Industrial robot production from rigid to flexible

Under the background of rising labor and raw material costs, it is a good idea to use technology to reduce production costs and increase production efficiency. In this era, industrial robots rather than a large number of migrant workers will become the "protagonists" of production. As the only smart manufacturing pilot in the country, Shunde is exploring a new path of transformation for traditional manufacturing in China by developing “smart equipment”, building “smart factories”, developing “smart products” and creating “smart services”.

Since last Thursday, the second Shunde Zhibo Fair was held in Shunde Exhibition Center for three consecutive days, attracting nearly 100 intelligent manufacturing enterprises from Shunde and at home and abroad to become the focus of attention in Shunde and even Foshan.

As pointed out by Li Weiwei, secretary of the Foshan Municipal Party Committee, under the background of rising labor and raw material costs, it is a good idea to use technology to reduce production costs and increase production efficiency. As the only smart manufacturing pilot in the country, Shunde is exploring a new path of transformation for traditional manufacturing in China by developing “smart equipment”, building “smart factories”, developing “smart products” and creating “smart services”. The hundreds of smart products and services exhibited by this year's Zhibo Exhibition made everyone see this new era of manufacturing. In this era, industrial robots rather than a large number of migrant workers will become the "protagonists" of production.

Compared with the previous session, the smart manufacturing industry in Shunde is moving toward an increasingly mature direction. Leading companies such as Midea and Xinbao Electric are building a number of “unmanned factories” through technological transformation. At the same time, a group of traditional manufacturing enterprises have begun to transform into the robot R&D industry. In addition to hardware, Shunde has also begun to emerge a group of companies engaged in the development of intelligent manufacturing software. More importantly, Shunde Robotics Corporation has entered an era of Baotuan development. From the previous singles struggle to joint development, it can provide a total solution for the transformation of traditional manufacturing companies and realize the transformation from selling products to selling services.

However, we must point out that although Shunde Zhizhi is currently at the forefront of Guangdong, there are still many areas where improvements need to be made. Throughout the Smart Fair, Shunde industrial robots are mainly focused on polishing, grinding, welding, stamping and other industrial production processes. These links are the basic common parts of the manufacturing industry and can be applied to almost all manufacturing companies. The market prospects are broad. However, after careful study, it can be found that the research and development of these industrial robots is still basically adapted to industrial mass production services.

Mass production, the most significant feature of industrial production, first began in the 1920s. At that time, under the influence of "scientific management", especially E. Whitney and Oliver proposed "interchangeability," "mass production," and "conveyer belt" applications under the premise of industrial management thinking and the then electrification, standardization, series Combining and forming, thus forming a rigid production mode with “a large number of small varieties”. This model has high production efficiency, low single product cost, provides a large number of products for the society, and promotes the development of the industrial economy. The “Ford system” of the United States is the most typical representative.

However, a basic environment for this mode of production is the “seller market”, which is based on the diversification of lost products and the concealment of product personality. However, with the continuous development of the times, whether it is the Chinese economy or the global economy, extremely rich products allow the world to gradually enter a “buyer's market,” and also allow the company’s production patterns to change quietly, with increasingly complex products and more individual requirements. The higher the price is, the more orders begin to enter the era of small quantities.

This feature has become more apparent in the era of e-commerce. The life cycle of products has been shortened and replacements have been accelerated. New products are emerging every day. The maturity of 3D printing technology has also begun to allow personalized and customized production to enter a new phase. In response to this feature, the business community has already begun to implement the "flexible production model", that is, rely mainly on highly flexible manufacturing equipment based on computer numerical control machine tools to achieve multi-variety, small-batch production methods to adapt to changing market demand .

Obviously, Shunde industrial robot has not entered this stage. Therefore, how to move from rigid production mode to flexible production should become a direction for Shunde wisdom.