Advantech joins hands with Auto Digital to solve the "last mile" problem of intelligent manufacturing upgrade of metal processing

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For a long time, due to the complex environment of the construction site, the rapid update of new materials and processes, the quality problems of manual welding emerge one after another, and the difficulty of automated stations and manual collaboration, on-site metal engineering has become the "last mile" that is difficult to cover by digital upgrading.

Advantech joined hands with Auto Digital to solve the "last mile" problem of intelligent manufacturing upgrade of metal engineering, and won the "Application Innovation Award" in the 2023 Automation and Digitalization Annual Selection.

Across the Gobi Desert, over the ice field and snow sea, through the rocky mountains, through the canyon rapids, the oil and gas pipelines converge vertically and horizontally, with the yearning for a better life and the hope of economic revitalization, extending forward...

However, for a long time, due to the complex environment of the construction site, the high mobility of personnel, the rapid update of new materials and processes, the quality problems of manual welding emerge one after another, and the difficulty of automated stations and manual collaboration, on-site metal engineering has become the "last mile" that is difficult to cover by digital upgrading, and similar problems also exist in many fields such as machinery and equipment manufacturing, wind power, and marine engineering. Today, Nanjing Auto Smart Digital Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Auto Digital) has joined hands with Advantech to build a future-oriented smart factory - Lishui Factory, realize the deep integration of "Industrial Internet + Metal Engineering", build a lean manufacturing management system for metal engineering from the four dimensions of process, production, logistics and service, and form a new generation of flexible and adaptable on-site smart factories with cloud-edge-end collaboration.

　　01

"Industrial Internet + Metal Engineering" - work together to lead the industrial transformation

On the one hand, the national "14th Five-Year Plan" intelligent manufacturing development plan has clearly put forward a "two-step" strategy for the digital networking and application of intelligent manufacturing enterprises above designated size. On the other hand, the "industrial Internet" has been written into the government work report for five consecutive years, and the "Internet +" model has been carried out in energy efficiency, production, logistics and other enterprise management links, and has achieved remarkable results.

In the face of opportunities and challenges, ATT Digital, which is seeking technology empowerment and platform support, met Advantech, which is expanding to vertical industry applications, and the two sides hit it off!

Advantech is committed to becoming the "promoter of a smart planet" and is an advocate and pioneer of industrial IoT applications in China. In the industrial sector, Advantech has leading advantages in industrial automation and intelligent systems such as intelligent systems for industrial automation, smart factory equipment networking, and SCADA (monitoring and data acquisition). It is also a full-process data solution with data collection, transmission, edge computing, and cloud platform.

Advantech joins hands with Auto Digital to solve the "last mile" problem of intelligent manufacturing upgrade of metal processing

　Advantech's smart manufacturing solution architecture

With the corporate mission of "promoting lean manufacturing of global metal engineering", Otter Group has been rooted in the field of metal engineering for 26 years, deeply cultivated in vertical industries such as nuclear power, wind power, petrochemical, offshore engineering, shipbuilding, machinery, etc., has unique technology and process reserve knowledge, closely focuses on the welding process to do deep fitting system design and development, and provides new intelligent digital welding overall solutions and lean intelligent manufacturing production lines. "Industry-oriented, technology-driven, long-term focus on innovative development in their respective fields – the same corporate values and development path make our cooperation progress rapidly." Zhenhua Gu, director of the intelligent manufacturing industry at Advantech, said this when looking back on the initial situation of the cooperation. From the signing of the strategic cooperation agreement at the end of 2021 to the completion of the Lishui plant, the cooperation between the two sides is not only the superposition of technology and the accumulation of resources, but also the all-round integration of products and solutions and the realization of leading service innovation, co-innovation of development elements and development models.

　　02

Future-oriented on-the-ground smart factories for metal engineering

Different from conventional smart factories, metal engineering in the energy and equipment fields often requires welding and installation on the construction site, and on-site processing is currently the weakest link in digitalization. Zhang Ming, General Manager of Auto Digital, spoke highly of the achievements of the Lishui Plant: "With the support of Advantech's industrial cloud platform, we have achieved a major breakthrough in on-site processing, and we will deeply integrate 'management + IT + OT' to finally realize the whole process control of 'material → prefabrication → installation', and provide customers with overall solutions for metal engineering digitalization with overall planning of smart factories, smart factory management systems, and customized management system development services." ”

　Project solution architecture

Based on Advantech's industrial cloud platform tools, the Aote Lishui plant introduces advanced welding processes and lean-based information systems into the IoT platform, and combines Advantech's leading advantages in industrial IoT intelligent systems such as equipment networking and SCADA (monitoring and data acquisition) to carry out in-depth scenario cooperation from on-site manufacturing management to remote cloud intelligent connection of equipment. After the cooperation, Ott Digital has realized the digitalization of welding process, lean production, and more importantly, solved the pain points of lack of equipment monitoring, timely equipment early warning management, and remote operation and maintenance management of equipment in Ott digital information system, fully integrated IT and OT in the field of metal engineering, and achieved excellent results.

1. AIoT empowers management and promotes the digitalization of lean management

The management mode of metal engineering enterprises is relatively backward, although the introduction of automation solutions and information management systems, the internal multiple systems are separated from each other, there are multiple fragmented information "islands", management and operation data are difficult to carry out real-time and effective circulation, lack of comprehensive data support in decision-making, not to mention the improvement of data-driven management level.

With the business philosophy of "leading the innovation and application of digital technology and helping the intelligent manufacturing of metal engineering", ATT Digital deploys Advantech Industrial Cloud, uses digital twin, 5G+AR, big data, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, cloud computing, edge computing and other technologies to achieve lean management goals, collects and analyzes data from the four dimensions of process, production, logistics and service, and carries out the development and practice of applications in multiple directions.

For example, in terms of production support, the Lishui plant adopts the APM equipment asset management tool in Advantech's cloud platform to collect the operation data of welding machines and establish a data pool with the welding process as the core, and the data pool supports the efficient operation of the complete MES manufacturing execution system from logistics to production through information sharing through the WMS logistics management system.

As a model project, Lishui Plant focuses on solving the multiple pain points of production guarantee in metal engineering: clarifying the production process, scheduling and prefabricating materials according to orders and historical data, and timely distribution to reduce invalid waiting hours; Change the situation that the task instructions are only to people in the manufacturing execution, realize the equipment networking, and communicate the instructions to the equipment at the same time, enhance the planning, and reduce the inefficiency caused by arbitrariness and randomness; Transform "dumb" equipment, collect key data of equipment operation, realize real-time status monitoring, predictive maintenance and fault traceability, and establish a real-time and transparent equipment management system.

　ATT Digital Factory

2. AIoT empowers manufacturing and establishes new standards for quality management

Welding is the core process of metal engineering, but the mobility of welding workers is large, and the quality of manual welding is uneven, which brings great safety hazards to metal engineering. ATT Digital converts the industry knowledge accumulated in the field of metal engineering welding over the past 26 years into digital modules using the tools and models provided by Advantech, forming a visual kanban system F-View, a mobile terminal system DCS, a production-line MES system, and a production line networking monitoring system NCS to ensure welding quality.

　　03

Strong alliance to be the "guide" of intelligent manufacturing upgrading of metal engineering

Managers have a vague understanding of intelligent manufacturing and have doubts about the way and effect of digital upgrading, which has become the biggest obstacle to the upgrading and transformation of traditional industries. ATT Digital adopts Advantech's mature lean process to be a good guide for the enterprise. Intelligent manufacturing has been regarded as the "number one project", which not only shows the difficulty and intensity of intelligent manufacturing, but more importantly, reflects the huge value brought by intelligent manufacturing. Intelligent manufacturing is not a change in one department, one process, or one system, but a digital connection in the entire business process of an enterprise, which will involve all organizations, all processes, all businesses, all resources, all products, all data, and all systems of the enterprise, and even affect the ecology of the upstream and downstream industrial chain. ATT Digital flexibly uses AIoT technology to help customers comprehensively innovate and reshape from business models, operation management models, business processes, and management processes.

Break down departmental barriers and data barriers, extend to the upstream and downstream industrial chains, and realize cross-departmental and cross-unit system interoperability and data interconnection. Exploring new momentum in the digital era, through the full line of connected and integrated data and mature algorithm model tools, it can not only optimize the integration of enterprise resources, improve the level of enterprise management and operation, but also form new digital elements and assets to empower business, operation and decision-making.

　　04

DFSP, to create a win-win cooperation in the industrial ecology

After joining the DFSP (Domain-Focused Solution Partners) strategy, ATT Digital got rid of the previous situation of working alone, and invited Advantech to participate in the entire process of on-site research, program planning, implementation and delivery, not only providing customers with metal engineering services including hardware products, tooling platforms, application software, etc., but also providing more comprehensive technical support and mature planning framework for IoT and industrial cloud. Increased professionalism and standardization of solutions. Director Gu Zhenhua also introduced: "Advantech will use its brand influence and business resources to endorse the business activities of Auto Digital, and support the promotion of Auto Digital in the fields of energy engineering, offshore ships, and construction machinery. ”

Advantech's DFSP strategy and industrial cloud partner program provide corresponding cooperation mechanisms and promotion steps for enterprise end users, system integration partners, solution partners, IoT-CSP service and distribution partners, and other ecosystem partners. "Advantech has provided us with systematic training, not only face-to-face teaching, but also on-site example operation training, which provides great convenience for the rapid introduction of ATT's digital applications." General Manager Zhang Ming is full of praise for Advantech's services.

　Advantech Partner Program

As a leader in industrial upgrading, ATT Digital has joined Advantech's cloud ecosystem, with the goal of "flexibility and intelligence", starting from the weakest link of industrial upgrading, and carrying out all-round upgrades such as personnel efficiency, equipment utilization, logistics execution, process execution, production efficiency, energy utilization and product quality optimization, so as to build a smart factory for on-site metal engineering and break through the "last mile" problem. The completion and operation of Lishui plant is not only a fusion of technology, nor is it only the complementarity of resources, but also a kind of innovation, a kind of development, a kind of industrial upgrading-oriented responsibility and far-reaching feelings for the achievement of national brands. A spark can start a prairie fire; The light of fireflies can illuminate the road ahead. On Advantech's industrial cloud platform, the ecological blueprint of empowering industrial upgrading with the industrial Internet is constantly extending...

Advantech joins hands with Auto Digital to solve the "last mile" problem of intelligent manufacturing upgrade of metal processing

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