Recently, the 2020 China 5G + Industrial Internet Conference was successfully held. A number of solutions and usage scenarios for the integration of 5G and Industrial Internet were demonstrated on site, showing that a series of high-tech technologies such as 5G, Industrial Internet, and AI technology have brought great benefits to the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry. convenience.
my country continues to promote 5G industrial Internet integration and innovation. Currently, there are more than 1,100 construction projects across the country, and a series of application results have emerged, such as machine vision inspection, precise remote control, and on-site auxiliary assembly.
With the continuous development and popularization of industrial Internet and 5G technology, the manufacturing industry has become the main battlefield for these high-tech technologies. The addition of the above-mentioned series of application technologies has greatly improved the efficiency and accuracy of the manufacturing industry.
5G Internet alleviates long-term pain points in the manufacturing industry
With the development of the manufacturing industry, long-term accumulated pain points have also been exposed. Problems such as lagging product levels, increased production costs, and overcapacity of low-end products have never been well resolved. Especially with the advent of the epidemic, many traditional manufacturing companies have been severely hit and have begun to realize the importance of digital and intelligent transformation.
The addition of 5G industrial Internet technology has effectively alleviated the pain points of traditional manufacturing. Optimizing production lines and increasing production capacity are the most intuitive upgrades. In recent years, the development of e-commerce shopping has further increased sales in the manufacturing industry. However, this has posed greater challenges to production capacity, especially the production capacity of high-tech products, which is a big problem.
Digital transformation can effectively alleviate this problem. Currently, 5G Industrial Internet has achieved considerable results in aviation, machinery, steel and other industries. Through digital transformation, factories can be upgraded to digital and networked smart factories. While improving the production efficiency of high-tech products, they can effectively utilize the excess production capacity of low-end products and upgrade traditional manufacturing to smart manufacturing.
A powerful tool for manufacturing upgrading and transformation—data visualization
The most direct advantage that the Industrial Internet and 5G provide to the manufacturing industry is data visualization, which is something that traditional manufacturing has always ignored. Due to the complex processes and numerous processes in the manufacturing industry, each link can produce a large amount of data. Overall, the data generated by the entire manufacturing link is very large and complex.
For traditional manufacturing, all data is sorted and recorded manually, which is very inefficient. And for manual records, errors are inevitable. However, because the manufacturing industry is a closely linked process, a data error can easily affect the following processes, and it is very likely that the entire manufacturing production line will go wrong. causing serious losses.
However, adding industrial Internet and 5G technology to the manufacturing industry can effectively avoid this problem. The Industrial Internet can interconnect every link and equipment in the manufacturing process, prevent the occurrence of isolated islands, and further standardize the process. The real-time data generated in each link can be visually viewed, and a large amount of data can be uploaded to the cloud.
This method can not only solve the long-standing data problems in the manufacturing industry, but also use edge computing analysis, sensing technology, etc. to summarize and analyze the large amounts of data transmitted to the cloud, and obtain a relatively direct and effective result. Through the analysis of industrial big data, more valuable information can be discovered, which is beneficial to enterprise innovation and development.
Demand for upgrading and transformation of manufacturing industry – flexibility
Flexibility is a major demand for the current transformation of traditional manufacturing. It is too wasteful of manpower and material costs for the same manufacturing company to open multiple production lines, which is not cost-effective for the company. Therefore, flexible production is a very good solution.
This method can improve the traditional idea of producing a single product on the production line, further expand the production range, and can lead to the situation of “producing mobile phones today and producing tablets tomorrow”. With the addition of 5G Industrial Internet, this flexible production line is no longer a problem.
The main difficulties in flexible production lines lie in the insufficient informatization of production line equipment and terminals and the difficulty in realizing real-time analysis of edge computing. These two points are the strengths of the industrial Internet and 5G.
The Industrial Internet can enhance the digitization, informatization and intelligence of production lines, and add AI technology, big data and other technologies to the production line, so that the production line can achieve accurate information collection and product scheduling during flexible production. 5G can greatly increase the speed of data transmission, allowing edge computing and big data analysis data to be transmitted to systems and production lines in a timely and effective manner, which is very critical for flexible customized services.
The transformation and upgrading of domestic manufacturing industry still faces challenges
According to relevant data, there are currently nearly 700,000 5G base stations in my country, and the number of terminal connections has exceeded 180 million. Domestic 5G development has entered the fast lane, and 5G application scenarios are constantly being explored.
5G has the characteristics of large bandwidth, low latency, and high reliability. These advantages have a driving effect on the manufacturing industry. It not only significantly improves the manufacturing production line, but also has certain benefits for upstream and downstream enterprises in the industry chain, and It has an increasingly obvious role in reducing costs, increasing efficiency, and transforming and upgrading enterprises.
However, most of the current ones that can provide integrated digital transformation solutions are some leading international companies. Domestic development is still in its infancy, and there is still a certain distance between the level and the international advanced level. Therefore, domestic manufacturing companies want to carry out digital transformation solutions. Still lacking, there is still dependence on international manufacturers, and independent research and development technology is insufficient.
At the same time, the development level of the domestic manufacturing industry also has disadvantages. It lacks high-tech manufacturing industries and has overcapacity in low-end manufacturing production lines, which leads to an uneven production-to-revenue ratio. Moreover, the investment cost for transformation and upgrading of low-end production lines will be relatively higher.
Samenvatten
It is obvious that 5G technology and industrial Internet are the key to the current transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry, and are also the main battlefield for upgrading and transformation. Any company that wants to take the lead in digital transformation must seize the opportunity in the 5G+Internet direction.
At present, there are more and more application scenarios of industrial Internet and 5G technology in the manufacturing industry, and leading companies are becoming more and more enthusiastic about them and continue to expand and extend them. Enterprises will aim to reduce costs and increase efficiency, be driven by the industrial Internet and 5G technology, and empower the manufacturing environment through digital and intelligent transformation to achieve the goal of Intelligent Manufacturing 2025 as soon as possible.