The car giant started by marrying the daughter of the king

Chapter 430: China's benchmark factory, mass production means full production
1987 12 Month 28 Day.

sunny.

The sky is clear and the air quality is excellent.

After a year of intensive construction, the third factory of BMW Group has finally officially started production.

As one of the most technologically advanced and largest modern factories in the country, many leaders have previously expressed their intention to attend the factory's mass production ceremony.

"Boss, this welding workshop is the biggest highlight of our new factory."

After completing the fixed ceremony process, Jiang Hui personally accompanied Zhou Jian, the head of the Machinery Industry Committee, to visit the new factory.

My father-in-law Zhu Jiansheng naturally also came to participate in this event.

“Thanks to the extensive use of advanced robotics and automation equipment, our welding workshop has achieved a high degree of automation.”

"During the welding process, the robot replaced traditional manual welding with its precise movements and efficient working methods."

"These robots not only have extremely high welding accuracy, but can also automatically complete various complex welding tasks according to preset programs."

The production environment of the stamping workshop is a bit too poor, and the large-tonnage stamping machines make very loud noise when working.

So I took a quick look and then went to the welding workshop.

"Which manufacturer produced this welding robot of yours?"

As the head of the Machinery Industry Committee, Zhou Jian naturally knew about welding robots.

In fact, a few years ago, FAW purchased more than a dozen KUKA welding robots from Germany to improve the welding accuracy of Hongqi cars.

However, although the robots are good, the Hongqi cars have never become popular.

Otherwise, it would not have reached the stage of forming a joint venture with BMW Group.

Of course, it is not impossible that after the joint venture with BMW Group, it will be reborn.

Anyway, for the superiors, whether it is the Hongqi sedan under FAW or the Hongqi produced by the Hongqi BMW company, they are essentially car brands that belong 100% to the Chinese.

"It was produced by Nanshan Equipment, a subsidiary of our group."

"Welding robots and other robots will have very broad application prospects in various industries such as the automotive industry in the future."

"For example, if we use manual welding for our body-in-white welding process, the total weight of each assembly, such as the side panels, floor, and engine compartment, would be quite large."

"Manual operation is very inconvenient and not worker-friendly. The key is that the welding accuracy cannot be guaranteed."

"If you are not careful enough, the overlap will be poor and the welding accuracy will not meet the requirements."

"After switching to robot welding, not only has the welding efficiency increased several times, but the welding accuracy has also been greatly improved."

"This is very beneficial for improving the strength of the entire vehicle body."

The welding workshop is the workshop that deserves special promotion today, and Jiang Hui must introduce it to everyone.

Today, not only did we have people from the ministries come over, but there was also a special filming team from China TV who came over to interview and film.

Tonight or tomorrow night’s news broadcast may include news reports about Land Rover’s new factory.

"Can Nanshan Equipment produce welding robots that can meet the needs of welding workshops?"

Zhou Jian said as he took a few steps forward.

Land Rover's factories all have specially planned visiting passages.

This passage is painted green and the dividing line is a conspicuous yellow.

Generally speaking, visiting groups try to stay in the green area to ensure their safety.

At the same time, it also avoids affecting the operators to the greatest extent.

However, there was naturally no problem for Zhou Jian to walk forward a few steps and take a good look at the welding robot.

"Yes, we have selected technicians who are proficient in mechanical design, materials, engineering mechanics, computer control, etc., and spent three years on research and development. This year, we successfully produced the welding robot."

Although the actual difficulty may not be as exaggerated as Jiang Hui said, there is definitely no harm in emphasizing the difficulty at this time.

"The welding robot needs to withstand harsh working environments such as high temperature and spark splashing, so its mechanical structure design must take into account high strength, high rigidity and good heat dissipation performance."

“And the motion control of the welding robot needs to achieve extremely high precision and stability to ensure welding quality.”

“This requires the control system to have high-precision trajectory planning and tracking capabilities.”

"It's not easy for your Nanshan equipment to solve all these problems."

Zhou Jian also started out as a grassroots technician, and he took this opportunity to show off his professional skills.

These few simple words cannot be said unless you are familiar with welding robots.

“Yes, the design of the mechanical structure and the motion control are very challenging.”

“And there are many difficulties to overcome in terms of sensing and detection technology.”

“As a key component for welding robots to achieve automated welding, sensors need to be able to monitor the status of the welding area in real time, such as temperature and molten pool morphology.”

"Just for such a small part, our Nanshan Equipment Department spent a lot of manpower and resources."

Since Zhou Jian is very interested in welding robots, Jiang Hui naturally has to give him a detailed introduction.

The welding robot itself is one of the most eye-catching equipment in the new Land Rover factory.

The entire welding workshop uses more than 100 welding robots in total, which is definitely the number one in the country.

Even in the global context, it is considered to be a relatively advanced level.

Although various automobile giants use welding robots, they are generally used in welding stations for larger parts in welding workshops, while other parts are mostly welded manually.

Because the price of welding robots is still too high.

Manual welding is cheaper.

Moreover, the welding robots at that time were not as flexible as those in later generations.

Some processes may not be possible using welding robots.

As for China, labor is so cheap that if it is not a necessary process, people will have even less interest in importing welding equipment from abroad for welding.

According to normal historical development, welding robots would not be widely used in welding workshops of various newly built automobile factories until after 2005.

In the next few years, labor costs will rise sharply. After 2015, welding workshops will basically not consider hiring people wherever robots can be used.

Because the price of robots had dropped significantly by that time, using robots to perform welding would be cheaper than using workers.

The key is that the robot is very obedient.

They are not like humans and are sometimes difficult to manage.

"Your welding robot can be widely promoted in many industries such as the domestic automobile industry and the home appliance industry."

"It can not only greatly improve the welding quality of parts, but also improve production efficiency."

"Who says we in China can't build a modern automobile factory?"

"I see that your new factory is very modern."

Zhou Jian obviously had a very high opinion of the new factory in front of him.

In recent years, BMW Group has undoubtedly become a star in the domestic industrial sector.

As a model of successful reform, Zhou Jian is well aware that achieving greater results is actually very challenging.

But Land Rover's new factory did not disappoint him.

The degree of automation in the welding workshops of other domestic automobile factories is completely different. Once you enter the workshop, you will find that it is arranged neatly and orderly, giving you the feeling of visiting the production workshop of an international automobile giant in America or Japan.

"We at Nanshan Equipment will also promote our welding robots to domestic customers in the next step."

"In addition to the fields of mechanical manufacturing and automobile production, we are also preparing to make our welding robots play an important role in the field of electronic equipment manufacturing."

"For the welding of precise and tiny components, circuit boards or connectors, our newly developed welding robot can ensure the reliability of welding with its high precision and stability."

"Especially in the manufacturing of medical equipment, the application of welding robots has improved the welding quality of medical equipment and provided a strong guarantee for the safety of patients during treatment."

"In the next step, we will also simultaneously enter the international market and sell Nanshan Equipment's welding robots to America, Japan, Europe and other places."

Jiang Hui knows that most factories in China currently cannot afford welding robots.

Besides, if welding robots replace manual welding, how to arrange the personnel is also a problem.

"Welding robots have great potential. When the time comes, our committee will recommend your welding robots to each of our subordinate factories."

"Besides that, you can also boldly develop other robots."

"I think this will become your Nanshan Equipment's flagship product in the future."

Zhou Jian has a very good vision.

He has gained a lot of knowledge over the years and knows that robots are definitely very promising.

"We will definitely work hard to make Nanshan welding robot a world-renowned welding robot brand."

Zhou Jiandu expressed his willingness to help him promote robots, so Jiang Hui naturally had to express his opinion.

Next, the visiting group walked around the welding workshop and then entered the painting workshop.

Compared to the welding workshop, the painting workshop is definitely not as convenient to visit.

“Mechanized transportation plays an important role in the entire painting process in our paint shop.”

"Except for the manual loading and unloading of car bodies on the gluing line, all other links are automated."

“This greatly improves production efficiency, and the automated production process also ensures the stability and consistency of coating quality.”

I just talked about robots and promoted the degree of automation in the welding workshop.

Now that we have arrived at the paint shop, we naturally have to make a transition first so that everyone can continue to feel the degree of automation in the paint shop.

Then the specific painting process will be introduced.

“The production line in front of us is the pre-treatment line.”

"Pretreatment before painting is a key step to ensure the quality of painting." "Our paint shop uses advanced pretreatment technology, including degreasing, phosphating and other processes to remove impurities such as oil and rust on the surface of the car body, laying a solid foundation for subsequent painting work."

"The next thing is the electrophoresis line."

"Electrophoretic coating is an important means of anti-corrosion for car bodies and is also the most mainstream car body coating technology in the world."

"Land Rover's paint shop uses cathodic electrophoretic coating technology, which allows the paint to adhere evenly to the surface of the car body through electrophoresis, forming a dense anti-corrosion layer."

"This electrophoresis line has a high degree of automation and the coating effect is stable and reliable."

Jiang Hui introduced the situation of his paint shop to Zhou Jian and others with familiarity and confidence.

This production line is the most advanced in the country, so he naturally has the confidence.

“After completing the electrophoretic coating, we came to the spray paint room.”

“The spray booth is also the core workshop in our paint shop.”

“It uses a high-efficiency water-washing spray booth developed with the help of Nanshan Equipment, which provides better spraying and processing effects.”

"Our spray booth is also equipped with advanced automatic sprayers and air atomizing reciprocating spray guns, which realizes the automation and efficiency of spraying."

One of Jiang Hui’s main focuses today is automation.

In this era, the level of automation largely determines people's recognition of your advancement.

If you can come up with an unmanned workshop at this time, everyone will give you a thumbs up, saying that your workshop is very advanced.

It’s unlike later generations, where everyone is knowledgeable and sees nothing special.

“The last part is our drying room.”

"The drying room is used to dry and cure the painted car body."

Taking into account that not all the leaders attending the event today are very clear about automobile production technology, Jiang Hui’s introduction must naturally be easy to understand and everyone must have a basic understanding of the role of each process and workshop.

Otherwise, if he just takes a cursory look and leaves no impression, Jiang Hui's efforts will be in vain.

"Our paint shop uses an energy-saving door-type drying room, which is a drying equipment comparable to the most advanced in the world. Its advantages are small heat loss and significant energy-saving effect."

In the 1980s, China's electricity supply was not so stable.

The concept of saving electricity and water is often promoted.

Although the BMW Group is a key electricity security unit, it does not need to worry about lack of electricity.

But we still need to save what we should save, otherwise it will be difficult for these devices to exert their competitiveness in the international market.

The products that Jiang Hui arranges for each subsidiary company are not simply designed for the domestic market, but take into account global needs.

In this case, the international trend of energy conservation and environmental protection cannot be ignored.

Otherwise, if you play in the country, the room for development will be relatively limited.

After all, the industrial level of China at this time cannot be compared with that of thirty or forty years later.

“In addition, in terms of environmental protection, our paint shop has taken a number of measures to reduce the emission of waste gas and wastewater.”

"For example, the exhaust gas from the electrophoretic coating room and the paint drying room is directly sent to the drying room as fresh air for supplementary drying, which prevents environmental pollution and saves energy."

"At the same time, the workshop is also equipped with advanced wastewater treatment equipment to ensure that wastewater is discharged in compliance with standards."

Although environmental protection is not a hot topic in China at this time.

However, this automobile factory was built inside the city of Shenzhen, which was definitely the city center in later generations.

Jiang Hui certainly doesn't want to make the air around him smoky and foul.

As long as automobile factories do a good job of environmental protection, the impact on surrounding residents will be very limited.

However, if you are not careful, the exhaust gas from the paint shop can directly reduce the air quality within a radius of several kilometers by several levels.

It is completely worth spending a little money to set a benchmark and make leaders at all levels look at Land Rover with a higher regard.

The main reason is that Jiang Hui himself lives near the factory, and he also has to consider himself.

"With advanced process equipment, strict quality management, efficient automated production processes and environmentally friendly production measures, your new factory will surely become an important symbol of the modernization of China's automobile industry."

"Boss Jiang, I have more and more confidence in your group."

Zhou Jian didn't expect to see so many different things in the paint shop.

This was definitely an unexpected surprise.

Naturally, those who came with Zhou Jian to inspect also heard their leader's high praise for Land Rover.

When I do things in the future, I will definitely have some inclinations.

"After our cars come out of the paint shop, they are sent to the final assembly shop via an automatic conveyor chain."

"This workshop has the largest area and the largest number of workers among our several process workshops."

Whether now or in the future, the final assembly workshop is the place with the largest number of people in a car factory.

Many parts are not suitable for completion by robots, and manual labor is more convenient and flexible.

For example, simple door frame strips can be installed very quickly by workers and the quality is guaranteed.

However, using a robot would be extremely difficult and it would be easy to damage the rubber strip.

After all, the control parts of a robot are not as flexible and gentle as those of human hands.

The installation of many other parts is similar.

Almost all of them are installed and assembled manually.

Only auxiliary equipment will be added to the workstations where the parts are heavier.

"Our assembly workshop adopts a scientific and reasonable streamlined design in its layout, ensuring a smooth and efficient production process."

"The workshop has multiple production lines including engine assembly line, chassis assembly line, body assembly line and interior assembly line."

"The production lines are closely connected to form a complete production system."

"At the same time, the workshop is also equipped with modern facilities such as advanced lifting equipment, conveyor belts and automated assembly robots, which greatly improves production efficiency."

The things Jiang Hui introduced can be introduced in the final assembly workshop of any automobile factory in the future, and they can be better than the current Land Rover cars.

But that is later!
Even today, Land Rover's final assembly plant is definitely still very competitive.

"There are many processes in the final assembly workshop. We have made a lot of efforts to ensure quality."

"First, the workshop has established a strict quality management system, and every link in the production process is monitored and recorded in detail."

"Secondly, we have also set up a special quality inspection station in the workshop to conduct comprehensive inspection and testing on vehicles off the production line to ensure that their performance meets the standards."

"Finally, we will also conduct quality awareness training for employees on a regular basis to enhance their quality awareness and operational skills."

Although the Capital Internal Combustion Engine Factory introduced the TQC management tools from Japan many years ago and promoted them in many factories.

However, quality management is closely related to people. Even if you have good management tools, you must implement them well.

There is no doubt that many factories have not implemented this aspect very thoroughly.

If Land Rover wants to become a global automotive giant, it naturally has to do something different.

"Similar to the welding workshop and the painting workshop, our final assembly workshop uses automated assembly robots to assemble some parts, which greatly improves production efficiency."

"At the same time, we also cooperated with Nanshan Software to introduce advanced information management systems to achieve real-time collection and analysis of production data, providing strong support for production decision-making."

"This is the only one in the country that has introduced an information management system in its final assembly workshop."

It is natural to promote the brand of our own factory well.

Didn’t you see that the reporters from China TV were diligently filming and recording?

"Boss Jiang, your new factory is truly a benchmark factory for China's automobile industry."

"I think it's no worse than Toyota and General Motors' factories."

Although Zhou Jian was not young anymore, he followed Jiang Hui on a tour from the stamping workshop to the final assembly workshop, which took almost an hour, but he did not feel tired at all.

He was very willing to participate in this kind of fruitful visit.

"Thank you for the compliment, leader."

"In fact, when we first started planning, we were prepared to use many advanced processes, but we haven't yet achieved a complete breakthrough in technology."

"When we build the next factory, we will be able to catch up with the international advanced level in all aspects."

"We have only reached or exceeded international standards in some areas, and there are still many areas where we need to continue to work hard."

Jiang Hui didn't say too much.

In China, if you speak too confidently, it is easy for some people to feel uncomfortable.

"It is not easy for the BMW Group to grow to its current size in just a few years and build such an advanced benchmark factory through its own efforts."

"By the way, the production capacity of your factory is so large, is there any problem with the production capacity?"

Zhou Jian asked a question that many people are concerned about.

It is naturally a good thing to have a large production capacity planning.

But if the actual demand is small and the capacity vacancy rate is very high, it would be embarrassing.

Some factories are facing such a situation now.

"Our previous two factories had to rely on overtime to barely complete various production tasks."

"In order to make room for Land Rover, we even sacrificed the production of BMW and Mercedes-Benz sedans."

"Now that the third factory is finally going to be put into production smoothly, all related production arrangements are being carried out in accordance with full production conditions."

"This will also allow the original factory to free up their weekends to properly inspect and repair their equipment!"

After Jiang Hui said this, Zhou Jian felt completely relieved.

(End of this chapter)