World Economic Forum Adds Second SANY Factory to Global Lighthouse Network
SANY Heavy Industry, a leading enterprise of the high-end equipment manufacturing industry, now has two certified lighthouse factories as part of the prestigious World Economic Forum (WEF)’s Global Lighthouse Network (GLN). The No. 18 Factory in Changsha is the second certified Lighthouse Factory in the global heavy industry after SANY’s drilling machinery factory in Beijing.
The GLN, established in collaboration with McKinsey, recognizes Lighthouse Factories around the world, which are factories that are pioneers of digital manufacturing and Globalization 4.0 and represent the highest level of intelligent manufacturing (IM) and digitalization.
In response to the challenges of cycle fluctuations in the heavy industry market and multi-variety yet low-volume production of heavy parts, SANY has fully leveraged flexible automated production, AI and scaled IoT solutions to establish a digital and flexible manufacturing system of heavy equipment in the No. 18 Factory. The improvements are significant: SANY has achieved a 123 percent expansion of production capacity, 98 percent increase in productivity and 29 percent reduction in unit manufacturing costs.
“There are only two Lighthouse Factories in the global heavy industry, and both are SANY’s. Getting the second certification is a recognition of our expertise and demonstrates our great achievements in advanced manufacturing and digital transformation,” said Xiang Wenbo, Chairman of SANY Heavy Industry.
- This July, SANY was named as one of the “50 Smartest Companies” by MIT Technology Review, while its No. 18 factory is becoming the “smartest” Lighthouse Factory of heavy machinery:
- The 100,000-square-meter factory produces pump trucks, trailer pumps and truck-mounted pumps, the market shares of which have been the highest globally for consecutive years.
- The factory’s nine major manufacturing processes and 32 typical production scenarios have achieved full automation.
- Every pump produced from the factory is given an exclusive “ID card” from the beginning of the production, and is intelligently dispatch by the MOM “factory brain” throughout the whole production process. The factory has achieved all elements of intelligent manufacturing.
- All of the cutting and sorting of steel plates are completed by AI robots with 3D visualization, which improves the precision to 1mm, shortens the time by 60 percent and reduces material waste by nearly half.
- The 1,540 sensors and 200 fully networked robots deployed throughout the factory is generating over 30TB of big data every day.
- With arc tracking technology, the 3.7-meter-long 2.6-ton pump truck turntable has realized fixture-free gripping and welding for the first time in the industry.
SANY has invested 500 million yuan (USD 69.53 million) and innovatively achieved breakthroughs of 55 core technologies since Changsha Factory 18 project in 2020.
The IM transformation of Changsha Factory 18 has boosted its production capacity by 123 percent, staff efficiency by 98 percent and overall automation rate by 76 percent, with the capability of producing 263 SKUs. In 2021, the per-capita production value of the factory reached 14.7113 million yuan (USD 2.05 million), and the per-square-meter value was 154,000 yuan (USD 21,410).
The original technological and technical solutions born in the Changsha Factory 18 project have been quickly promoted in SANY’s 45 other factories. The 46 digitally transformed factories have mapped the blueprint of smart factories in the context of the fourth industrial revolution, expanding IM to the upstream and downstream links of the industrial chain at the same time.
“SANY is committed to the digital and intelligent transformation of intelligent products, manufacturing and operations through continuous technological advancement and experience sharing, and we thrive to become the IM benchmark of the global construction machinery industry,” added Xiang.
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