China's industrial robot market is in turmoil! Kuka's 100,000-capacity factory is fully operational, achieving localization of the entire value chain

On May 30, the commissioning ceremony of the second phase of Midea Kuka Intelligent Manufacturing Technology Park was grandly held in Beijiao Town, Shunde District, Foshan City, officially announcing its full completion and production.

It is understood that Midea Kuka Intelligent Manufacturing Technology Park covers an area of ​​433 mu and is currently the largest robot production base in South China. The first phase of the park started in 2018 and was put into use in 2019; the second phase of the park was launched in 2021 with an investment of 800 million yuan. At present, there are about 1,000 permanent staff in the park, and more than 50% of them are scientific and technological personnel.

As of the end of April this year, Midea Kuka Intelligent Manufacturing Technology Park has produced and delivered more than 57,000 industrial robots to customers , with a cumulative output value of nearly 10 billion yuan. In 2021, the Kuka Park produced 18,000 robots, accounting for 1/20 of the national robot production. With the full production this time, the market share will be further expanded.

At the commissioning ceremony, Xu Guiyou, General Manager of KUKA China, said: "The full commissioning of the park is another important milestone in KUKA's development. With the full commissioning of the park, the future planned robot production capacity will be 80,000 to 100,000 units per year, which will fully promote the localization of robot supply and support the automation, intelligence and digital transformation of the manufacturing industry ."

The core components of robots have always been a shortcoming in my country, and most of them rely on imports, which makes the supply chain easily affected by uncertain factors. In addition to the layout of body research and development and manufacturing, the Kuka Park has also actively introduced upstream suppliers of the industrial chain and improved the layout of the industrial chain to create a robot industry cluster. At present, there are a total of 9 upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain, covering multiple core components of robots. It is expected that the supply chain support of the park will reach more than 85%.

The robotics industry cluster in Shunde, Foshan is accelerating its rise. Not only the Midea Kuka Intelligent Manufacturing Technology Park, but also a number of key projects such as BOE Robot Valley, Han's Robotics, Estun, and Zhongda Lide have settled in successively, initially forming a robotics industry chain from core components to body manufacturing and system integration. According to Foshan's "14th Five-Year Plan", by 2025, the output value of intelligent manufacturing equipment and robots will reach 300 billion yuan.

"In the future, KUKA will continue to improve the level of robot research and development and application." Xu Guiyou, general manager of KUKA China, said that KUKA will build a robot full industry chain ecological cluster through in-depth cooperation with upstream and downstream enterprises, universities and research institutions in the domestic and foreign industrial chains to support the development and upgrading of the domestic intelligent manufacturing industry.

Intelligent robots Factory

As a kind of automated equipment, industrial robots are expected to completely replace manual labor and realize fully automated production of various products. The best way to prove this ability is undoubtedly to use robots to produce robots. Now this trend is becoming more and more obvious, and the same is true for Midea Kuka Intelligent Manufacturing Technology Park.

In February this year, a fully automated production line for "robots producing robots" was officially put into operation in the Midea Kuka Intelligent Manufacturing Technology Park. It became the first "robots producing robots" production line in Guangdong and also the first fully automated production line for heavy-duty robots in China. It is worth mentioning that the entire line is independently developed and manufactured by Kuka, and its production processes and technologies are at the world-class level.

It is understood that this KUKA "robot production robot" production line has a total length of 35 meters and uses 12 KUKA robots, 6 KUKA-produced AGV carts, and 5 KUKA seventh-axis tracks. These orange KUKA robots have begun to assemble gray semi-finished robots and tighten the screws on the robot chassis one by one, which is very intelligent, precise and efficient.

Chen Feng, Director of Operations and Human Resources of KUKA China, introduced that this automated production line has achieved the goal of "unmanned operation" from the first process of robot assembly to the final production of a finished product. For example, from the batching of ingredients in the warehouse to the movement between workstations during the production process and the transportation of finished products after they come off the line, all these links use KUKA's independently developed AGV carts.

It is reported that this unmanned production line can work 24 hours a day with very high efficiency. According to the data currently measured by the park, compared with traditional manpower, the single-shift production capacity of this automated production line has increased by 50%, and the working hour efficiency has also increased by more than 30%.

"This is a true ' dark factory '. Even after we get off work, the production robots will not stop but will continue to operate and assemble." Chen Feng introduced that about 20 million yuan has been invested in this production line, and in the future it may be built into a replicable, first-class fully automatic robot production line to empower the manufacturing industry.

Comprehensively accelerate the entry of robotics business into the Chinese market

In 2022, the operating revenue of China's robotics industry exceeded 170 billion yuan, the output of industrial robots reached 443,000 sets, and the installed capacity of industrial robots exceeded 300,000 units, accounting for more than 50% of the global total, ranking first in the world for nine consecutive years.

Previously, Midea stated that it will continue to promote the integration and expansion of Kuka's robotics business in the Chinese market, deepen organizational change, focus on industry applications and key customers, cooperate with upstream core component suppliers through value chain collaboration, improve supplier production capacity, complete the redesign and release of the core component RDC of the control cabinet, promote the localization of key materials such as balancing cylinders, effectively support the market demand for heavy-load robots, and provide guarantees for the achievement of Kuka China's strategic goals for the next five years.

Kuka's 2022 financial report shows that the total amount of orders received during the reporting period exceeded 4.4 billion euros, an increase of 25.1% year-on-year; sales revenue was close to 3.9 billion euros, an increase of 18.6% year-on-year; EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes) exceeded 110 million euros, an increase of 91.6% year-on-year. At the same time, with the integration of its business, Kuka's revenue accounted for a large proportion of Midea Group's total revenue, gradually increasing from 7.6% in 2020 to 9.7% in 2022.

At the same time, Kuka's strategy of accelerating its entry into the Chinese market has also been very effective. Fang Hongbo, Chairman and President of Midea Group, said that when the acquisition was first made, Kuka's business revenue in China accounted for 7%, and it will reach 23% in 2022. Next, Kuka will promote the integration of the entire value chain and develop low-cost, high-potential industrial robots for the Chinese market. "This year, the proportion will reach 25%-28%."

Today, Kuka continues to develop localized products in response to the core needs of Chinese companies. At the same time, it has established a professional R&D team in China, invested heavily in factory construction, and continuously upgraded product technology. With the full production of the Phase II factory of Midea Kuka Intelligent Manufacturing Technology Park, Kuka has achieved localization of the entire value chain from R&D, production, sales to services.