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The worldwide automotive trade is within the midst of main adjustments and challenges in opposition to the development of electrification and intelligence. In accordance with the current statistics launched by a neighborhood auto trade affiliation, the gross sales of China’s gas car market have declined for 3 consecutive years. With the intensification of the value struggle, some automotive corporations have even withdrawn from the market. The auto components producers caught in it are dealing with the issue of the way to 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 components provider specializing in automotive inside and exterior trim, automotive 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 nations all over the world, with over 55,000 staff. Going through challenges, Yanfeng Auto’s method is to work with corporations like IBM with superior know-how, trade expertise and technical experience to speed up its personal data-driven digital transformation to scale back price, enhance effectivity and scale for company-wide innovation.
State of affairs 1: Mechanically convert large 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 day by day, and it beforehand needed to manually convert exterior basic orders to inner orders based mostly on expertise. In every manufacturing unit, it took a median of 150 minutes a day for 2 employees 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 assist of IBM Customer Success Manager (CSM) team, Yanfeng Auto efficiently constructed up an AI mannequin that was skilled with its blended knowledge of structured knowledge and unstructured textual content, overlaying 180 million historic knowledge, with over 200 permutations and mixtures. The mannequin has realized the foundations behind the interior orders equivalent to basic orders. The AI mannequin helps the corporate understand a totally automated execution course of with out guide operation, growing the order classification accuracy price from 85% to 97%.
State of affairs 2: Understand high-speed transmission of large 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 staff to discover the way in which of build up its clever stock platform with predictive capabilities. To drive predictive resolution making and automated recognition, they want a considerable amount of knowledge throughout the corporate for AI mannequin coaching. Nonetheless, the primary roadblock is its outdated manner of knowledge transmission.
To keep up real-time situational consciousness of the components stock in varied manufacturing workshops in additional than 240 factories all over the world, Yanfeng Auto must rapidly transmit again to headquarters the hundreds of real-time photographs taken at every plant. Beforehand, the Clever Manufacturing Division used the normal copy and paste methodology to switch the picture recordsdata by batches. As a consequence of sluggish transmission velocity, huge community delays, and severe packet loss, they needed to manually choose and duplicate the picture recordsdata by batches and repeat the method a number of occasions. 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 staff, Yanfeng Auto efficiently deployed Aspera Module of IBM Cloud Pak for Integration inside solely someday to construct up a light-weight enterprise-level file switch answer for Yanfeng Auto, which elevated its file switch velocity by 10 occasions, saved guide ready time, prevented human errors, realized automated transmission resumption and automated 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 info 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 knowledge extraction software. With Occasion Streams Module of IBM Cloud Pak for Integration, you possibly can simplify the method of extremely accessible knowledge extraction.
Yanfeng Auto has beforehand deployed an open-source Kafka cluster in every department manufacturing unit 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 unit for question and show. Nonetheless, this open-source system poses a number of operational complexities.
For instance, for every guide set up, deployment, configuration, improve, and upkeep, it might take days or even weeks and incur an enormous labor price. 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 employees coaching and skilled consulting providers.
With the assist of IBM CSM staff, 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 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 subject channel. Functions that extract knowledge can use the info straight 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 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 most recent 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 gives enterprise-level after-sales service, skilled session, and well timed troubleshooting, serving to the shopper to acquire the technical experience they want.
State of affairs 4: Understand clever manufacturing capability estimation and planning for core manufacturing tools with Choice Optimization Module of IBM Cloud Pak for Information to scale back prices and improve effectivity.
In auto components manufacturing, injection molding is among the vital processes. Yanfeng Auto gives varied automakers with inside components akin to instrument panels, which require a core tools of injection molding machine to provide. Because of the totally different specs of the instrument panels of assorted car 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 must be cleaned. Switching from gold to pink requires different extra actions.
Gear 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 lowering stock prices? How do they stability 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 higher modify the plan, maximize the effectivity of the machine, improve productiveness, and scale back extra time? How will they be sure that the plan will be carried out in manufacturing and that adjustments will be responded to in a well timed method after they come？
Within the context of the continual growth and alter of demand for varied auto components, and the truth that productiveness and manufacturing sources are very restricted, the normal manufacturing planning methodology relies 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 critically have an effect on the manufacturing effectivity of the corporate, so it’s vital to seek out new methods to develop cheap manufacturing planning and scheduling schemes.
After rounds of discussions with specialists from IBM CSM staff, IBM Specialists Lab and IBM China Growth Lab, IBM specialists developed a complete and agile answer for Yanfeng Auto with Decision Optimization Module of IBM Cloud Pak for Data. The answer has two complementary components—the general multi-machine, multi-month planning scheme and the single-month high-quality scheduling scheme.
The answer helps almost 100 employees in additional than 20 factories to plan the capability of a whole bunch 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 steerage for manufacturing. It’s also an agile answer: planning a set of schemes solely takes a number of or dozens of minutes, tremendously enhancing the responsiveness to future adjustments. If the shopper wants or manufacturing sources change, Yanfeng Auto can modify the plan at any time. Primarily based on an agile and customary platform, this business-friendly answer will be simply tailored and scaled to different manufacturing amenities and different related areas.
The IBM CSM staff has accompanied Yanfeng Auto on its journey of digital and clever transformation for 2 years: from the preliminary realization of automated conversion of exterior orders to inner orders; from fixing the issue of high-speed knowledge transmission in department factories all over the world to the headquarters; from changing its open-source software with an IBM enterprise software constructed on open supply to simplify its IT operational complexity for high-availability knowledge extraction, to the most recent AI-powered options to comprehend manufacturing capability estimation and planning for its core manufacturing tools. 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 specialists to show applied sciences to tangible enterprise values.
Yanfeng Auto is among the trade pioneers in China to deal with enterprise challenges with a “data-first” technique. Yanfeng Auto can be the pioneer shopper of IBM in China that has been working intently 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 Expertise Co., Ltd. (known as “Yanfeng Auto”) is a worldwide automotive components 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 loosen up, 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 all over the world, and greater than 55,000 staff worldwide, offering international car producers with the design, growth 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.
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