How Far is the Distance between Smart Manufacturing and Chinese Tire Producers

The 2016 World Internet+ Industry Conference was held on Sept. 27-28 in Qingdao, Shandong province.

A number of Internet companies and some manufacturers participated in the conference, including a few tire producers such as Sailun Jinyu Group, Doublestar Group and Qingdao Sentury Tire.

Participants of the conference gave all-round multi-angle explanation on how manufacturers should use the Internet and how to realize smart manufacturing.

Integration of Industrialization and Informatization:  the Start Point of Smart Manufacturing

Statistics show that in 2016, the average level of internetiolization of Chinese companies is 32.7 points.

Even the integration of industrialization and informatization of some advanced manufacturers is around 50 points.

Zhang Ruimin, board chairman and CEO of Haier Group, said the internetiolization of Chinese companies is low in general.

But in the opinion of Lothar Herrmann, CEO of Siemens Greater China, the in-depth integration of the Industry and the Internet in China is releasing unlimited productivity.

Obviously, mainstream manufacturers expect to take a leading role in the digital era.

As the quick spread of intellectualization and informatization, the integration of manufacturing industry and the Internet has accelerated.

The emerge of modern technologies, such as connective system and robots, offered prerequisites for intellectualization of manufacturing companies.

The realization of industrial Internet starts from the integration of informatization and industrialization, then it goes to internetiolization of companies, and finally there are smart manufacturing and smart factories, said Wu Hequan, director of the Internet Society of China.

Over the past few years, China’s tire producers attached increasing importance to the integration of industrialization and informatization, which is in accordance with the international tendency of smart manufacturing.

Realization of Smart Manufacturing in Workshops

Li Peigen, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said promoting Industry+ smart manufacturing is capable of being realized in the workshops, and then spur producers reaching higher targets such as high quality, high efficiency and green development.

However, for most small and medium-sized tire producers, smart manufacturing seems like a remote concept.

Experts believe that the workshop of manufacturers and their targets are actually connected with smart manufacturing.

Take quality as an example, a producer may apply smart technology, automatic technology on the machine tools, conduct periodic examination for numerically controlled machine tools, realize predictive maintenance, and enhance the processing quality while ensuring ordinary operation of the machine tools.

Li said some companies have established smart engine cloud center. They check the operation of the equipment through smart analysis of the cloud center, and maintain and repair the equipment via the professional system controlled by the cloud data platform.

In addition, product R&D and quality management can also be conducted via digital smart technologies in the workshops.

In the workshops, centering on basic targets such as quality and high efficiency, as well as new targets such as green and personalization, producers are capable of realizing smart production by connecting data, equipment with people.

The participants all agree that Internet+ smart manufacturing is actually close to the manufacturers.