to realize the intelligence of the entire production process, it must first The intelligence of points, the series of points and points form local (team) intelligence, the local and local intelligence connection forms the face (workshop) of intelligence, and gradually expands and extends from the inside to the outside. (Emphasis: as long as the realization of intelligent labor productivity and labor efficiency can be greatly improved)

Four, Development Trends of Intelligent Manufacturing in China in the 21st Century

Since the 21st century, intelligent manufacturing has developed very fast in China. It took 30 years abroad to keep up with the pace of developed countries in only 10 years. At present, intelligent manufacturing has been fully rolled out in our country, from commerce → industrial, single → centralized, civil → government.

[Development of Intelligent Manufacturing in China since the 21st Century]

Fives, Existing Problems and Future Strategies for Intelligent Manufacturing of Printing and Packaging Industry in China
The author will interpret the existing problems and corresponding strategies from the four dimensions of policy, scale, innovation and synergy, as follows:

Based on the above, we summarize the current problems in the intelligent printing and packaging industry into the following four aspects: policy and standard construction, scale and development area, innovation capability and technology, and corporate synergy industry chain. The corresponding problems are:

1. The construction of policies and standards, the research on industrial policies and standards is still immature, and the industry cannot develop in synergy:

Due to the diversified and fragmented needs of the intelligent manufacturing industry, the industry needs to face work and services in different industries, different environments, and different standards. Although multiple support policies and plans have been introduced before and after, the overall is fragmented and lacks systemicity. Lack of pertinence, it is difficult to form coordinated development, and it is difficult to achieve the expected effect of the government. For example, a total of 5 policy documents on national smart manufacturing were issued in 2018, and no specific timetable and specific supporting policies have been found. Industry centralization and industry planning are not clear enough, and there are still many gaps in industry policy and standard research. The hysteresis of the top-down overall planning of smart manufacturing and the introduction of industry access standards will, to a certain extent, cause blind investment and vicious competition, explore policy gaps, and set policy subsidies to hinder the sustainable and healthy development of the entire smart manufacturing industry.

2. Scale and development area, local government support lacks scientific organization, serious imbalance and homogeneity:

In order to support the development of the local intelligent manufacturing industry, the state has issued relevant policies in recent years. The Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology promulgated the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan for Intelligent Manufacturing Technology Development" and the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan for High-end Manufacturing Equipment Industry." "Development Plan", "Made in China 2025", "Smart Manufacturing Development Plan (2016-2020)", "Industrial Internet Development Action Plan (2018-2020)" and other policy documents; local governments, especially the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta and the In the central region, taking advantage of the state's opportunity to promote intelligent manufacturing, it has continuously introduced local support policies to support funds, land and supporting policies. The policy boom has caused a large number of enterprises to flourish, their strengths vary, and the implementation of China's intellectual property protection policy is not in place. Enterprises are unwilling to invest in unsecured research and development, leading to serious technology homogeneity and serious market homogeneity.

3. Weak innovation ability and backward core technology

The key components of intelligent manufacturing in China mainly rely on imports. For example, the machine uses high-performance AC servo motors and high-precision reducers, PLC, CTP, and core components of printing equipment. It still stays at the level of imitation and autonomous in many basic technologies of intelligent manufacturing Weak innovation capabilities and difficult breakthroughs in key technologies have resulted in high manufacturing costs for domestic equipment companies and lack of specific competitive advantages. On the whole, China's intelligent manufacturing industry attaches importance to intelligent production and intelligent services, neglecting intelligent management, intelligent development and design, resulting in a lack of overall experience, making certain core technologies of intelligent manufacturing in the experimental stage, restricting the industrialization process.

4. The collaborative production chain of the enterprise has not formed a joint force between the enterprises, and the product chain is short:

The technical threshold in the field of intelligent manufacturing is relatively high, and it is obviously unrealistic to rely on only some companies to explore new areas. Industrial-grade products have high requirements on digital technology, intelligent technology, network technology, and new materials technology, and the overall research and development takes longer and costs are higher. China's existing smart manufacturing technology is still in the exploration stage, and some companies or institutions have a slight leading edge but are independently closed. Technology research and development are scattered and failed to form a joint force. Enterprises, institutions, and universities of the same technology are repeating research and wasting a lot of R & D funding and research time. However, most enterprises in China are keen on big and comprehensive, perfect and efficient. Some companies with research and development capabilities or more mature products (equipment) have switched to complete machine production. Orderly and detailed industrial chain of manufacturing, sales, integration, and service.

In view of the above four major issues, it is recommended that local governments, industries, enterprises, and scientific research institutions make the following four efforts in the future:

1. Strict market access and standardize market order:

In order to avoid blind investment and vicious competition by enterprises, the government will strengthen the overall planning and supervision of the industry, clarify market access standards, and establish smart product (equipment, software) quality assessment and testing and certification standards. Relevant testing agencies and public service platforms prevent disorderly competition. Through the integration of existing domestic enterprises, we will focus on supporting a number of smart manufacturing equipment and packaging companies with complete industrial chains, core technologies and brands, as well as packaging companies, and eliminate some companies that do not meet market access standards and lack technical support. Encourage enterprises to extend the industrial chain forward and backward, achieve vertical industrial development, and improve the overall level of the development of the domestic intelligent manufacturing industry. Cancel some unreasonable subsidy projects of local governments, increase subsidies for scientific research, subsidies for backward areas and environmental protection subsidies, and actively support market cultivation and long-term development strategies of enterprises.

2. Increase investment in scientific research and improve the level of independent innovation of enterprises:

In order to break through the core technology of industrial development and promote the development of high value-added products in the industrial chain, we should increase the investment in technology research and development of smart products, and set up special funds to focus on the advancement of key technologies such as artificial intelligence technology, software control, and material application technology R & D. Strengthen policy support for independent brand manufacturers and users, and accelerate the localization of key core components and core equipment. Strengthen technical cooperation, strengthen the support for industry-university-research cooperation in the field of intelligent manufacturing, and especially provide policy support to enterprises implementing industrialization in market sales and social promotion.

3. Strengthen the construction of industrial alliances and expand the industrial chain:

Actively guide industrial design companies, artificial intelligence technology providers, new material research and development enterprises and institutions, and intelligent service application providers to form industrial alliances, strengthen technical discussions and exchanges, and jointly promote the development of intelligent manufacturing technology and industry standard formulation. The intelligent industrial technology alliance for printing (including pre-press), India-China and post- India will be established step by step to promote the construction of a platform for the development of intelligent manufacturing and promote the sustainable and stable development of the industry. Establish a public technical service platform, integrate national and global superior resources, realize effective division of labor and reasonable connection of innovative resources, implement intellectual property sharing, accelerate the commercialization of scientific and technological achievements, and improve the overall competitiveness of the industry.

4. Strengthen international cooperation and open up international markets

Encourage mergers and acquisitions of foreign companies with brands and core technologies (such as Japanese and European SMEs with core technologies), establish overseas industrial parks and overseas economic and trade cooperation zones in countries and regions with conditions, carry out resource and value chain integration, and strengthen internationalization Management capabilities to achieve a strong alliance. Actively explore emerging markets in smart manufacturing markets such as Vietnam, Thailand, India, and South America and Africa, and diversify the export markets for smart products. Encourage smart manufacturing companies to establish international headquarters in the free trade zone, accelerate the company's groupization and international development process, and improve the global strategic layout.

The above is mainly to explain the overall situation of intelligent manufacturing from theory to practice. In the end, the author shares the experience and experience of Lihua Group's intelligent manufacturing implementation in Lihua Group's intelligent practice and construction, hoping to bring some to its peers. Learn from and help.

Six, Lihua Group's practical positioning in intelligent construction

In the process of advancing intelligent manufacturing, Li Hua always follows the principle of dual thinking of perceptual and rational: the principle of truth-seeking, truth-seeking, and scientific advancement.
In the practical process of promoting intelligent manufacturing, Lihua has formed the "Lihua Intelligent Manufacturing Concept" from four aspects.

[Building Lihua's Intelligent Manufacturing in Four Levels]

First the first is to figure out what we want from a cognitive level:
What are we
------ We are responsible entities, we shoulder social responsibilities and carry thousands of families;
What are we not?
------ We are not a scientific research institution or an industry research institution, we are a manufacturing company;
What do we need?
------ We need to achieve high value-added products and achieve reasonable profit margins;
What do we not need?
------ We don't need to catch up with the trend, nor do we need tall and intelligent factories;
In the perception of Lihua people, we must seek truth from facts, recognize the reality, and achieve high profit returns for enterprises. We only make "effective investments" and "benefits."

Second, what is our strategic thinking before advancing or promoting smart manufacturing:

We must first have a new understanding and understanding of our current situation (internal and external) (Lihua's current situation: management needs to be upgraded, equipment is diversified, varieties are diversified, orders are small and multiple batches, etc.) so we must first return to the true, While stepping down on the strength of the foundation, it is also necessary to quickly advance the intelligent work; in the process of advancement, Lihua's thinking is from a single point → line body → workshop → plant area. Lihua's understanding and understanding of intelligent manufacturing: seek truth from facts, recognize reality, and ultimately achieve low-cost, high-return methods; so we only do things that are visible, tangible, and accessible, not construction Large and comprehensive, tall and stylish smart factory buildings, we only pursue the manufacturing of products through intelligent methods, and do not do intelligent manufacturing for intelligent factories.

Secondly, we have organized, deployed, and planned the implementation of intelligent production tasks, mainly from the following aspects:

1. Establish a new integrated intelligent manufacturing promotion and management department covering product technology, production technology, manufacturing technology and equipment technology.
2. Start with new products and guide customers to move closer to strong self-relevant platforms. At the same time, targeted R & D automation (customers like automation), and use automated methods to induce customers to change the design and move closer to me.
3. In order to solve the common pain points of Lihua and the industry, starting from the assembly shop that needs a lot of people, it is necessary to promote the intelligent construction, and then the assembly shop will pull the equipment with a higher concentration of equipment, such as printing, printing, and logistics intelligence. The construction, the systematic process of building organic connections.

In the end, we want to realize profits while summing up experience to form our own intellectual property rights, so in the process of promotion we:

1. Use intelligent products and platforms to guide customers and partners, try organically again and again, find development space, and jointly create an industrial platform.
2. Through continuous improvement, continuous progress, and continuous experimentation during the implementation process, product standards, process standards, design standards, and process standards are gradually established.
3. What Lihua pursues is the intelligent production method realized for production, so as to continuously improve and improve, there is only a process from the beginning to the end.
4. In the process of intelligent implementation, Lihua Group adheres to the mentality of integration, openness and tolerance, and progresses with customers, partners and the industry.

Seven, Lihua Group's intelligent application technology in intelligent construction

In the past 20 years, Lihua Group has continuously explored, continuously researched and innovated, and summed up a new stage model suitable for the current form and national conditions in the aspects of manufacturing process, product design, and automation applications, especially in the recent two years. Recent research in intelligentization has made a big breakthrough, and has accumulated rich experience in local automation, enterprise EPR, and construction of enterprise informationization. The main application technologies in intelligent application technology and integration are: ① Online monitoring technology application; ② Online sensor application technology; ③ Modular technology application; ④ Intelligent device application technology and other aspects have been combined and applied in an orderly manner.

[Lihua Intelligent Application Technology]

Eight, Lihua Group intelligent workshop diagram:

When constructing the intelligent manufacturing workshop, Lihua Group carried out in-depth digging on the original "things" and "systems", and carried out transformation and upgrading, following the principles of low cost, high efficiency, simplicity and practicality.