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The worldwide automotive business is within the midst of main adjustments and challenges in opposition to the pattern of electrification and intelligence. In keeping with the latest statistics launched by a neighborhood auto business affiliation, the gross sales of China’s gasoline automobile market have declined for 3 consecutive years. With the intensification of the value struggle, some automobile corporations have even withdrawn from the market. The auto elements producers caught in it are dealing with the issue of survive and develop in opposition to the more and more fierce competitors.
Yanfeng Auto International Automotive Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter known as “Yanfeng Auto”) is a number one Chinese language automotive elements provider specializing in automotive inside and exterior trim, automobile seats, cabin electronics and security methods. Headquartered in Shanghai, Yanfeng Auto has 9 R&D facilities, greater than 240 factories and technical facilities in 20 international locations around the globe, with over 55,000 workers. Going through challenges, Yanfeng Auto’s method is to work with corporations like IBM with superior expertise, business expertise and technical experience to speed up its personal data-driven digital transformation to cut back value, enhance effectivity and scale for company-wide innovation.
State of affairs 1: Robotically convert huge exterior basic orders to inner orders with the pure language studying functionality of IBM Watson Discovery
Yanfeng Auto receives an enormous variety of orders from automakers and downstream producers each day, and it beforehand needed to manually convert exterior basic orders to inner orders primarily based 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 large challenges for the corporate by way of labor value and effectivity.
Leveraging the highly effective pure language studying functionality of IBM Watson Discovery and the hands-on assist of IBM Customer Success Manager (CSM) team, Yanfeng Auto efficiently constructed up an AI mannequin that was skilled with its blended information of structured information and unstructured textual content, masking 180 million historic information, with over 200 permutations and combos. The mannequin has discovered the foundations behind the interior orders akin to basic orders. The AI mannequin helps the corporate notice a completely computerized execution course of with out handbook operation, rising the order classification accuracy fee from 85% to 97%.
State of affairs 2: Notice high-speed transmission of huge information between department manufacturing workshops and headquarters with Aspera Module of IBM Cloud Pak for Integration, establishing information basis for clever stock platform with predictability.
The Clever Manufacturing Division of Yanfeng Auto hopes to work with IBM CSM group to discover the way in which of build up its clever stock platform with predictive capabilities. To drive predictive choice making and computerized recognition, they want a considerable amount of information throughout the corporate for AI mannequin coaching. Nonetheless, the primary roadblock is its outdated means of information transmission.
To take care of real-time situational consciousness of the elements stock in numerous manufacturing workshops in additional than 240 factories around the globe, Yanfeng Auto must rapidly transmit again to headquarters the hundreds of real-time pictures taken at every plant. Beforehand, the Clever Manufacturing Division used the normal copy and paste technique to switch the photograph recordsdata by batches. As a consequence of sluggish transmission velocity, large community delays, and severe packet loss, they needed to manually choose and duplicate the photograph recordsdata by batches and repeat the method a number of instances. This was not solely time-consuming but in addition made it straightforward to make errors. On the similar time, if the transmission was interrupted, it couldn’t be reconnected and resume transmission routinely, nor may they customise the transmission velocity, or absolutely make the most of the transmission bandwidth of the spine community.
With assist of IBM CSM group, 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 velocity by 10 instances, saved handbook ready time, prevented human errors, realized computerized transmission resumption and computerized community reconnection. With this answer, Yanfeng Auto now can dynamically configure transmission bandwidth and velocity restrict with out affecting the efficiency of its ERP core system and maximize the transmission effectivity of its real-time monitoring recordsdata, laying the information basis for realizing the division’s imaginative and prescient of build up an clever stock platform with predictive capabilities.
State of affairs 3: Break the operational bottleneck brought on by Kafka, an open-source information extraction instrument. With Occasion Streams Module of IBM Cloud Pak for Integration, you’ll be able to simplify the method of extremely accessible information extraction.
Yanfeng Auto has beforehand deployed an open-source Kafka cluster in every department manufacturing facility to extract information from a number of real-time manufacturing information in its MES system and supply them to the MI Kanban (Dashboard) System of every manufacturing facility for question and show. Nonetheless, this open-source system poses a number of operational complexities.
For instance, for every handbook set up, deployment, configuration, improve, and upkeep, it will take days or perhaps weeks and incur an enormous labor value. Furthermore, it was not ready to make sure enterprise-level safety and excessive availability, and it didn’t assist pure integration with the core enterprise methods and the widespread manufacturing methods. Lastly, there was no Kafka technical assist or after-sales assure, ensuing within the want for ongoing funding in workers coaching and knowledgeable consulting providers.
With the assist of IBM CSM group, Yanfeng Auto has efficiently adopted Event Streams Module of IBM Cloud Pak for Integration in considered one of its factories as a prototype for real-time information extraction. The information-generating utility extracts information—comparable to elements manufacturing shifts, manufacturing portions, demand portions, rework portions, sequencing and different related manufacturing information—from the MES system and sends them to the corresponding information subject channel. Functions that extract information can use the information immediately by subscribing to the corresponding subject 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 information 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 secure model of Kafka. Occasion Streams comes with a graphical operation interface, which requires little extra abilities 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 consumer to acquire the technical experience they want.
State of affairs 4: Notice clever manufacturing capability estimation and planning for core manufacturing tools with Choice Optimization Module of IBM Cloud Pak for Knowledge to cut back prices and improve effectivity.
In auto elements manufacturing, injection molding is among the necessary processes. Yanfeng Auto supplies numerous automakers with inside elements comparable to instrument panels, which require a core tools of injection molding machine to supply. Because of the completely different specs of the instrument panels of varied automobile fashions, the manufacturing course of requires tools changeovers. For instance, when the fabric is switched from black to white, the tools must be cleaned; when switching from white to black, it doesn’t have to be cleaned. Switching from gold to pink requires different extra actions.
Tools switching is not going to solely contain value, however have an effect on manufacturing scheduling and stock administration. For instance, how do they decide the optimum financial batch measurement of various merchandise whereas lowering stock prices? How do they steadiness the capability of a number of machines for a whole 12 months whereas assembly buyer wants? How can they estimate the capability of the machine to higher alter the plan, maximize the effectivity of the machine, improve productiveness, and cut back extra time? How will they make sure that the plan could be carried out in manufacturing and that adjustments could be responded to in a well timed method after they come？
Within the context of the continual growth and alter of demand for numerous auto elements, and the truth that productiveness and manufacturing assets are very restricted, the normal manufacturing planning technique is predicated on expertise and handbook calculation, which simply causes issues comparable to low manufacturing effectivity, excessive stock value, heavy labor burden and extra. All of this might significantly have an effect on the manufacturing effectivity of the corporate, so it’s obligatory to search out new methods to develop affordable manufacturing planning and scheduling schemes.
After rounds of discussions with consultants from IBM CSM group, IBM Consultants Lab and IBM China Improvement Lab, IBM consultants developed a complete and agile answer for Yanfeng Auto with Decision Optimization Module of IBM Cloud Pak for Data. The answer has two complementary elements—the general multi-machine, multi-month planning scheme and the single-month effective scheduling scheme.
The answer helps almost 100 workers in additional than 20 factories to plan the capability of tons of of injection molding machines with extremely detailed and particular plans. Every define plan is accompanied by an correct scheduling plan, which is very sensible for follow-up steering for manufacturing. It is usually an agile answer: planning a set of schemes solely takes a number of or dozens of minutes, enormously bettering the responsiveness to future adjustments. If the shopper wants or manufacturing assets change, Yanfeng Auto can alter the plan at any time. Primarily based 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 group 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 inner orders; from fixing the issue of high-speed information transmission in department factories around the globe 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 information extraction, to the newest AI-powered options to understand manufacturing capability estimation and planning for its core manufacturing tools. From information 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 among the business pioneers in China to deal with enterprise challenges with a “data-first” technique. Yanfeng Auto can also be the pioneer consumer 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.
About Yanfeng Auto
Yanfeng Auto Worldwide Automotive Know-how Co., Ltd. (known as “Yanfeng Auto”) is a world automotive elements provider, dedicated to offering carmakers and different customers with inside and seating options that meet the wants of at this time’s and tomorrow’s driving, redefining the way in which you chill out, work and play within the automobile. 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 international locations around the globe, and greater than 55,000 workers worldwide, offering international automobile producers with the design, growth and manufacture of auto elements merchandise. With product innovation and forward-looking analysis, Yanfeng Auto will assist automakers discover the long run, deliver higher human-car interplay expertise to international auto shoppers, and actively promote the evolution of automobile driving expertise.
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