On August 11, the reporter learned from Economy And Information Technology Department of Zhejiang that the “Trial Plan for Cultivating And Constructing ‘future factory’ in Zhejiang Province” (hereinafter referred to as "the plan") was officially released. According to the plan, Zhejiang will explore to build about 10 "future factories" every year from 2020.

"Future factory" refers to a modern plant which widely applies digital twin, Internet of things, big data, artificial intelligence, industrial Internet and other technologies to realize digital design, intelligent production, intelligent management, collaborative manufacturing, green manufacturing, safe control and social and economic benefits.

The basic construction elements of "future factory" are as follows:

Digital twin application

The digital twin model of product, equipment and production line is constructed by applying three-dimensional modeling, computer simulation, virtual reality (VR) / augmented reality (AR) and Internet of things technologies, so as to realize real-time visualization and iterative optimization of product design, physical equipment and production process.

Intelligent production

The future factories establish factory network system and apply 5G, artificial intelligence and other technologies. Intelligent production equipment, detection equipment, logistics equipment are to be widely used. Besides, automatic material procurement planning and scheduling, production operations, warehousing and distribution data acquisition, on-line analysis and optimization of execution are realized. Plant or workshop achieves unmanned operation. All these are relied on supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), advanced planning and scheduling (APS), manufacturing execution system (MES), warehouse management system (WMS), etc.

Intelligent management

Industrial Internet platform and data center are established. The factories will focus on data sharing to promote intelligent management of enterprise production, operation and decision-making through integrated application of enterprise resource planning system (ERP), product life cycle management (PLM), supply chain management system (SCM), customer relationship management system (CRM).

Collaborative manufacturing

Leading enterprises are encouraged to rely on the industrial Internet platform to realize the sharing of information such as personnel, equipment, data, etc., to open up the logistics, capital flow and information flow among enterprises, so as to realize the online sharing and optimal allocation of design, supply, manufacturing and service resources. The integration of production, supply and marketing resources of small and medium-sized enterprises in the industry are significant in creating an industry chain on the cloud, and breaking through the physical boundaries of factories.

Green manufacturing

Energy comprehensive monitoring system is established to realize real-time monitoring and management of main energy consuming equipment. Additionally, production and consumption prediction model is applied to realize optimal scheduling, balanced prediction and energy-saving management. Besides, environmental protection monitoring system is a must in realizing the environmental protection data collection, real-time monitoring and alarm from clean production to treatment as well as visual analysis.

Safety management and control

Safety management organization, formulate risk control criteria and risk control process are set up. The factories should carry out safety early warning, realize intelligent management and control of six kinds of safety risk elements in the production process, such as personnel, materials, process, equipment, environment and information, and carry out risk assessment regularly. Safe and controllable software, systems and equipment are applied.

Social and economic benefits

The enterprise has achieved remarkable results in quality improvement and efficiency increase. Production efficiency and comprehensive utilization rate of resources have been greatly improved, while the preparation time, operation cost and defective product rate have been significantly reduced. The factories also make a great break through in key technologies, patents, standards, experience achievements, and professional talents.

(Compiled and translated by Xu Yuhong)