Always planning, but never able to launch?

Spent millions, only to end up with a zombie system?

Did the deployed system make the manufacturing site even more of a black box?

Has automation brought new challenges to the enterprise?

“The path to building a smart factory for ‘brownfield factories’ is bound to be bumpy

March 29–30, 2023, Alps System Integration (Dalian) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "ALSI") was invited to attend the 2023 Suzhou Digital Technology and Automotive Industry Application Conference & the 6th Intelligent Manufacturing Development and Application Conference. At the conference, ALSI Director Dr. Zhang Xiaowei delivered a keynote speech titled "Key Factors and Technologies for the Implementation of Smart Manufacturing in Brownfield Factories", sharing his experience and insights in the field of smart manufacturing.

In the process of promoting smart manufacturing, brownfield factories face many obstacles, such as complex business processes, uncertain sales orders, and varying levels of equipment digitization. These factors significantly impact production efficiency and quality. To build a smart factory, enterprises need to possess flexible manufacturing capabilities. Dr. Zhang cited the example of 22 factories (especially seven major domestic factories) of the Alps Alpine Group in their journey toward smart manufacturing, discussing the various barriers enterprises encounter when attempting to transition to smart manufacturing, and sharing the key elements and technologies for building a smart factory.

Dr. Zhang believes that the best way to promote global factory intelligence is through continuous small steps and fast iterations. Digital lean is the foundation for this continuous change, with its core being continuous improvement. To achieve digital lean, enterprises need keen data awareness and accurate data collection capabilities, and they must use a unified digital platform as a carrier to realize a transparent, visualized, and intelligent factory. In implementing smart manufacturing, the biggest waste is data waste. Therefore, enterprises need to reapply data to the manufacturing site through a visualization phase to improve management behaviors.

In smart manufacturing construction, Dr. Zhang recommends a top-down approach to solve problems arising after introducing intelligent products, enabling employees to identify with the intelligent products and eventually form bottom-up spontaneous improvements. Before establishing a self-sustaining lean improvement mindset, enterprises can use non-intrusive data collection and other methods to reduce the burden on site personnel and obtain more accurate data.

ALSI integrates lean concepts with intelligent systems and has launched two platform-level products: the Jinzhi Lean Factory Cloud Platform and the Huipai Supply Chain Resource Planning Platform. These platforms utilize the group's excellent sensor technology and self-developed intelligent algorithms to collect data on manpower, machines, materials, methods, environment, and measurement at manufacturing sites. Based on this data, they provide digital lean management systems and real-time dynamic scheduling, allowing enterprises to better control production processes and improve overall production efficiency and competitiveness.

Dr. Zhang believes that the low success rate of manufacturing transformation is not due to digital technology, but whether leaders and enterprises possess lean thinking and management capabilities. Compared with the potential of saving 15% of transformation costs by implementing lean or digitization alone, implementing both lean and digitization simultaneously is expected to generate 40% improvement potential. Digital lean provides a solid foundation of technology, tools, and management for smart manufacturing, becoming a necessary means for the transformation and upgrading of China's manufacturing industry. ALSI will also inject more digital energy into manufacturing enterprises through smart manufacturing management solutions, helping them achieve higher levels of digital transformation and upgrading.