Digital Transformation of SANY Heavy Industry

2022-02-09 Author:By Zhou Chong Click:
Digital Transformation of SANY Heavy Industry - ztetechnologies
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Digital Transformation of SANY Heavy Industry

Release Date:2022-02-09  Author:By Zhou Chong  Click:

Facing the digital transformation of engineering machinery and manufacturing industry, SANY Heavy Industry (SANY) has no choice but to forge ahead. If the digital transformation fails, it may die, and if the transformation is successful, it will grow stronger. This classic statement was put forward by Chairman Liang Wengen when he released the digital transformation strategy of SANY Group in 2018. It reflects the plight of the traditional manufacturing industry and SANY's firm determination to embrace the digital upgrade. 
So far three years have passed since the statement. How is SANY doing on the road of digital transformation? 

Remarkable Achievements in Digital Transformation

SANY is an absolute giant in the global engineering machinery manufacturers, with services covering more than 150 countries and regions around the world. Its concrete machinery products rank first in the world, and its large-tonnage cranes, caterpillar cranes and port cranes rank first in China. 
The production of engineering machinery is a typical discrete manufacturing mode, with the features of being offline-oriented, process-assisted, and assembly-focused. It is faced with many challenges, such as diverse manufacturing devices, difficult equipment interconnection, insufficient data integration, discrete production lines and heavy dependence on manual operations, which seriously restrict the improvement of production efficiency. Therefore, the development of engineering machinery towards digitalization, networking, and intelligence has become the main direction of the new round of technological and industrial revolution. Upgrading to smart manufacturing is an urgent need for the engineering machinery industry. 
In this context, SANY is committed to promoting digital transformation with a strong determination. Through the intelligence empowerment based on digitization, networking, sharing and data security, SANY works to achieve full wireless connection, less-manned operation, and fast on-demand production, adding the value of the industry in an orderly manner. 
Based on its high speed, large connection, low latency and highly reliable network capabilities, 5G is accelerating the integration with digital technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), big data, and edge computing, and has become the key engine for empowering digital transformation of traditional manufacturing industries. Building 5G private networks is the core of digital upgrade and transformation of the factories.
SANY decided to invest nearly 10 billion yuan in 2019 to digitize dozens of its factories. By the first half of 2021, SANY had built 11 factories that met the production requirements, increasing production capacity by 70%, shortening the manufacturing cycle by 50%, and increasing the automation rate to 90%. It has made remarkable achievements on the road of digital transformation. 

NodeEngine Empowering SANY 5G Smart Factory

SANY, China Telecom and ZTE jointly built a 5G digital factory in Changshu industrial park in 2021. This factory has implemented internal equipment interconnection, fast-networking and accurate data collection, thus improving the production efficiency of subordinate enterprises in the industrial park. 
SANY's 5G private network in Changshu factory is based on the "Adjacent Mode" of China Telecom and adopts NodeEngine, ZTE's lightweight site-level edge computing solution. The 5G private network only needs to insert one board into the existing base station, and can be deployed in one hour, which is very simple and efficient. 
The main function of NodeEngine is to offload data locally on the base station side and transmit the local data to the internal server directly in one hop, which meets the requirements of low latency, large bandwidth and high security for industry applications in 5G networks. NodeEngine also supports extended functions such as local equipment interconnection, wireless positioning and QoS guarantee. The computing resources, network policies and service capabilities of the NodeEngine platform can be opened to the third party, which provides greater potential for the expansion of industry applications.
Based on the NodeEngine solution, SANY Changshu factory has enabled various functions such as 5G+data collection, 5G+video surveillance, 5G+machine vision and 5G+smart warehousing, and used them in the production process of product machining, painting and assembly.
5G+data collection can transmit massive data generated during the production process to the local data center in real-time. After analysis and diagnosis, it formulates maintenance, management and control strategies that can reduce equipment waiting time and failure time by optimizing production process and enabling predictive maintenance.
5G+video surveillance enables SANY Changshu factory to intelligently identify and dispatch personnel, materials and equipment, improve management and production efficiency, and automatically raise alarms in the event of an accident to ensure the safety of personnel and production. 
5G+machine vision helps SANY Changshu factory implement such functions as intelligent material feeding, multi-system collaborative operation, unmanned dangerous production, automatic assembly and intelligent quality inspection. The labor cost has been reduced by 64%, and the product defect rate has also been reduced by 14%. 
The 5G+smart warehousing improves the connection quality of automated guided vehicles (AGV), and can ensure a latency of less than 10 ms. It achieves high-speed and stable operation of AGV transportation operation and scheduling control, increases the warehousing management efficiency by 50%, and reduces the overall costs by 20% to 30%. 
It is estimated that after the digital upgrade of SANY Changshu factory, the downtime of equipment failure has reduced by 50%, the equipment utilization has increased from 35% to 75%, and the production capacity has doubled without the purchase of new equipment. 

Replicating Success Stories

Through continuous exploration and innovation, SANY has overcome many difficulties on the road of digital transformation in recent years, and finally ushered in the success of many projects including Changshu 5G smart factory. 
At the first China Manufacturing Leaders Summit with the theme of "China Basics" held in Dongguan, SANY won the Benchmark Factory Award of the 2021 Digital Transformation Award for its industry-leading smart manufacturing capabilities. It is the only award-winning company in the heavy industry.
SANY will promote its successful experience of 5G+smart manufacturing on a large scale, accelerate the construction of 5G smart factories in many other SANY factories across the country, and open its capabilities to empower the outsourcing manufacturers in the industry chain and grow together. 
"Smart manufacturing is the foundation of SANY's development and a new industrial civilization that will profoundly change the whole world", said Liang Wengen, chairman of SANY, who led SANY's digital transformation and achieved such success.
SANY is now accelerating towards the "3+3+3" digital transformation strategic goal of achieving sales of 300 billion yuan, 3000 workers, and 30,000 engineers by 2025, leading the transformation and upgrading of China's manufacturing industry, safeguarding the real economy, and helping to build a manufacturing power.

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