In the 4800 square meter workshop, 147 automation equipment emit a roar, continuously executing production tasks, and from time to time, one product is offline at the terminal; 25 AGV cars, if capable of being "assistants", travel between machines to transport offline products; More than 10 operators are more like giving a hand to machines, checking their operation, or manipulating AGV cars... Recently, they walked into the intelligent workshop of All Times Technology (Zhejiang) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Jesdy") located in Yuhuan Economic Development Zone, which is different from the daily production of traditional enterprises.

With the support of 5G technology, our intelligent workshop has achieved digital tracking of production processes and efficient human-machine collaboration. Currently, orders are scheduled for June, "said Zhang Biao, the general manager of the enterprise.

Jesdy is a plumbing valve enterprise that mainly produces traditional plumbing valve products such as ball valves and angle valves. Enterprises can only survive by keeping up with the times. Naming 'Jesdy' is to remind oneself to always maintain the spirit of innovation, "Zhang Biao explained.

Smart Manufacturing in Intelligent Workshops

The total production, real-time production, and production ranking of the workshop... At the entrance of the intelligent workshop, electronic large screens dynamically display various production data of the workshop. The big data platform makes workshops more visual and is an important foundation for intelligent workshops to allocate production resources and equipment, "said Zhang Biao.

Going deep into the workshop, Zhang Qinfen, the operator of the ball valve automatic waterwheel area, pressed the remote control device in her hand. The nearby AGV car, which was on standby, automatically arrived in front of her and picked up the product that had just been taken off the production line and drove towards the dedicated elevator.

The elevator door automatically opened, and the AGV car collided with another car that had completed the task before exiting. They took the elevator alone and went to the second floor to inspect the product. As long as you scan the QR code and input the number, the car will automatically move the product according to the instructions, without the need for manual labor throughout the entire process, "said Zhang Qinfen.

Following the driving trajectory of the AGV car, it can be seen that there are many metal QR codes on the ground. It is these positioning codes that guide the AGV car to carry out work according to the designed path, improving the logistics efficiency of the workshop by 2-3 times.

Zhang Qinfen can not only easily command AGV cars, but also easily manage more than 10 devices. In an intelligent workshop, every device has undergone intelligent transformation and become more "smart". For example, a ball valve automatic waterwheel combines multiple production processes, combined with robotic arm visual inspection technology, which has changed the traditional production mode of requiring manual labor in each process. Nowadays, the per capita hourly production reaches 1800 units, an increase of 1100% compared to the traditional production mode.

A workshop used to have 50 people, but now only 10 people are needed. The production efficiency has increased by 30%, and the annual total cost can be saved by 2.7 million yuan. The overall economic benefits have increased by more than twice. "Zhang Biao said, with high automation and more stable product quality, the defect rate has been reduced by 45%.

Intelligent workshops also have a requirement for "streamlining" product types. Compared to the mass production and processing model of "doing everything", "Jesdy" only focuses on 5 types of segmented products such as ball valves and water separators. Through single point penetration, it reduces costs and builds a "moat" for enterprises.

Exploring the Way of "Digital Intelligence" in Developing Software

Currently, Vice General Manager Jiang Chaozheng is leading the digital team to conduct the final pre launch testing of four independently developed intelligent manufacturing systems. The new system will connect the data of orders, workshops, and warehouses, and install an accurate "enterprise digital brain" to simplify the management process.

Developing an intelligent manufacturing system is a new attempt that will provide us with a comprehensive solution for our future digital factory, achieving precise management of cost, quality, and delivery time, "said Jiang Chao.

As a member of many small and medium-sized enterprises in the Yuhuan plumbing valve industry, "Jesdy", like most of its peers, determines daily production plans based on customer needs, which poses pain points such as difficulty in tracking orders and high costs. In the process of transformation and development, "Jesdy" has also introduced digital management software to empower production and improve efficiency, but the effect is not satisfactory.

At present, we use digital management software from other developers, which only has the 'standard' function and cannot meet the personalized needs of enterprises, "said Zhang Biao.

To solve the pain points, Zhang Biao decided to take the path of independent research and development, deeply cultivating the information technology behind it. In 2022, the company established a joint venture with a management software technology enterprise in Guangdong, borrowing wisdom and strength from the company's professional team of over 200 people to develop a customized management platform based on the manufacturing characteristics of the metal industry. During the development process, the Yuhuan team collected the digital requirements of the enterprise in production management, formulated a requirement list, and sent it to the Guangdong team for development testing.

Jiang Chao presented a "blueprint" for an intelligent manufacturing system to reporters: from upstream suppliers to downstream customers, from production and manufacturing to business management, achieving data interoperability and seamless connection, involving 8 subsystems of intelligent manufacturing and up to 100 subsystem modules.

After a year of hard work, we have built the framework for the 1.0 version of the intelligent manufacturing system, which is completely personalized customization for our enterprise, "said Jiang Chao.

Exploring the Way for Industry Development Based on Innovation

From traditional copper valve manufacturing to building intelligent workshops, and then to digital software development, "Jessdy" has made great strides in its transformation.

We rode the east wind of the national digital strategy and embarked on the 'giant ship' of intelligence and digitization, "said Zhang Biao.

The predecessor of "Jesdy" was Zhejiang Taoyuan Copper Industry Co., Ltd., founded in 2002. Although he has been deeply involved in the industry for more than 20 years, Zhang Biao admits that the development has been mediocre before. In the 2008 financial crisis, "Taoyuan Copper" even suffered heavy losses, with a 50% decrease in output value. Afterwards, Zhang Biao consciously changed his production mode and focused on enhancing the competitiveness of the enterprise. However, what was done at that time was mostly minor changes to the workshop, improving the level of equipment automation and reducing labor costs, and did not truly embark on the path of transformation and upgrading.

In 2021, after being exposed to and learning digital technology, Zhang Biao was determined to seek motivation from innovation and benefits from digital technology. He bid farewell to old factories, models, and names, and invested over 100 million yuan to build a "digital factory".

Digital transformation is still on the way, but it has achieved some success. After the intelligent workshop was put into use, the output value of "Jesdy" increased by 20% year-on-year last year; This year, the output value is expected to increase by another 100 million yuan, with a year-on-year increase of 40%.

In addition to his own transformation and upgrading, Zhang Biao also has a bigger dream: to use his own experience to help small and medium-sized enterprises better transform into digitalization.

"I visited many brother enterprises in the industry and found it difficult for small and medium-sized enterprises to achieve a complete Digital transformation, so I decided to take my own enterprises as a sample to create 'high configuration' digital management software for the industry to meet the needs of the plumbing valve industry, and even the entire metal processing industry." Zhang Biao said.

In Zhang Biao's view, in order for enterprises to survive, they must improve their management innovation capabilities in the three elements of "quality, cost, and delivery time", and digitization is a "must choose" topic. He stated that "Jesdy" hopes to contribute to the high-quality development and transformation of the Yuhuan plumbing valve industry by combining digital factory practices and software development.