At the beginning of the new year in 2024, Alps Intelligent Manufacturing, together with Yingkou Beifang Barrel Making Equipment Technology Co., Ltd., officially launched a new digital operation and maintenance platform construction project.

Project Launch

As a national high-tech enterprise integrating the production of barrel-making equipment and steel drums, Yingkou Beifang stands out in the domestic machining industry, especially as a leader in the field of full-set high-speed barrel-making equipment manufacturing. The company is deeply rooted in a long history, which can be traced back to the establishment of Yingkou Barrel Factory of China National Petroleum Corporation in 1908. After a century of vicissitudes, it has successfully transformed into a global leader in the segment market for all-category steel drum production lines.

Yingkou Beifang Factory

Starting anew in the new year, Alps Intelligent Manufacturing, leveraging its advanced technology and rich industry experience, has partnered with Yingkou Beifang to build an intelligent operation and maintenance system. This aims to further enhance the digital management level and production efficiency of this small-to-medium-sized enterprise with profound historical heritage and outstanding market position. The launch of this collaborative project marks a new chapter of industrial upgrading under the backdrop of the new digital era, helping Yingkou Beifang consolidate and expand its leading position in the global market.

In the face of the wave of digital transformation, whether an enterprise can successfully achieve digital transformation has become critical to its survival and development. However, for many small-to-medium-sized manufacturing enterprises, this process is fraught with challenges: complex system selection, high costs, unclear implementation paths, and unsatisfactory outcomes are common. Especially in the machining industry, pain points such as uncertainty in production cycles, frequent unplanned downtime, and lack of effective management measures for unplanned downtime deeply trouble and confuse enterprise managers.

With 30 years of deep expertise in intelligent manufacturing and lean production, Alps Intelligent Manufacturing precisely addressed the challenges faced by Yingkou Beifang Barrel Making Equipment Technology Co., Ltd. In less than three months, it achieved a significant 10% increase in equipment OEE. This move undoubtedly brings a breakthrough strategy and new hope for the digital transformation of small-to-medium-sized manufacturing enterprises and the entire machining industry.

So, how did Alps Intelligent Manufacturing cleverly solve these problems and achieve such fruitful results? Let's take a deep dive:

Pain Point ① for Small-to-Medium Machining Enterprises:

CNC equipment from different generations (old, middle, and new) coexist, and their protocol interfaces are not fully open. This leads to differences in data dimensions and granularity collected from different devices, making it difficult to utilize the data uniformly.

Solution:

1. Adopt an equipment status monitoring system, using the Alps Intelligent Manufacturing data collector (Model: TS-10) to collect equipment status data for display, providing a digital dashboard for management data, enabling customers to understand real-time production status of equipment.

2. The Alps Intelligent Manufacturing Customer Success Manager assists customers in sorting out how to utilize the data. They regularly help customers organize and analyze data to identify problems and explain the issues behind the data, enabling customers to quickly understand production conditions, detect problems in a timely manner, and promote management and production efficiency.

Digital Dashboard

Pain Point ② for Small-to-Medium Machining Enterprises: Small-to-medium enterprises generally face a shortage of software system and IT operation and maintenance personnel. Production and equipment personnel are not proficient in computer operations and struggle to effectively use systems for data analysis.

Solution: Compared with traditional on-premise deployment, the SaaS model is increasingly favored by enterprises for its advantages such as lower costs, ease of deployment, flexible scalability, continuous updates, and high availability. Based on site conditions, Alps Intelligent Manufacturing adopted the SaaS model, reducing the difficulty and cost of server operation and maintenance for the customer. After project launch, the Customer Success Manager provides service support, assisting customers with data analysis and cultivating their application habits, thereby improving the enterprise's digital management capabilities from a personnel awareness perspective, and enhancing the customer experience.

On-site Guidance from Alps Intelligent Manufacturing

Pain Point ③ for Small-to-Medium Machining Enterprises:

The CNC equipment in the machining workshop is used for processing core parts, and the production cycle varies depending on the part.

The causes of unplanned downtime for CNC equipment include non-production status and normal production status, such as programming and tool changes.

Customers find it difficult to identify the root cause of unplanned downtime and the time spent on downtime events.

Production managers struggle to understand the reasonableness of downtime, equipment utilization, and whether equipment is sufficient.

They cannot identify production bottlenecks or improve equipment OEE, leading to equipment waste and affecting production efficiency.

Solution:

For the CNC workshop, an Equipment Status Monitoring System + Andon System was adopted. While monitoring equipment status in real time, the Alps Intelligent Manufacturing wireless smart button (Model: SS-10; Product Name: Agile Button) is used to record real-time equipment operating status, unplanned downtime, events, duration, and causes. In addition, a personnel collaborative call response function was added, along with an alarm wristband, providing data support for identifying and improving production bottlenecks in the non-standard machining industry while increasing response speed, thereby comprehensively improving production efficiency. Since implementation, within less than three months, equipment OEE has increased by 10%.

SS-10 Agile Button

Flowchart of Equipment Status Monitoring System + Andon System

Providing a digital dashboard for management data, with information on unplanned downtime, events, duration, and causes, helps customers deeply understand production bottlenecks and potential issues, providing a reliable basis and strong support for optimizing production management and decision-making. This enables them to formulate production plans and management strategies more scientifically and reasonably, thereby continuously improving production efficiency and quality.

Digital Dashboard

Through this strategic cooperation, Alps Intelligent Manufacturing, with its cutting-edge technological strength and excellent product solutions, supplemented by thoughtful and attentive service support, has injected powerful driving force into Yingkou Beifang's digital transformation process and effectively activated the enterprise's innovation potential. Looking ahead, Alps Intelligent Manufacturing will continue to play a leading role in the industry, helping more small-to-medium-sized enterprises bravely climb the peak of digital transformation, and jointly enter the new era of digitalization full of infinite possibilities and opportunities.