MiR Insights: Advanced automation technology helps Sichuan and Chongqing’s manufacturing industry upgrade, with smart production line logistics technology becoming the key path

At the two sessions that ended not long ago, the topic of Sichuan and Chongqing working together to promote world-class advanced manufacturing has once again attracted widespread attention. The two provinces and cities have focused on promoting the construction of the Chengdu-Chongqing Twin Cities Economic Circle and building a leading manufacturing cluster . In the past three years, Sichuan and Chongqing have created four trillion-level manufacturing industries, including electronic information, automobiles, equipment manufacturing and consumer goods. In 2022 alone, the total output value of the above four industries reached 5.43 trillion yuan.

In the process of intelligent transformation of manufacturing industry, advanced automation technology is the key path to achieve industrial upgrading. In fact, as early as 2015, Sichuan took the lead in releasing the "Made in China 2025 Sichuan Action Plan", which clearly listed intelligent manufacturing projects as key goals, striving to achieve 10 billion yuan in added value of the robot industry by 2025, promote the trend of "machine replacement", and enhance the competitiveness of products in various fields of manufacturing industry through advanced intelligent manufacturing technology. With the intensification of industry competition, more and more Sichuan and Chongqing manufacturing companies have set their next upgrade goal on production line logistics automation. Mobile Industrial Robots (hereinafter referred to as MiR), the leader of the global mobile robot market, is a leading intelligent logistics solution provider. Its Autonomous Mobile Robot (AMR) has accumulated rich experience in large-scale deployment in Sichuan and Chongqing. MiR believes that intelligent production line logistics technology can further promote the transformation of industrial manufacturing and achieve industrial upgrading from four aspects.

1. Respond to human resource pressure with production line intelligent logistics technology and promote the upgrading of manufacturing talent skills

Human resource pressure has always been one of the major challenges facing the manufacturing industry in Sichuan and Chongqing. According to the existing data on the employment quality of college graduates, the loss of college graduates is serious. In 2018, the loss rate in Sichuan reached 24.6%, and the loss rate in Chongqing was as high as 34.8%. Under the economic demand of the four major industries, there is a relative shortage of compound talents. Urban managers in Sichuan and Chongqing realize that attracting talents first and retaining them is the basis to stimulate the vitality of talent development. Therefore, the first joint meeting of the Chengdu-Chongqing dual-core human resources and social security coordinated development in 2023 has made a series of important measures to retain and re-educate local talents, optimize the soft environment of Sichuan and Chongqing, and enhance the competitiveness of talents. MiR has always had rich experience in cooperation with universities and is committed to starting from the source of talent cultivation. By providing advanced automation technology and auxiliary teaching, it helps to cultivate technical talents urgently needed by enterprises under the upgrading of intelligent manufacturing. Wuhan Ship Vocational and Technical College is one of its successful cases.

[Photo: MiR250 robot put into use for ship teaching in Wuhan]

Wuhan Shipbuilding introduced MiR250 AMR as a key part of its intelligent marine parts automation demonstration production line to help local manufacturing talents improve their skills. By simulating the real shipbuilding environment, the composite robot composed of MiR250 AMR and FANUC collaborative robot completes the intelligent logistics docking of the key production links of the entire chain on the production line, helping students master the design, deployment and operation of automated intelligent production lines, and making students an important part of future manufacturing production. At the same time, intelligent production line logistics has also become the direction of secondary development experiments for school teachers, passing on the opportunity to improve skills to local ship practitioners and helping the government stabilize local talents. From the example of Wuhan Shipbuilding, talents are willing to participate in higher value-added work locally, which not only promotes the upgrading of talent skills, but also helps Sichuan and Chongqing enterprises to achieve more intelligent and efficient production methods and complete the continuous upgrading of the industry.

2. Use efficient and accurate production line material transportation/finished product recycling and other intelligent processes to shorten product production cycles and improve production line flexibility

According to the information released by Sichuan Daily, the manufacturing market in Sichuan and Chongqing is constantly expanding, and many advantageous industries are performing well. Sichuan and Chongqing are working together as one, and the cooperation in the manufacturing field has formed a good synergy effect and the steady development of the industrial economy. Therefore, the overall order demand has become refined and diversified, and more and more Sichuan and Chongqing manufacturing companies need to meet users' high requirements for delivery cycles by improving production flexibility and agility. DENSO, a leading supplier of mobile devices, is a typical example of flexible production that can be replicated. Due to frequent changes in the factory environment, robots need to change routes regularly. Faced with the fast pace of flexible production, MiR AMR has significant advantages in flexibility, safety and ease of use when used, making it the first choice for robots deployed by DENSO.

[Photo: MiR AMR put into production at DENSO]

MiR AMR's intelligent production line logistics can autonomously bypass pedestrians and obstacles to drive safely, and can plan and adjust routes in real time, so as to flexibly respond to site changes and task changes, stably shuttle between different production lines, units, warehouses, and floors, and efficiently and flexibly perform tasks such as picking and handling, helping to maintain accurate and efficient transportation within the enterprise. MiR AMRs are equipped with dual laser scanners with a 360-degree field of view. They can always perceive the surrounding environment in advance while moving forward and re-plan routes at any time. In addition, MiR AMR's sensor vision is not affected by light and dust, has high scanning accuracy, and has passed high-level certification for overall safety, ensuring safety in noisy and crowded dynamic environments, maximizing employee production safety, and achieving accurate and safe factory delivery.

3. Reduce defective product rate and improve product quality and market competitiveness through precise automated material transportation

The overall scale advantage of Sichuan and Chongqing's manufacturing industry is becoming increasingly apparent, especially the advantageous manufacturing industries in Sichuan and Chongqing are accelerating their development into chain clusters. Accelerated growth means development opportunities, but also means pressure on order delivery. Taking the consumer goods industry as an example, under the policy promotion and the huge market foundation of 1.4 billion people, local consumer goods companies are ready to restart and grow positively. The scale of Sichuan and Chongqing's consumer goods manufacturing industry is as high as 1.48 trillion yuan, which also means that the fast-moving consumer goods industry is facing higher production requirements.

[Photo: MiR AMR put into production in Infinitus workshop]

With the help of automation technology, intelligent production line logistics can significantly improve the efficiency of production links such as consumer product packaging and quality inspection. Packaging is an important link in the fast-moving consumer goods industry, and its operating efficiency is highly concerned by enterprises. Take Infinitus, a leading manufacturer of Chinese herbal tonics, as an example. Infinitus originally planned to install AGV to improve productivity, but later abandoned this plan and switched to AMR because it took too long to lay the rails. Infinitus deployed three MiR200 autonomous mobile robots on the packaging production line to carry more than ten kinds of materials involved in the packaging process. The entire process did not require any modification to the original factory layout, and quickly increased productivity to 3.5 times the previous level. In addition, due to the special nature of fields such as food processing, the food industry has very high requirements for quality inspection and traceability. By using AMR in conjunction with the collaborative robot on the top, samples can be directly extracted from the real-time production line and sent to the warehouse or laboratory for analysis, effectively improving the processing efficiency of quality samples.

4. Improve warehouse utilization by maintaining stable material in-and-out transportation.

Precise and efficient warehouse management is an indispensable part of intelligent manufacturing. All departments of a manufacturing enterprise need to know the information of goods and materials in the warehouse in a timely manner. Therefore, the intelligent warehousing system plays an important role in delivering information to production and sales in a timely manner. Improving the efficiency of materials and finished products in and out of the warehouse can help boost the overall operational efficiency of all relevant departments.

MiR and Modula, a manufacturer of intelligent storage solutions, jointly launched a new automated storage, picking and material handling solution for the global market. This fully automatic system is suitable for the transportation of goods in designated areas in warehouses, production workshops, distribution centers and other scenarios. Through the deployment of intelligent production line logistics technology, it realizes the intelligence of tasks in the factory from transportation to welding and assembly, and then smoothly transports materials out of the warehouse, saving warehouse utilization.