The core of Industry 4.0-product data architecture
In a company, the market demand we face is changeable. Different customers or different batches of products of the same customer will have various requirements, and customers’ customers must also put forward different requirements to you.
There are many cars painted on the cover. Some are flat-headed, some are diesel engines, some have carriages, and some are dumpers. On the surface, is it one product or a different product? From the perspective of customization, there are only two products above, one is a small vehicle and the other is a large vehicle.
When everyone mentioned Industry 4.0, such a scene emerged in their minds. Fully automated workshops and equipment. Products are produced after an order is issued. Is this impression really the essence of Industry 4.0? I checked it online and found that Industry 4.0 was proposed by Germany at the Industrial Fair. Industry 4.0 can enhance Germany's national strength, because the purpose of this concept is to increase the export of German automation equipment. As to whether all workshops in Germany become fully automated, this is a question worth considering. Can we create a workshop where a truckload of sand can be transported in and color TVs can be produced, can it? If so, does society still need to divide labor? There is no strong company in this world, and it is impossible to do everything. We still have to do it through industrial cooperation.
Industry 4.0 is to establish a highly flexible production model of personalized and digital products and services. What customers want, we provide them. I personally think that this is unachievable, and there is something missing. The reason is very simple. If you have a product and you want to produce 10,000 pieces, the cost model on the left is the cost model on the left. When you realize the current German Industry 4.0, you find that labor costs have been replaced, and your product costs are almost the same as before. Because the cost of equipment has increased, and the cost of product preparation has also increased. When you actually produce 100 types, only 10,000 pieces, and then use the existing Industry 4.0 framework to solve this problem, you will find that the production preparation cost will be greatly increased, and the equipment cost will also increase, because Facing a more complicated process.
The relationship between the cost of production factors and the production mode of Industry 4.0
I searched for a picture from the Internet, which shows the concept of Industry 4.0, that is, "network + manufacturing". After thinking about it, "network + manufacturing", can they add up? The Internet is extensive, changeable, free and individual. The reality faced by China or the reality faced by generally middle developed countries is that manufacturing has the concepts of one-piece flow, logistics, scale effect, supply chain strategy, and requirements for customization and production batches. The network is hyperactive, unpredictable, and manufacturing is established and regular. How can they be combined?
Does network + manufacturing constitute Industry 4.0
Of course, we have many strategies, including interface strategies and modular strategies, which can implement different product configurations. If a company wants to truly face such changing demands, can we produce and operate it? The annual turnover rate of our company is still 10%. After we have replaced 100% of our employees after ten years, will the platform we worked so hard to build ten years ago still work? This is a question we have to think about. The architecture is very good, but it must be sustainable and maintainable, and it must be able to maintain normal operations without the skills of the personnel. So, this is a question mark, what can we do today?
The most important thing is that there is a very strange phenomenon in the production of our manufacturing enterprises. We often draw flowcharts. One process is from R&D to sales to service, and the other is from sales to production to service. There are two situations. One is production-research and development of new products is production; the other is production scheduling-repeated production is production scheduling. There are two business processes, one is the process of making money, horizontal flow; the other is the process of spending money, vertical flow. These two processes are closely related, which constitutes how we manage the enterprise.
Horizontal flow and vertical flow
Product development is not static and will be modified later. There is a lot of information exchange in this process. Each of our sales staff fully understood the customer's specific cabinet size, which wall to attach to, and whether there is glass behind the wall. However, when formulating product development requirements, modularization is to collect information from many sales personnel to form a structure. Based on this structure, the law of product changes is studied. Therefore, the future output is not a drawing, but a variable Formula. Of course, there are many current concepts, but it needs a lot of top-level support to actually operate it, including sales management and market management. The design goal of R&D is to design a set of rules, not to design a product. In the later stage, more bad feedback is needed to promote product quality improvement.
What really needs to be done, one is product file structure management, and the other is product definition hierarchical management. Together, the two are called "data architecture". When doing these two hierarchical relationships, automated machine tools and the Internet are both tools. We must not let tools affect our thinking and spirit in running a business. The tools and concepts precipitated are the product file structure and the product definition level. The level of definition of this product is only available under the environment of mass production. It is not a product, but a set of rules. With the product data architecture, we have sophisticated production equipment. Not so sophisticated people, coupled with reasonable planning, can enable enterprises to meet various needs in a highly changing world for a long time. It's not that the best thing is necessarily suitable, but to find the product that is most suitable for the current stage of the company, the company can survive for a long time.