On rows of production lines, the robot named "Gaoxun" moves autonomously in the workshop to work according to the set route, while the unattended robot named "Gaoshi" cooperates with the machine tools to achieve automatic operation. A workshop only There are two or three staff me

On rows of production lines, the robot named "Gaoxun" moves autonomously in the workshop to work according to the set route, while the unattended robot named "Gao Shi" cooperates with the machine tools to achieve automatic operation. A workshop There are only two or three staff members. Among them, there is also a 59-year-old master.

This is a scene at the smart factory in Panyu Park of Guangzhou Lagong Industrial. Guangzhou Ligong Industrial Co., Ltd. was established in 1985. Its current main business is to develop and manufacture AIoT ( artificial intelligence Internet of Things) equipment. Its products include Gaoshi unattended robots, Gaoxun composite autonomous mobile robots and edge computing devices. wait.

Since its establishment 37 years ago, Ligong Industrial has continued to explore in the manufacturing field, gradually evolving from a company that produces rubber rings to a company that can develop and manufacture autonomous decision-making industrial robots. In recent years, Ligong Industrial has embarked on a new exploration of industrial "intelligent manufacturing", embarked on the development of robots, and gradually realized the intelligence of production methods and the digitization of management methods.

As a major manufacturing and digital economy province, Guangdong has deeply integrated digital technology with the real economy, giving rise to a wave of industrial digitization. In the Pearl River Delta, faced with the common problems of recruitment difficulties and labor shortages, more and more Many companies have realized that the digital transformation of to has become an important way to break the situation.

The experience of digital transformation of Ligong Industry may provide a reference template for more small and medium-sized manufacturing companies.

production line employee turnover rate from 65% to 5%

59-year-old Master Wei is a machine manager in the production workshop of Ligong Industrial. Master Wei had worked in traditional manual workshops for many years. He came to Ligong Industrial six years ago and became a robot manager in the CNC workshop.

After becoming a robot manager, Master Wei's income has increased significantly, and digital transformation has brought him more surprises. In a traditional manual workshop, he has to put parts into the machine tool for processing with his bare hands, which is not only inefficient but also dirty and tiring. Master Wei lamented: "It will be impossible to do without robots in the future. Not only has the efficiency improved, but the defective rate of products has also dropped."

Difficulty in recruiting workers and labor shortages have always been common problems faced by traditional manufacturing industries. Data from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security show that among the 100 occupations with the "most labor shortage" in the country in the fourth quarter of 2021, 43 are "production, manufacturing and related personnel." It is estimated that by 2025, there will be a talent gap of nearly 30 million people in China's ten key manufacturing fields, with a gap rate as high as 48%.

During this year’s National Two Sessions, some representatives called for “encouraging young people to deliver less food and enter factories more.”

Li Weizhong, the president of Ligong Industrial, is deeply touched by the loss of personnel in the manufacturing industry. "Nowadays, the manufacturing industry is losing more and more people, and fewer and fewer people are entering the manufacturing industry. Some vocational and technical colleges have even canceled CNC majors because they cannot recruit students."

"No matter how expensive your equipment is, the product has It’s great, but it’s useless if there is no one to produce it.” Ligong Industrial, which is deeply troubled by recruitment difficulties and labor shortages, began to independently develop and produce industrial robots in 2016. This move greatly reduced the burden on the production line and freed up workers' hands. The intelligence of the

production line not only improves production efficiency, but also brings new challenges to business and organizational management. Due to the customized nature of its business, Ligong Industrial often faces non-standardized customization needs from different industries and categories.

In response, the management of Ligong Industrial began to work hard on management and organizational structure. In 2020, Ligong Industrial began to use and DingTalk , and unified the review process related to organizational management online.

In the past, each piece of equipment needed to be configured with a dedicated inspection form to record its operating status, and employees needed to go to each piece of equipment every day to record the inspection data. Moreover, the data feedback from the production line is only refreshed every 8 hours.

Ligong Industrial used the low-code product "Yida" developed by DingTalk to build its own MES system (production management system). All aspects of production can be clearly seen on the platform, allowing engineers to quickly detect abnormal situations. Production data is refreshed more than 200 times a day.

Since the use of robots and digital transformation, the staff turnover rate of Ligong Industrial has dropped from 65% five years ago to 5%.Li Weizhong, president of Ligong Industrial, said that the use of robots and digital transformation is not to replace people, but to better retain people.

Currently, Ligong Industrial has 219 employees, less than half of whom are production line employees. It has to deliver products worth 100 million yuan to customers a year. The company has increased production capacity by 35% through the combined application of robots and digitalization. Some of the reduced production line workers have been transferred to robotics engineers, and the advancement of digitalization has also created new positions.

The key is to open up the data chain

"Certainty" is Li Weizhong's most profound experience when talking about digitalization. Engaged in the research and development and manufacturing of artificial intelligence and Internet of Things equipment, Ligong Industrial has a particularly urgent need for digitalization. "It's not just the automation of the production line, but also the intelligent collaboration of the ecological chain." Li Weizhong said, "As a manufacturing company, the key to digitalization is to predict the entire production situation through data, so that we know which resources are used correctly, and which resources are used correctly. Which resources have been used in the wrong place, and correct them to ensure maximum production efficiency.”

In continuous practice, Li Weizhong realized that the essence of industrialization is the digitization of manufacturing capabilities. "After using robots, we solved the labor problem, but did not solve the problem of subsequent data analysis and processing well." For example, after many years of use of the CNC machine tool , it has accumulated some data, but in many traditional industrial enterprises, these Data is not distilled and analyzed as a valid resource.

As the concepts of industrial interconnection and digital transformation have become popular in recent years, in addition to traditional manufacturing industries such as Ligong Industrial, many major Internet companies have also deployed related businesses. The more common ones are to provide software and "cloud services" for industrial enterprises. "Serve.

Enterprise users in the industrial field are very sensitive to data. However, in the industrial ecosystem, data often carries business secrets, and the competition and cooperation relationships between upstream and downstream are more complex. Therefore, how to use data is a key issue. The low "trust" between industrial enterprises and data service providers has also become a barrier for both parties to reach each other.

For manufacturing manufacturers, the company's data is a commercial secret and will not be disclosed easily. From the perspective of major Internet companies, obtaining relevant data requires on-site research, which is too costly. Furthermore, it is difficult for senior practitioners in non-industrial industries to see the meaning behind certain data and to accurately identify valid data. Huang Yuanyuan, chief operating officer of

Ligong Industry, said that to do a good job in the industrial Internet, first of all, it must be data-driven. Secondly, it requires strong industrial knowledge, understanding of industry and process and other related knowledge.

Huang Qiyang, President of the Guangdong Branch of the China Industrial Internet Research Institute, said that the core application of Industrial Internet is to connect data. However, when many traditional factories are undergoing digital transformation, they find different suppliers to provide different services. There are barriers between suppliers, which poses great obstacles to a series of subsequent applications.

How can small and medium-sized enterprises catch the "express train" of digital industrialization transformation?

Under the continued impact of the epidemic, enterprises are facing increased uncertainty and pressure. Compared with large enterprises, small and medium-sized enterprises generally have problems such as small scale, weak ability to resist risks, insufficient own funds, and difficulties in social financing , making them more vulnerable to impact.

At the 27th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) member small and medium-sized enterprise ministers video conference in 2021, APEC ministers agreed that digitalization is an important driving factor for economic recovery, and the use of digital means and tools is no longer just for solving problems. Optional, but required.

As a customized, flexible and discrete manufacturing enterprise, Ligong Industrial has always maintained a small batch production model. Its business covers automotive, aerospace and other fields. In 2021, the company's output value will reach 110 million yuan. It is reported that Ligong Industrial’s annual R&D investment reaches 10 million yuan, accounting for 15%.

However, it should be noted that among the existing small and medium-sized enterprises, few have the strength to invest 10 million yuan in R&D every year. Under various restrictions, many companies have fallen into the dilemma of not wanting to, dare not, or be unable to transfer.

"On the one hand, production equipment is relatively expensive. The price of an imported equipment may be as high as several million yuan, and small and medium-sized enterprises may not be able to afford it. We hope to further realize localization and reduce costs." Li Weizhong believes that for small and medium-sized enterprises For enterprises, digitalization is a top-level project that needs to be promoted from top to bottom. "If there are some service providers, they can provide more cheap digital solutions. It is also feasible for enterprises to realize partial digitalization through simple software first."

From the current stage, the manufacturing industry needs to transform and upgrade, and what is more needed is Frontline researchers. Since the beginning of this year, many major Internet companies have laid off employees, which is undoubtedly a good opportunity for manufacturing companies such as Ligong Industrial Co., Ltd.

In addition to the enterprises themselves, the role played by the government cannot be ignored.

The "14th Five-Year Plan for Promoting the Development of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises" issued this year clearly states that the digital promotion project of small and medium-sized enterprises will be implemented to accelerate the pace of digital, networked, intelligent and green transformation.

Huang Qiyang said that in the process of digital transformation, small and medium-sized enterprises should use the government's public service platform, such as Guangzhou's artificial intelligence public computing center, which can provide enterprises with some GPU, etc.

Recently, the Guangdong Provincial Department of Science and Technology and the Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Notice on Accelerating the Construction of Guangdong Province's Strategic Industrial Cluster Innovation System to Support the High-Quality Development of Industrial Clusters", proposing to increase the cultivation of industrial cluster enterprises and strengthen the "Technology Small and medium-sized enterprises, high-tech enterprises, technology leading enterprises" scientific and technological enterprise echelon cultivation mechanism, establish and improve the industrial chain "chain master" enterprises, leading enterprises, individual champion enterprises, specialized and special new enterprises and other high-quality enterprise gradients with ecological leadership Cultivation system. (This article was first published on Titanium Media APP, author | Zhong Guanglian)