With the accelerated advancement of new-type infrastructure construction, 5G and the Industrial Internet, which are its main areas, have received much attention and continued to heat up.
5G is a new generation of mobile communication technology, which can not only bring a good mobile Internet experience, but also become a key supporting technology in the fields of smart manufacturing, smart medical care, smart government affairs, smart cities, and autonomous driving; industrial Internet platforms represent new The first generation of information technology and manufacturing industry are deeply integrated with the top-level ecosystem of innovation, including not only the hardware field of production equipment, materials and products, but also various management software, data, and service fields.
5G opens a new era of digitalization of the Internet of Everything. Industrial Internet is the main application scenario of 5G. 5G + industrial Internet will be an important direction for industrial integration. It can further promote efficient collaboration among various production factors and help enterprises achieve digital transformation and upgrading.
●Scene 1: Perceptually manage the production process ●
In the traditional industrial era, production equipment, raw materials, and energy are the three basic elements of industrial production. The development history of the traditional manufacturing industry is actually the history of enterprises using production equipment, raw materials, and energy for material production. Every technological revolution in the field of production equipment, raw materials and energy have spawned a change in production methods and a leap in productivity.
However, in recent years, with the rapid development of next-generation information technologies such as the Internet of Things, mobile Internet, cloud computing, and big data, more and more production equipment and components have achieved wireless communication with the Internet or other terminal devices. Interconnection, thus deriving the industrial Internet.
With the increasingly deep integration of information technology and manufacturing, the trend of industrial production towards digital transformation and upgrading has become more and more obvious. Digitalized knowledge and information data have become the key production factors of enterprises.
5G can support millions of "things" per square kilometer and provide industrial-grade reliability and real-time performance. These capabilities make 5G a critical infrastructure to support the successful implementation of industrial Internet strategies. It is this upgrade of "large-scale connectivity" capabilities that enables production resources, information data, items, materials, production equipment, and employees to be fully interconnected.
In the future, through comprehensive interconnection and interconnection, new technologies such as cloud computing, big data, and blockchain will be combined with automation technologies to enable vertical integration of production processes, and coordinated cooperation between equipment and equipment, employees and equipment will bring the entire factory All are connected internally and can send requests and respond to each other in a timely manner. You can also adjust the number of resources used and the productivity of products to develop personalized flexible production.
In the era of the Industrial Internet, enterprises must ensure the interconnection between basic production processes and articles, materials, and equipment to perceive all the data required for real-time decision-making.
On the one hand, sensors are distributed in the production equipment of the enterprise, and the system can continuously sense data from various processes to ensure that the data is updated in real-time; on the other hand, by integrating from the enterprise operation system (ERP, etc.), business system (MES, etc.) and supply The data of suppliers and customers can comprehensively, dynamically and in real-time control all processes in the upstream and downstream links of the supply chain, thereby improving the overall efficiency of the enterprise supply chain network.
In the industrial Internet, on the basis of the original automatic control function of the equipment/production line, by adding this new function of perception, intelligent indicators such as production safety and product life cycle management can be achieved.
These "awareness" functions attached to production equipment refer to the configuration of many IoT sensors or 5G wireless network communication modules for the equipment/production line to transmit the perceived information data to the data center or intelligent computing behind the industrial Internet platform through the wireless network The center, through big data analysis, realizes intelligent decision-making, so that the equipment/production line has functions such as visualization, controllability, automation, and self-optimization, so as to realize the intelligentization of the equipment/production line and form a perceptual management production process.
Through the perception of data, and then through the analysis of big data mining, the future production process can achieve high reliability and high stability operation, each production link is clearly visible, minimize manual intervention, and make the entire enterprise orderly and efficiently automatically Operation.
After the formation of a perceptual management production process, enterprises can grasp the status of production resources in real-time; at the same time, with the optimization of the product life cycle management system and production scheduling system, the use of raw materials and energy consumption will also be more economical, thereby further promoting enterprises to reduce costs and increase efficiency.
Through perception, enterprises can identify various abnormal conditions in the production process, monitor production safety, timely perform equipment maintenance, reserve and replenish inventory, find and solve quality problems in advance; through perception, enterprises can compare and analyze historical data with real-time collected data, Forecast production and sales, thereby improving production efficiency, product output, and quality, timely adjusting production scheduling and supply, sales and inventory systems, while preventing production safety and other issues.
Based on the above characteristics, enterprises can comprehensively and real-time control the production management system and various resources, effectively respond to the challenges caused by various internal and external uncertainties, respond more flexibly to diversified and personalized market demands, and respond more flexibly to continuous Changing needs of upstream suppliers and downstream customers.
●Scene 2: Early warning management equipment status ●
In the era of Industry 3.0 marked by automation, while reducing labor costs, companies have increased the proportion of equipment assets, which makes the remote diagnosis and operation and maintenance services of equipment face huge challenges. Because the equipment is automated anyway, it cannot avoid problems such as wear and aging. At the same time, the manufacturing industry is an industrial field where the component assembly is the main process. Due to the high complexity of the structure and technology of mechanical processing equipment, equipment maintenance is difficult The large size leads to frequent equipment failures and serious damage, which have restricted the improvement of enterprise equipment management.
Through the 5G+ industrial Internet, enterprises can further enhance their grasp of the equipment status, and through real-time monitoring and tracking, alarm and other means to ensure that production scheduling and other decisions are more reasonable and accurate, the management system can anticipate upcoming problems and challenges, and actively respond in advance Instead of waiting for the problem to respond passively.
According to reports, the German Bosch company has cooperated with Nokia to carry out a factory wireless test. The data shows that, compared to Wi-Fi and 4G, 5G has lower latency and higher stability. Bosch said that compared with the large-scale stop of the factory production line, the loss of some key processes in a short time is greater, and the key to those processes that require higher accuracy is quick response (low latency). In other words, key production tasks need to ensure the stability, reliability, sensitivity, and high network speed required for the analysis and processing of large-volume data.
It is difficult for traditional factories to lay fiber, and the wireless communication technology Wi-Fi is difficult to expand, and the rate and anti-interference performance are not strong. The delay of Wi-Fi in the manufacturing workshop may result in high costs, such as limiting productivity improvements and reducing profits.
In enterprises in some developed countries, mobile Internet connections are already more widely used than Wi-Fi. In order to take advantage of higher data speed and reliability, many enterprises are considering building 5G local area networks. Compared with 4G, 5G can support more devices in addition to a 10 times (or more) increase in network speed and 50 times lower latency.
With the advent of the 5G era, there will be more 5G LANs in the industrial Internet field. Compared with other local wireless networks, the main advantages of 5G LAN are the higher capacity to support more devices, high-bandwidth applications, wider range, seamless mobility, industrial-grade reliability, consistent latency, and higher service quality and safety, as well as interoperability with multiple suppliers upstream of the industry chain.
Wi-Fi is a wireless network communication within a certain range. The effective coverage of radio waves is generally only tens of meters. It can send and receive large-capacity data without incurring costs. Therefore, it is widely used in various places such as enterprises, parks, stations, shopping malls, hotels, etc... However, compared with mobile communication, Wi-Fi has security issues. As long as you master the Wi-Fi Internet user name and password, anyone can access the network. At the same time, Wi-Fi is not stable enough, and frequent disconnection will occur for a long time, which determines that the enterprise's key processes cannot fully use Wi-Fi. In the 4G era, the maximum download rate is 100 Mbit/s and the upload is 50 Mbit/s. The transmission will be delayed. Large-capacity data such as audio, video, and high-definition images are difficult to send in real-time. The 5G LAN not only has the Wi-Fi advantage of "no communication costs", but it can also use SIM authentication and can achieve security, dedicated and high speed, high reliability, and low latency without going through the public network.
For example, after the German Bosch company uses a 5G local area network and connects an electric screwdriver to a dedicated network, it automatically records data such as the number and order of screw rotations. Bosch uses 5G to test or verify solutions such as industrial engineering management, which not only keeps the quality of all manufactured products balanced but also prompts corrections in real-time when there is an error in the screwing sequence. Moreover, the electric screwdriver feeds back all industrial engineering data to the server at the same time. In addition to facilitating industrial engineering management, it can also provide useful information for other products.
Bosch previously implemented this management process based on Wi-Fi, and later found that 5G LANs have better performance indicators than Wi-Fi in terms of frequency band interference, bandwidth (especially uploading), overload, and network security. Different production lines in the factory may use different networks, so sometimes the production lines may need to be changed, and the Wi-Fi network is less versatile. In the future, industrial production will use a large amount of data. From the development of mass-produced and sold products to the development of products that meet the personalized and customized needs of customers, the low versatility of Wi-Fi will be a major constraint.
From the perspective of improving efficiency and reducing costs, the network in the factory also needs to be wireless. In order to improve product quality and productivity, many factories continue to promote automation, and the control of robots also needs to be wireless in real-time. However, with the expansion of factory-scale and the complexity of industrial engineering, 4G is sometimes difficult to deal with, and 5G is expected to solve these problems.
For example, Audi uses a 5G local area network to control industrial robots and AGV handling robots. It can also achieve high stability, ultra-low latency, and the same performance as wired networks in some key processes that need to manage a large number of equipment. At the same time, various data generated by industrial engineering can also be collected in real-time through 5G LAN to edge terminals or cloud computing and processed by artificial intelligence to achieve intelligence.
Audi controls the AGV handling robots through the 5G local area network, distributes the required parts in real-time for the automobile manufacturing production line, and realizes the intelligent logistics in the factory
In Germany, 5G has become an important infrastructure for Industry 4.0. In addition to automobile manufacturing companies such as Audi, Daimler, Volkswagen, and other enterprises in the petroleum, chemical, seaport, and utility sectors are also considering the construction of 5G networks-lower latency, higher bandwidth, and faster speeds brought by 5G technology And greater capacity is driving the digital transformation of manufacturing in various fields.
●Scene 3: Periodically manage product quality ●
5G can also be used to improve the quality management of enterprises. The artificial intelligence visual recognition system will be trained with millions of image data sets to ensure that it can identify all potential defects so that companies can quickly identify those problems that may affect product quality.
For example, Jabil applies artificial intelligence visual recognition technology to discover potential errors in the early stages of circuit board manufacturing. It can identify defects in the second or third of 35 to 40 processes, and the accuracy of fault detection is up to 80%, saving about 17% of labor cost and about 10% of energy. However, this method requires 5G to access a large amount of real-time, high-quality data to achieve the highest efficiency. Using QR code scanning and radio frequency identification (RFID) tracking and tracing methods, product recording is usually only performed on arrival, and only records the location and time; if the product is not qualified, it is difficult to determine which part of dozens of processes. By installing 5G sensors on product packaging, upstream and downstream links of the supply chain can query packaging information such as location, temperature, humidity, and weight without a manual inspection, and obtain real-time feedback on product status.
5G brings not only the Internet of Everything but also the tracking and tracing of all information and data, which makes the future quality management of enterprises not only limited to the factory. In the era of the Industrial Internet, each item in the factory is a terminal with a unique identification, so that the raw materials or parts used in the production link have information attributes, and will automatically enter the next process or link based on the information. The work of employees is not to move items and materials, nor to operate machinery and equipment, but to interact with information and data with uniquely identified raw materials, production equipment, and products. At the same time, with the help of the Industrial Internet, all data of products, raw materials, and components can be directly transferred to various relevant knowledge and experience databases through the 5G network. Once the product fails, you can use the massive experience and professional knowledge to quickly diagnose the fault by querying the database, improve the accuracy of fault location, and quickly carry out after-sales maintenance services to achieve full life cycle management of the product.
Product life cycle management is not only an information management system but also a modern management concept. Based on product lifecycle management, enterprises can achieve advanced production management methods such as concurrent design, flexible manufacturing, agile manufacturing, and collaborative manufacturing.
With 5G covering all processes of the enterprise, the product will achieve full life cycle quality management of R&D design-manufacturing-sales-after-sales service-scrap recycling-recycling.
First, perceive the production process and collect massive data. Data collection through sensors, high-definition cameras or 3D industrial cameras, and data analysis through the industrial Internet can make decision support for predicting equipment failures; can confirm the raw materials or parts available in inventory; can replace some functions of instruments and more Accurately perform industrial measurements and effectively collect data in harsh environments.
Second, networking-high-speed transmission, cloud computing, and interconnection. After sensing a large amount of data, how to transfer the data to the data center or intelligent computing center? This needs to rely on 5G. Unlike the simple response to data directly in a workshop in the past, companies need to aggregate data from different workshops, different branches, and different time periods to the data center or intelligent computing center behind the same industrial Internet platform for complex data. Calculation and analysis to optimize high-value algorithm models.
Third, open up the data flow in each link of the supply chain to realize the intelligentization of the entire process of the product life cycle. For example, collecting a large amount of logistics data generated in various parts of the supply chain in real-time can help companies improve logistics efficiency and reduce operating costs.
●Scenario 4: On-demand management resource allocation ●
The most important value of the Industrial Internet is to use 5G and blockchain technology to open up various processes of the enterprise, to achieve interconnection and distributed management from procurement, design, production to sales, and to achieve on-demand resources on this basis. Configuration.
In the past, companies usually organized operations through six links: R&D, planning, procurement, production, distribution, and service. These six links are relatively fixed and indispensable. But in the era of industrial Internet, these six links can even be relatively independent and evolved into six modules that can be dynamically configured according to needs. Each module has an Internet of Things awareness and a corresponding software management system. They can efficiently integrate themselves according to the needs of customers, which is neither more nor less, efficient, and flexible to meet production process requirements.
On the one hand, by making full use of 5G's perception capabilities and industrial Internet's network capabilities, in the entire life cycle management process of product development, production, sales, logistics, and services, based on the analysis of a large amount of data collected from various links, products can be iterated continuously Design, flexibly adjust production processes, and schedule production schedules in real-time, instead of fully complying with plans and previous experience.
On the other hand, the traditional view of production management believes that only after all product designs are completed can production be organized, production can be tested, and testing must be completed before sales. In the future, various production and operation activities such as procurement, design, R&D, production, testing, and sales can be carried out through industrial Internet platforms, distributed management, and parallel manufacturing.
In the era of the Industrial Internet, enterprises will have the capabilities of independent learning, self-optimization, independent decision-making, and self-organization, which can efficiently complete the tasks of flexibility, intelligence, and high quality in the production process; they can manage, operate, make decisions, and optimize, etc. The tasks are integrated into one, to achieve a truly digital transformation.
Therefore, the digital transformation of enterprises can be regarded as a double upgrade of automation from a physical perspective and intelligent integration from an information perspective. It is not only a substitution of machines but also a reduction of manual intervention on the production line and improvement of the controllability of the production process. The most important thing is Rely on 5G to realize the interconnection of all links from procurement, design, production to sales, and rely on the industrial Internet to integrate and optimize the allocation of various resources of the enterprise, realize intelligent prediction and intelligent decision-making, and flexibly produce diversified and personalized products, thereby further Enhance the core competitiveness of enterprises.
That is to say, with the deep integration and extensive application of 5G and the Industrial Internet, it is the pursuit of digital transformation for enterprises to perceive the management of production processes, early warning management of equipment status, periodic management of product quality, and on-demand management of resource allocation.