Expanded the production lines from five to eight, with a doubled annual output value in five years, but there's no increase in workers? How is that possible in a manufacturing factory?
It happened in a local washing machine factory of Chinese home appliance brand Midea in Jingzhou City, central China's Hubei Province, after it opted for digital transformation in 2018, as reported by the Science and Technology Daily.
In its workshop, the automatic guided vehicles accurately deliver the materials to the stations, where the suspension chains lift them from the first floor to the second. Automated shuttle warehouses are installed between the floors. Unmanned operation can be achieved on the production line, from fetching materials to a finished product.
Last year, the factory was built into a large-scale smart factory with full 5G coverage.
Four 5G base stations have been established in the factory, covering 2,500 communication points to serve 133 scenarios in 15 fields, Chen Xiaohai, deputy general manager of the factory, told the Science and Technology Daily.
Currently, the factory has 1,500 robots, reaching an automation rate of 72 percent.
The remote control center of Huazhong Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. /Xinhua
Huazhong Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., a leading medical enterprise in Hubei, is gearing up to construct its digital plant, integrating the 5G network and industrial internet with technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data.
In its control center, a large screen shows the schematic diagram of the whole production process, with small green lights flashing on the screen to show the real-time operation status.
"Most of the production processes have been remotely controlled. The system will automatically alert if any accident occurs during production, which can be handled remotely to ensure staff safety during production," Gao Song, senior engineer of Internet of Things at the company, told Xinhua.
In addition to ensuring safe production, the technology of the industrial internet has also been applied to the company's energy management system.
Leveraging the high-speed and low-delay features of 5G network, the system can monitor, collect and store the data in real time during the whole process of energy production and consumption.
Analysis based on the large amount of data helps the company realize fine management of energy and improve utilization efficiency.
"Through comprehensive monitoring and optimization of the production activities, we have achieved a reduction of more than 1,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions and over 20,000 tonnes of sewage discharge per year," Luo Hao, general manager of the company, told Xinhua.
Strides in '5G+ industrial internet' development
A smart factory for new energy vehicles in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, November 15, 2023. /CFP
The two digitally enabled enterprises in Hubei are the epitome of China's industry transformation and upgrading, as the country has been stepping up to propel the digital and intelligent transformation of the real economy.
In 2019, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) issued a "5G+ industrial internet" 512 project promotion plan, aiming to boost the use of 5G in industrial scenarios. The country has since released a series of supporting documents, contributing to substantial strides in developing "5G+ industrial internet."
In June this year, the MIIT released an upgraded version of the "5G+ industrial internet" 512 project, proposing to facilitate no less than 3,000 enterprises to build 5G factories, construct no less than 300 5G factories and create 30 pilot benchmarks.
In the last year of a three-year nationwide program to promote the application of 5G, the MIIT announced in 2023 that China has built the world's largest and most technologically advanced 5G network with more than three million 5G base stations.
The country's 5G has powered 8,000 industrial internet projects, covering all 41 industrial categories, and 5G applications in the industrial field account for more than 60 percent, according to a 2023 insight report on China's "5G+ industrial internet" development released by the China Academy of Information and Communication Technology in November.
A new stage
The 5G technology has extended to the core links of industrial production, including remote production control and equipment collaboration, indicating the technology will change the processes of production, manufacturing, operation and management in a larger and deeper scope, according to the MIIT.
A batch of pilot zones for the application of "5G+ industrial internet" are expected to be constructed in three years, which will cover 10 typical scenarios, including flexible production manufacturing, on-site auxiliary assembly, quality control inspection by machine vision, equipment fault diagnosis and unmanned intelligent inspection, said the ministry.
Supporting measures and policies will also be formulated and introduced to promote the high-quality development of the industrial internet, it added.