The worldwide automotive trade is within the midst of main modifications and challenges towards the development of electrification and intelligence. In keeping with the latest statistics launched by an area auto trade affiliation, the gross sales of China’s gasoline automobile market have declined for 3 consecutive years. With the intensification of the worth warfare, some automotive firms have even withdrawn from the market. The auto components producers caught in it are going through the issue of survive and develop towards the more and more fierce competitors.
Yanfeng Auto Worldwide Automotive Know-how Co., Ltd. (hereinafter known as “Yanfeng Auto”) is a number one Chinese language automotive components provider specializing in automotive inside and exterior trim, automotive seats, cabin electronics and security techniques. Headquartered in Shanghai, Yanfeng Auto has 9 R&D facilities, greater than 240 factories and technical facilities in 20 nations world wide, with over 55,000 workers. Going through challenges, Yanfeng Auto’s method is to work with firms like IBM with superior know-how, trade expertise and technical experience to speed up its personal data-driven digital transformation to cut back price, enhance effectivity and scale for company-wide innovation.
Situation 1: Robotically convert huge exterior normal orders to inside orders with the pure language studying functionality of IBM Watson Discovery
Yanfeng Auto receives an enormous variety of orders from automakers and downstream producers day-after-day, and it beforehand needed to manually convert exterior normal orders to inside orders based mostly on expertise. In every manufacturing facility, it took a median of 150 minutes a day for 2 workers members to kind the orders manually, accompanied by 15% classification errors. That presents huge challenges for the corporate when it comes to labor price and effectivity.
Leveraging the highly effective pure language studying functionality of IBM Watson Discovery and the hands-on help of IBM Buyer Success Supervisor (CSM) workforce, Yanfeng Auto efficiently constructed up an AI mannequin that was educated with its blended knowledge of structured knowledge and unstructured textual content, protecting 180 million historic knowledge, with over 200 permutations and mixtures. The mannequin has realized the foundations behind the interior orders similar to normal orders. The AI mannequin helps the corporate notice a completely computerized execution course of with out guide operation, rising the order classification accuracy charge from 85% to 97%.
Situation 2: Notice high-speed transmission of huge knowledge between department manufacturing workshops and headquarters with Aspera Module of IBM Cloud Pak for Integration, establishing knowledge basis for clever stock platform with predictability.
The Clever Manufacturing Division of Yanfeng Auto hopes to work with IBM CSM workforce to discover the way in which of increase its clever stock platform with predictive capabilities. To drive predictive resolution making and computerized recognition, they want a considerable amount of knowledge throughout the corporate for AI mannequin coaching. Nevertheless, the primary roadblock is its outdated method of knowledge transmission.
To keep up real-time situational consciousness of the components stock in varied manufacturing workshops in additional than 240 factories world wide, Yanfeng Auto must rapidly transmit again to headquarters the 1000’s of real-time photographs taken at every plant. Beforehand, the Clever Manufacturing Division used the standard copy and paste technique to switch the photograph information by batches. As a result of gradual transmission pace, huge community delays, and critical packet loss, they needed to manually choose and duplicate the photograph information by batches and repeat the method a number of instances. This was not solely time-consuming but additionally made it straightforward to make errors. On the identical time, if the transmission was interrupted, it couldn’t be reconnected and resume transmission robotically, nor may they customise the transmission pace, or totally make the most of the transmission bandwidth of the spine community.
With help of IBM CSM workforce, Yanfeng Auto efficiently deployed Aspera Module of IBM Cloud Pak for Integration inside solely sooner or later to construct up a light-weight enterprise-level file switch answer for Yanfeng Auto, which elevated its file switch pace by 10 instances, saved guide ready time, averted human errors, realized computerized transmission resumption and computerized community reconnection. With this answer, Yanfeng Auto now can dynamically configure transmission bandwidth and pace restrict with out affecting the efficiency of its ERP core system and maximize the transmission effectivity of its real-time monitoring information, laying the information basis for realizing the division’s imaginative and prescient of increase an clever stock platform with predictive capabilities.
Situation 3: Break the operational bottleneck brought on by Kafka, an open-source knowledge extraction instrument. With Occasion Streams Module of IBM Cloud Pak for Integration, you may simplify the method of extremely obtainable knowledge extraction.
Yanfeng Auto has beforehand deployed an open-source Kafka cluster in every department manufacturing facility to extract knowledge from a number of real-time manufacturing knowledge in its MES system and supply them to the MI Kanban (Dashboard) System of every manufacturing facility for question and show. Nevertheless, this open-source system poses a number of operational complexities.
For instance, for every guide set up, deployment, configuration, improve, and upkeep, it will take days or even weeks and incur an enormous labor price. Furthermore, it was not in a position to make sure enterprise-level safety and excessive availability, and it didn’t help pure integration with the core enterprise techniques and the widespread manufacturing techniques. Lastly, there was no Kafka technical help or after-sales assure, ensuing within the want for ongoing funding in workers coaching and knowledgeable consulting companies.
With the help of IBM CSM workforce, Yanfeng Auto has efficiently adopted Occasion Streams Module of IBM Cloud Pak for Integration in certainly one of its factories as a prototype for real-time knowledge extraction. The info-generating software extracts knowledge—akin to components manufacturing shifts, manufacturing portions, demand portions, rework portions, sequencing and different related manufacturing knowledge—from the MES system and sends them to the corresponding knowledge matter channel. Purposes that extract knowledge can use the information instantly by subscribing to the corresponding matter channel of Occasion Streams. The MI Skynet Kanban (Dashboard) system can choose specified desk fields for subsequent dashboard show and early warning evaluation.
By deploying Occasion Streams, the enterprise-level knowledge extraction answer, Yan Feng can obtain “one-click” deployment, out-of-the-box use, zero downtime rolling upgrades, and all the time have the newest steady model of Kafka. Occasion Streams comes with a graphical operation interface, which requires little further expertise coaching. It additionally takes benefit of high-security, geo-replication, and enterprise-grade catastrophe restoration capabilities of the product. Furthermore, different functionalities like superior schema registries and wealthy Kafka connectors and extensible REST APIs make it straightforward to scale. As well as, IBM supplies enterprise-level after-sales service, knowledgeable session, and well timed troubleshooting, serving to the shopper to acquire the technical experience they want.
Situation 4: Notice clever manufacturing capability estimation and planning for core manufacturing gear with Determination Optimization Module of IBM Cloud Pak for Knowledge to cut back prices and improve effectivity.
In auto components manufacturing, injection molding is without doubt one of the essential processes. Yanfeng Auto supplies varied automakers with inside components akin to instrument panels, which require a core gear of injection molding machine to supply. Because of the totally different specs of the instrument panels of assorted automobile fashions, the manufacturing course of requires gear changeovers. For instance, when the fabric is switched from black to white, the gear must be cleaned; when switching from white to black, it doesn’t should be cleaned. Switching from gold to pink requires different further actions.
Tools switching won’t solely contain price, however have an effect on manufacturing scheduling and stock administration. For instance, how do they decide the optimum financial batch dimension of various merchandise whereas decreasing stock prices? How do they steadiness the capability of a number of machines for a whole yr whereas assembly buyer wants? How can they estimate the capability of the machine to raised modify the plan, maximize the effectivity of the machine, improve productiveness, and cut back time beyond regulation? How will they be certain that the plan could be carried out in manufacturing and that modifications could be responded to in a well timed method once they come?
Within the context of the continual enlargement and alter of demand for varied auto components, and the truth that productiveness and manufacturing sources are very restricted, the standard manufacturing planning technique is predicated on expertise and guide calculation, which simply causes issues akin to low manufacturing effectivity, excessive stock price, heavy labor burden and extra. All of this might significantly have an effect on the manufacturing effectivity of the corporate, so it’s essential to search out new methods to develop cheap manufacturing planning and scheduling schemes.
After rounds of discussions with consultants from IBM CSM workforce, IBM Specialists Lab and IBM China Improvement Lab, IBM consultants developed a complete and agile answer for Yanfeng Auto with Determination Optimization Module of IBM Cloud Pak for Knowledge. The answer has two complementary components—the general multi-machine, multi-month planning scheme and the single-month advantageous scheduling scheme.
The answer helps practically 100 workers in additional than 20 factories to plan the capability of lots of of injection molding machines with extremely detailed and particular plans. Every define plan is accompanied by an correct scheduling plan, which is extremely sensible for follow-up steerage for manufacturing. It’s also an agile answer: planning a set of schemes solely takes a number of or dozens of minutes, significantly bettering the responsiveness to future modifications. If the shopper wants or manufacturing sources change, Yanfeng Auto can modify the plan at any time. Based mostly on an agile and customary platform, this business-friendly answer could be simply tailored and scaled to different manufacturing services and different comparable areas.
The IBM CSM workforce has accompanied Yanfeng Auto on its journey of digital and clever transformation for 2 years: from the preliminary realization of computerized conversion of exterior orders to inside orders; from fixing the issue of high-speed knowledge transmission in department factories world wide to the headquarters; from changing its open-source instrument with an IBM enterprise instrument constructed on open supply to simplify its IT operational complexity for high-availability knowledge extraction, to the newest AI-powered options to comprehend manufacturing capability estimation and planning for its core manufacturing gear. From knowledge integration and administration to making use of AI to its enterprise course of and planning, Yanfeng Auto has been actively co-creating with IBM technical and enterprise consultants to show applied sciences to tangible enterprise values.
Yanfeng Auto is without doubt one of the trade pioneers in China to deal with enterprise challenges with a “data-first” technique. Yanfeng Auto can also be the pioneer shopper of IBM in China that has been working carefully with IBM to co-create first-of-a-kind scenario-based options with IBM Cloud and AI applied sciences.
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About Yanfeng Auto
Yanfeng Auto Worldwide Automotive Know-how Co., Ltd. (known as “Yanfeng Auto”) is a world automotive components provider, dedicated to offering carmakers and different customers with inside and seating options that meet the wants of at the moment’s and tomorrow’s driving, redefining the way in which you calm down, work and play within the automotive. Headquartered in Shanghai, the corporate has 9 R&D bases, greater than 4,200 R&D groups, greater than 240 factories and technical facilities in 20 nations world wide, and greater than 55,000 workers worldwide, offering international automobile producers with the design, improvement and manufacture of auto components merchandise. With product innovation and forward-looking analysis, Yanfeng Auto will assist automakers discover the long run, convey higher human-car interplay expertise to international auto shoppers, and actively promote the evolution of automotive driving expertise.