The hottest production automation may increase cos

Production automation may increase costs. How can LED manufacturing enterprises balance

production automation may increase costs for five reasons: 1 interest; 2. Replace parts; 3. Employ highly skilled engineers; 4. Check the monitoring machine; 5. Quality problems

then, does the factory have to choose between compliance and automation equipment? Four often overlooked alternatives to process automation: 1 Redesign the process to improve productivity; 2. Semi automatic production process; 3. Start multi variety and small batch orders; 4. Find an automatic chemical plant and ask them to subcontract some orders

you have studied and calculated a rough estimate. Buy a machine of 1million yuan and its service life is 10 years. Plus depreciation and power consumption, the annual cost will increase by 150000 yuan. This is also far lower than the current cost of manual production lines

should automatic production be started? Wait a minute, you need to do it again

five reasons why production automation may increase costs

first, you should consider other costs caused by the introduction of automation in the factory. Please read on. Let's discuss five reasons why production automation may increase costs:

1, interest

most Chinese factories have low cash flow, so they need to borrow for investment. They usually pay% interest on capital expenditure

suppose you spend 1million yuan to buy the machine, and the annual interest is 8%. In the first year alone, the interest cost of Hengrun products was as high as 80000 yuan

2. Replace parts

complex equipment needs to update parts after a few years to maintain the original state. Around this theme, a comprehensive research field (reliability centered maintenance) was born. The key is to predict when parts need to be replaced or inspected and maintained according to the estimation of "mean time between failures" and "mean time between failures"

basically, you need to set aside a budget for this. Don't torture a worn-out machine that doesn't need to be embarrassed - in the long run, it may cost more

3. Employing highly skilled engineers

after automated production, it is not necessary to help reduce the number of operators. However, high-tech machinery requires engineers to set up and maintain. You need to consider not only their salary, but also their initial training, and after leaving, as well as the cost of hiring and training replacement successors

4. Check the monitoring machine

you may think that the machine will operate by itself. Yes, generally, it is. However, in most Chinese machinery plants, you may notice that the ratio of operators to machines is 1:1. This may be necessary in your factory, but it is also imperative

why do operators have to monitor every piece produced by every equipment? Because the cost of abnormal operation of the machine is very high. Imagine a machine that processes 200 meters of high-quality stainless steel plates per hour. If the blade breaks, no one notices it all day, and the metal up to 2000 meters high may be wasted. The cost is much higher than hiring an employee to check regularly and stop the machine when there is a problem

the concept of human-computer interaction - (Toyota calls it "Jidoka") Toyota calls it "Jidoka" - it is quite complex. Unless your machine can automatically and quickly detect problems in case of equipment failure, can you hire a "surveyor monitor". They can take care of and handle some logistical tasks, but most of the time will be spent on observation and inspection

5. Quality problems

as mentioned above, production automation can not eliminate quality problems without the members of the "national new material industry development leading group". It can only change the nature and speed of its emergence. Some machines produce 100 products per minute - imagine the unqualified products produced in 10 minutes. It's because employees go to rest, go to the bathroom, or hide to smoke, and the equipment runs incorrectly for 10 minutes

unfortunately, sometimes you may not be able to avoid a lot of quality problems

four surprise alternatives to factory automation in China

as mentioned in the previous article, the theoretical return on investment in production system automation is usually quite high. However, the production of robots has brought serious challenges

in fact, many automation projects ended in failure. When the CMC team visits Chinese factories, we often see that expensive machines are either idle or not in full use

then, must the factory choose between following the rules (10% 6. According to the experimental purpose, it can be divided into: performance test fatigue test, influence coefficient fatigue test, control fatigue test, select fatigue test, verify fatigue test and other unchanging old manual production) and automatic equipment? Fortunately, this is not necessary. Four often overlooked alternatives to process automation are available for you to choose from. Let's understand one by one

what are the alternatives to process automation

1. Redesign processes to improve productivity

maybe you can redesign existing processes to improve efficiency? In some factories, without a lot of money, we increased production by 30% and reduced working hours by 20% or more

for a simple example, there are 10 people in the production line, and an extra operator is busy doing rework. Suppose you hire an industrial engineer who can apply the following procedures:

· improve the logistics of the production line, and the operator does not have to get up and look for parts everywhere

· improve the layout of the production line so that each operator can easily get the parts required by each station

· introduce useful tools to carry out process error prevention more quickly

· train operators and team leaders, popularize the benefits of change, and get their support

in months, what practical changes will the redesign project bring

· the production line was reduced from 10 people to 7 people

· the rework was reduced by an average of 1 to 0.3 people

· the annual turnover rate was reduced from 60% to 20% - operators were more motivated because they received training and their opinions were valued

(note that industrial engineers can improve several production lines at the same time. It doesn't take a month. It may take a total of 1 month)

with the passage of time, reduce more waste. The following is an example of an efficient production line layout

2. Semi automatic production process

in addition to the redesign process mentioned above, you can gradually carry out semi-automatic transformation of some production processes

with semi-automatic or user-assisted machines and equipment, workers can work easier and faster than before. With fewer staff, the workload is completed as usual

this is an example of gradual semi automation to improve productivity

you can gradually reduce the number of operators in the semi-automatic process

how is this different from a typical full process automation project

· the investment is greatly reduced

· the investment can be carried out step by step in stages

· the factory needs talents to promote this project - usually an experienced and creative tool expert

3. Start multi variety and small batch orders

if you adopt the above suggestions, the production efficiency will be improved and the flexibility will not be reduced, then I sincerely congratulate you

this means that you are in good condition now and can start to carry out multi variety and small batch order business. Most of these customers place orders from China because, on average, Chinese factories have more manual (and more flexible) processes than American or European factories

who can't compete for the use of composite materials in cars mainly includes the following categories: orders for structural parts, body and body parts, under bonnet parts, interior decoration parts? It should be a factory adopting advanced high-tech process automation technology. Their expensive equipment is impeccable in mass production, but their "economic batch" is much larger than yours. Why? Because it usually takes a long time to switch from producing one kind of products to another. They want to produce similar products for a long time

4. Find an automatic chemical plant and let them subcontract some orders

do you have some low mix and large batch orders? You can subcontract it to factories with expensive equipment. Due to large investment, they tend to take orders more carefully I hope they can help you out

(if their equipment fails unfortunately, this is very likely to happen, and your internal production capacity can reduce the loss)

in general, it is feasible to optimize the process and semi automation. Once these alternatives achieve the expected goals, they can develop towards full automation. The advantage is that semi automation enables technicians to learn to maintain machines, so they can better maintain high-tech machinery in the future