With the iterative upgrading of the Internet, digital technologies represented by big data, cloud computing, Internet of Things, 5G, etc. have been rapidly applied. The current automobile manufacturing industry is carrying out intelligent and digital transformation and upgrading, showing a significant acceleration trend. More and more automobile companies are empowered by digital technology to further enhance user-centered customized production capabilities and precise logistics and distribution. Yufeng Intelligent uses rich industry experience to talk about the opportunities and challenges of logistics automation companies in the field of automotive supply chain.

Requirements for automated warehousing in the automotive field in the Industry 4.0 era

In the field of manufacturing, the automation process in the automotive industry can be said to have been the earliest to start, and it has been widely used now. Yufeng Intelligent has been involved in many scenarios and solutions in the automotive field. When it comes to the requirements for automated warehousing in the automotive field, firstly, in terms of inventory, the production line must ensure that components or components, or re-products, are replenished in time to ensure that Achieve zero inventory; or avoid having an overstock of inventory and avoid being out of stock. Therefore, when tracking parts and finished product inventory, the response speed is very high. In addition, in the automotive field, whether it is parts, remanufactured goods or finished products, there are many sizes and types of items. The warehousing system needs to be adjusted and expanded according to production needs, so the layout is relatively diverse. Suitable for different production scales and production line changes is a further requirement for automated storage in the automotive field.

In addition, the high performance and stability of the system we provide can effectively reduce the failure rate, ensure uninterrupted transportation during production line production, avoid accidents and losses, and ensure safe operation and safe inventory. In the field of logistics automation, the automotive field has very high requirements for reducing operation and maintenance costs. How to improve warehousing and logistics efficiency is also one of the important propositions for automated warehousing in the automotive field. From a warehousing perspective, we need to make full use of space, optimize space, and reduce land or building cost investment through the overall design and layout of automated three-dimensional warehouses and smart factories.

Compared with complete vehicles, what are the pain points of auto parts warehousing?

The types and quantities of auto parts are relatively complex and require information management. In smart warehousing solutions, refined management is usually achieved through classified picking, classified handling, classified storage and classified transportation. The management of parts involves the entry and exit of automated warehouses. The more frequent the operations, the higher the error rate. It is necessary to use automation instead of manual methods to reduce the error rate. For example, when shipping goods to the production line, replenishing goods, or entering and leaving the warehouse, parts are transported to the production line through efficient sorting and distribution. In the entire set of intelligent solutions, from front-end data analysis to planning and design, conceptual design, and detailed design, it is crucial to design the sorting and distribution paths in the turnkey project.

In addition, auto parts face multi-channel sales, a combination of online and offline storage methods, large quantities and frequent entry and exit. Traditional manual operations have the problem of inaccurate entry and exit records. Even if warehouse management software and manual methods are used, this is often unavoidable. Automated warehousing can greatly reduce this situation and facilitate the traceability of materials and information. At the same time, the high turnover rate of parts warehouses has high requirements for system integration, requiring seamless connection of information systems, including real-time updates of data, quality inspection of incoming and outgoing warehouses, and protective measures for precision parts, all within the automation of auto parts warehousing. Problems and pain points that need to be faced and solved.

Yufeng Intelligent’s smart logistics solution case in the automotive field

Yufeng Intelligence has done many successful cases in the automotive field. This includes smart logistics solutions for Kaiyi's 150,000-ton smart factory. The project covers three parts: smart transportation, smart warehousing and smart distribution. As a brand of Chery, Kaiyi focuses on smart Internet cars that are popular among young people, and its production covers various categories such as sedans, SUVs and MPVs. Our solution realizes the informatization and automation of production and logistics procurement from parts and logistics suppliers and factories, improves the efficiency of logistics, and reduces logistics costs and inventory funds.

The biggest challenges faced by this project are the wide variety and quantity of SKUs, the low density of stored materials, the low picking efficiency of customers relying on people to arrive, and the existence of multiple box sizes. As a platform-based parts manufacturer, customers will face the problem of downstream suppliers providing the same SKU but different packaging, which poses a great challenge to our storage design and picking design. Based on this, in our 5,000-square-meter production plant, we have planned a smart logistics overall solution for our customers that integrates software and hardware such as intelligent logistics robots, conveying systems, and software systems. In the plan, we made full use of the space height of the factory building, improved the utilization rate of the upper space of the warehouse, and used a double-column high-speed stacker to carry out the loading and unloading operations of goods, realizing multi-spec types of auto parts and saturated granularity packages. High-level storage of large-scale materials. Looking at the entire project, the first highlight is the realization of full 5G coverage in the warehouse, a comprehensive digital empowerment upgrade for the automated parts warehouse, and the avoidance of network packet loss, severe jitter and communication interruptions that occur in traditional large-scale warehouses. At the same time, it realizes the simultaneous access of hundreds of IoT devices, ensuring the precise positioning of IoT devices and the precise distribution of order tasks, ensuring the stability of the equipment and ensuring safe operations at the same time. The second highlight is that the hardware perfectly adapts to the factory's production rhythm. In order to support the production of Kaiyi Automobile, the entire solution adopts a mature stacker crane solution in terms of hardware. We have carried out comprehensive transformation and upgrades in terms of material packaging, storage, distribution and informatization, and optimized the logistics operation model. It has laid a solid foundation for customers to move towards leanness, speed and intelligence. In this project, we maximized space utilization through the double-deep warehouse design. The overall smart logistics solution helped the customer more than triple the original storage capacity per unit area, improve logistics efficiency by 40%, and increase the storage volume per unit area by 40%. The cost was reduced by 20%, effectively meeting the customer's on-site logistics needs.

The third highlight is that Yufeng Intelligent has achieved good implementation results through a one-stop service system. After providing the turnkey project, we cooperated with the implementation of 5G smart warehousing to realize the entry and exit of parts, information operation processing and monitoring and analysis of the entire operation data. We accurately grasped the customer's business pain points, continued to optimize business capabilities, and relied on industrial The Internet makes innovative applications around technology. Through projects of this type, we are also promoting the upgrading of the industrial chain and making greater contributions to the development of new productivity in the digital economy.

The impact of the rapid development of the new energy vehicle market on the automotive supply chain market

The rapid development of new energy vehicles has had a great impact on the entire traditional automobile industry. From the perspective of the automotive supply chain market, we have a lot of room for adaptation in the field of automation. First of all, from the perspective of electric drive systems, based on the increased demand for motors, controllers, batteries and other components of new energy vehicles, the country will increase development and production, and corresponding manufacturing companies will invest heavily in automated solutions and handling and storage. solutions to achieve increased production capacity and precise production and distribution. This is a major benefit for us as a one-stop automation system integration and solution service provider. Secondly, the surge in demand for batteries will have a great impact on the development of battery manufacturing technology and industrial chain. The development of the upstream and downstream industrial chains of battery assembly will increase the demand for automation as the production volume increases. In addition, the demand for lightweighting of new energy vehicles is also increasing. Nowadays, the cruising range of new energy vehicles is getting higher and higher, and there is more demand for lightweight materials, such as aluminum alloy, carbon fiber and other composite materials. This type of enterprises will continue to increase their demand for automated production and support. Now more and more traditional auto parts suppliers have begun to transform into new energy, and many emerging suppliers focusing on new energy auto parts have emerged, driving the demand for automated production and warehousing. The rapid development of new energy vehicles has caused enterprises to invest more and more in intelligent research and development. In order to maintain competitiveness, enterprises have increased their investment in research and development of new energy vehicle-related technologies in all aspects of the supply chain to promote technological progress and innovation. Secondly, smart manufacturing has increasingly higher quality requirements for new energy vehicles, especially high-precision parts. Many traditional car manufacturers are integrating with technology companies and energy companies to build cross-border cars. Traditional automobile companies have quickly entered the new energy market through mergers and acquisitions of new companies to achieve business transformation and expansion. Changes in the types of parts and storage requirements of new energy vehicles require our solutions to be adjusted and optimized accordingly. As the market pattern changes, the new energy vehicle market has attracted more and more new players, and even some Internet companies have entered, requiring more flexibility and efficiency in the logistics links of the supply chain, and pursuing shorter interaction time and costs. Supply chains in the traditional sense may not necessarily guarantee timeliness, stability and security. The use of automation, automatic handling and storage is a very good opportunity for us.

Fierce market competition requires supply chain companies to maintain profitability through technological innovation or cost control, and this is also our advantage as a one-stop solution company for smart logistics systems. We can help them reduce costs and increase efficiency through standardized requirements and continuous technological innovation. It is worth mentioning that new energy vehicles place more emphasis on green environmental protection and sustainable development. It is very important for the entire supply chain enterprise to adopt green manufacturing processes and reduce the environmental impact in the production process. For logistics automation companies like us, how to adapt it to better meet the requirements of green and environmentally friendly manufacturing is also what we are now facing. big challenge.

In the automotive field, Yufeng Intelligent’s development plan

The automotive field has always been the key industry that Yufeng Intelligent focuses on. It already has rich industry experience and has implemented a number of applications in the upstream and downstream fields related to automobiles, and has accumulated a good reputation. In the future, solutions will be further enriched based on the business characteristics and scenarios in the automotive, new energy and manufacturing fields. At the same time, we will increase our efforts in product research and development and continue to launch higher quality and more innovative products. The company will also further strengthen cooperation and ecological construction. On the one hand, we establish extensive contact with customers, gain a deeper understanding of customer needs, and provide more personalized and high-quality services. On the other hand, we will continue to strengthen cooperation with universities and scientific research institutions to promote in-depth integration of industry, academia and research. In terms of ecological construction, we unite upstream and downstream enterprises to jointly promote collaborative innovation and development of the industrial chain. In addition, the company will continue to gain in-depth insights into market dynamics and customer needs, and continue to launch diversified intelligent storage, distribution, picking and other solutions.