When will I have a long tassel?

Tang Zifeng is technically illiterate, but he understands the concept of flexible manufacturing technology.

In fact, in this era, many experts in China are already discussing flexible manufacturing technology. More than 90% of them are economists who cannot distinguish between lathes and milling machines, and only 10% are engineers who are actually engaged in machine tool technology.

This is a bit like the era before Tang Zifeng traveled through time. Economists talked about "3D manufacturing" and "Industry 4.0", but in fact few people really knew what this thing was. They only knew that it was very Fashionable, if you don’t have a few words like this in your mouth, you would be embarrassed to say that you are keeping up with the times.

Traditional industrial manufacturing focuses on large batches and standardization. For example, if a company receives an order to produce 10,000 cars of a certain model, the production management department will decompose the task to each worker. Each worker only needs to manufacture the same type of parts according to the process requirements of the drawing, and the quantity is It is calculated in units of thousands.

In order to improve production efficiency, designers often design some parts into standardized specifications. For example, the screw specifications in many parts of a car are the same. There are 20 identical screws in a car, and there are 200,000 identical screws in 10,000 cars. screw. Due to large production batches, companies can use special machine tools, cutting tools, fixtures, etc. to improve production efficiency and reduce unit costs.

With the advent of a post-industrial society, consumers are increasingly demanding personalized industrial products. Some companies even allow consumers to customize their own personalized cars.

This kind of personalized industrial products are produced in small batches, and some may even be produced in single pieces. If the workers have to be given new instructions every time a specification is changed, the workers may be at a loss, and there is neither work efficiency nor work efficiency. It is difficult to guarantee the quality of production.

In this case, flexible manufacturing technology came into being. It relies on computer technology and automatic control technology to combine a series of CNC machine tools to realize automated manufacturing of products.

Any personalized product order will be broken down by the computer into specific parts production requirements, and then sent to the designated machine tool for processing. The automatic tool changing system can select the correct tool according to the processing requirements, and the automatic pallet will send the parts that need to be processed to the correct location.

In this way, a group of machine tools can be flexibly combined for production to produce different products without being restricted by the production process. This is how flexible manufacturing technology gets its name.

An important technical core of flexible manufacturing technology is indeed communication technology, and Wang Junti has a strong technical sensitivity in this regard. However, Linyiji has not yet entered the field of flexible manufacturing technology. Wang Junti has ideas but is unable to put them into practice. He can only let his imagination run wild.

"Assistant Tang, I have a bold idea." Wang Junti found a suitable audience and was in a good mood. With a few bottles of beer in his stomach, he started talking freely.

"I wonder if Assistant Tang has heard of the Internet in Beijing?" Wang Junti said.

"I heard something." Tang Zifeng resisted the urge to show off and replied calmly. On the blue star of this plane, probably no one knows what the Internet is better than him.

Wang Junti said: "This thing is now very popular abroad. Our country has just started to have it, but I am very optimistic about its development. The Internet network was first developed by the U.S. military, called ARPAnet. When we were in the army, we specialized in Research. Later, this technology was transferred to the civilian field and developed rapidly. Some people predict that the development of the Internet network will change the entire human production and lifestyle. Assistant Tang, do you believe it?"

Tang Zifeng nodded like a chicken pecking at rice: "I believe it, Mr. Wang will continue."

Wang Junti said: "I wonder whether Internet technology will also have an impact on our machine tools. For example, one day, instead of developing flexible manufacturing technology in one workshop, we will expand the concept of flexible manufacturing technology to many people." Workshops, many factories, or even the whole country. We can use the Internet to connect machine tools across the country, and combine it with the coordinating method we have promoted in the past to truly realize a nationwide game..."

"Is it necessary to connect machine tools across the country?" Han Weichang asked puzzledly.

Wang Junti said: "I know you may not understand this. Let me give you an example. Linhe Second Machine Tool Factory wants to manufacture a piece of equipment and needs a five-meter gantry boring machine, but it does not have such a large boring machine. what to do?"

Han Weichang said: "Then it must be looking for us. Isn't that what it did in the past? In the entire Linhe City, our factory has the most complete equipment. Those factories that can't produce anything that can't be produced come to them." We made it for you.”

Wang Junti said: "Yes, but if they want to ask us to help with production, there will be several obstacles. First, they don't know whether our gantry boring machine is available, so they must contact us first. Second, they have to Send someone to send the drawings, otherwise we don’t know how they plan to process it. Third, if our boring machine is not available, they don’t know which company has a spare boring machine..."

An idea flashed in Tang Zifeng's mind, and he took Wang Junti's words and said, "Does Gong Wang mean that if all machine tools across the country can be connected to the Internet, if any company manufactures a part, they can just search the Internet and know which factory is The equipment is idle, and then the drawings are transmitted directly through the network. The equipment there automatically receives the drawings and automatically produces..."

"That's it!" Wang Junti beamed with joy. He patted Han Weichang on the shoulder and said, "Old Han, thanks to you having been an engineer for so many years, your brain is not as fast as Assistant Tang's. I have thought about it, if this method can be realized , on the one hand, when companies want to find other factories for OEM, they can easily find idle equipment.

On the other hand, idle equipment in the factory can also receive OEM business, thereby improving equipment utilization. If done well, at least half of the machine tools in the country can be saved. Do you think this will save a lot of money? "

"Let me add one more thing to you." Tang Zifeng said with a smile, "If the production data of all machine tools can be connected to the Internet, we as a machine tool company will be able to grasp the working status of tens of thousands of machine tools and know whether a machine tool is Under what circumstances are failures likely to occur? We also know what processing tasks most machine tools mainly undertake on a daily basis..."

"Wonderful!" Wang Junti jumped up and said loudly: "This will be a great help for us to improve the design of machine tools. Assistant Tang, you may not know, our Linyi machine used to send people to it every year Each user company collects this data to improve the design. If this data can be collected through the communication network, and it is not the data of one or two operations, but the data of the entire life cycle of the equipment..."

"This is called big data analysis." Tang Zifeng lost no time in showing off.

"Big data analysis? That's a good statement, so domineering!" Wang Junti praised, his face full of excitement. It was obvious that the scene described by Tang Zifeng had fascinated him.

Tang Zifeng slowly sipped his beer, feeling funny in his heart.

Isn’t what Lao Wang is talking about the concept of industrial Internet for later generations?

The connotation of the industrial Internet in later generations is much more than what Lao Wang could have imagined, but as long as this door is opened, people's imagination will be fully released, and all kinds of fantastic ideas will burst out.

Wang Junti is indeed an outstanding person because he can think of interconnection on a larger scale from the concepts of flexible manufacturing technology and the Internet.

"Assistant Tang, what you are talking about is too mysterious, isn't it?" Han Weichang said, "To connect all the machine tools across the country, how many phone lines would it take?"

"Haha, Old Han, you don't have to worry about pulling the phone line." Tang Zifeng comforted Han Weichang kindly.

He couldn't educate Han Weichang on what 5G technology was. With China's national power at that time, no one believed that China could build more than 4 million base stations in one go. Even in the desert, the signal would be full. Things like pulling phone lines are really too low of a thought.

After answering Han Weichang's question, Tang Zifeng turned around and said to Wang Junti: "Wang Gong, I think the solution you envisioned is very valuable. Considering our current domestic conditions, if we want to use the Internet to connect all the devices, There are still some difficulties, but these difficulties will be solved soon. Our country has put forward the idea of ​​building an information highway, and I believe that the promotion of the Internet will also be very fast."

"For us, the construction of the Internet network is not our task. We should prepare for the development of the industrial Internet network. Are you interested in setting up a topic to do preliminary research in this area? I don't understand industry, nor do I I don’t know exactly what to do if I understand communications. However, I can responsibly say that if we are prepared now, we will definitely gain hundreds or thousands of times in the future. How? So, Mr. Wang, are you interested in doing it?"

"Is this a task in the factory, or is it an assignment assigned to me personally by Assistant Tang?" Wang Junti asked.

Tang Zifeng said: "If you are interested in doing it, I will mention it to Factory Director Zhou and Chief Engineer Qin tomorrow, and then arrange for you to focus on this topic. I want to explain in advance that this topic may not be completed within 10 years. If you don’t see practical results, you have to have the courage to sit on the bench for ten years.”

Wang Junti smiled and said: "It's not difficult. I originally planned to sit on the bench for the rest of my life at Linyiji. I find the work explained by Assistant Tang very interesting, and I believe it will be able to play a role in the future. So. , as long as the factory approves a project, I will happily accept it and I will definitely do it well."

"It's a deal!" Tang Zifeng said.

"It's a deal!" Wang Junti responded readily.

"Come on, everyone, cheers to our industrial Internet!" Tang Zifeng said loudly.

"Cheers!" Wang Junti and Han Weichang both responded loudly.