What is Industry 4.0? What Changes Will Happen to the PCB Industry

 

The Industry 4.0 research project was jointly funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. It was formed under the advice and promotion of the German Academy of Engineering, the Fraunhofer Society, Siemens and other German academic and industrial circles, and has been upgraded to a national level. strategy.

Industry 4.0 projects are mainly divided into two major themes, one is "smart factory", focusing on the research of intelligent production systems and processes, and the realization of networked distributed production facilities; the second is "smart production", as long as the production logistics of the entire enterprise is involved Management, human-computer interaction and the application of 3D technology in industrial production processes. The PCB industry certainly belongs to the category of smart factories.

So what does Industry 4.0 look like? Let's sort it out first: Industry 1.0 is the era of machine manufacturing, Industry 2.0 is the era of electrification and automation, and Industry 3.0 is the era of electronic information. "Industry 4.0" depicts a highly flexible, personalized and digital intelligent manufacturing model through the real-time connection and effective communication of people, equipment and products.

Industry 4.0 is proposed in the context of the Internet of Things, cloud services, and big data . Professor Ma Jianguo of Tianjin University defines it as follows: Internet of Things = Embedded Intelligent System + Network, Industry 4.0 = Internet of Things + Manufacturing.

What is an embedded intelligent system? As far as the PCB industry is concerned, adding some automatic induction, automatic identification and judgment to the PCB production equipment is an embedded intelligent system. With intelligent PCB production equipment (ie embedded intelligent system), each PCB equipment is connected with a network, and "communication" with each other through the ERP system, forming the Internet of Things in the PCB industry. With the Internet of Things and PCB manufacturing, it becomes Industry 4.0 of the PCB industry.

To help everyone better understand the concept of Industry 4.0, we might as well design a factory operation scenario in the Industry 4.0 era based on reality.

Scenario 1: In the near future, buying a car may be personalized-open the smart car factory App on your phone, select a model from hundreds of configurations, and then enter in the personalized order such as "in the car Decorate as the Hulk" request, about one month, a "Hulk version car" tailor-made for you with Industry 4.0 assembly line will be delivered to the buyer's door, the price is not much more expensive than the production car .

Due to the complexity of PCB design and manufacturing and the single versatility of its functions, the PCB industry will not be personalized to each PCB like cars or other consumer products. However, with the impact of personalized customization, the number of orders will change from large quantities to Small batches. For example, auto board PCB. Because of the personalized customization of the auto industry, the auto industry will achieve zero inventory, but auto manufacturers will regularly classify and summarize the customized models, and then place PCB orders according to the models (because of the commonality of PCB functions, the same The PCBs used in the car models are the same). Send the finished PCB to the car manufacturer just like the scene.

Scenario 2: In a PCB factory, intelligent automation equipment not only has advanced production technology and ultra-high production efficiency, but also can "communicate" with each other or with the ERP system. The equipment can be contracted according to the ERP system And the order production information entered in the engineering module automatically adjusts the production parameters, and then the machine equipment automatically imports the production results (production quantity, time, quantity of good and defective products, etc.) into the ERP system, and the ERP system will also automatically adjust the production parameters and production The results automatically summarize and analyze the best production parameters and production efficiency, accurately judge the production status of the equipment, and even predict equipment failures, prompt preventive maintenance, etc., thereby extending the service life of the equipment.

From the above two scenarios, we can extend the analysis and infer that the PCB industry will change in the following aspects:

1. The mass production mode will gradually disappear, replaced by small batch Allegro.

2. Traditional PCB equipment will be gradually eliminated, replaced by intelligent automatic production equipment, such as equipment that can automatically adjust production parameters according to production information. It can also automatically scan the barcode on the PCB to identify the production characteristics and quality characteristics of each PCB.

3. The layout of the workshop will be gradually improved from the traditional decentralization to the centralized assembly line. Traditional production workshops are composed of manual or semi-automatic equipment, and product transportation is done manually, so the distribution of equipment is relatively loose. In the industry 4.0 era, all equipment is intelligent automation, the upper and lower process equipment can be connected, and the PCB can automatically transition from the upper process to the lower process without manual handling. This requires the layout of various equipment into an assembly line to facilitate logistics and transportation.

4. There are almost no production personnel and data input personnel in the workshop. When all the production equipment is converted to intelligent automation, you only need to enter the order information and production information into the ERP system at one time when placing an order, and the ERP system will generate a unique barcode based on the characteristics of the order, and each device will automatically survive the barcode based on the ERP Information adjusts production parameters, and each machine and equipment process can communicate with each other through the ERP system. For example, when the board production of the previous process is about to end, it can be communicated to the next process through the ERP system, and the equipment of the next process will be adjusted in advance. Parameters to save production time. In addition, the production time and production results of each equipment will be automatically imported into the ERP system, and the data will be summarized and analyzed by the ERP system.

5. As a key part of realizing Industry 4.0, information management will become more and more perfect. For example, Junen ERP plan will make the following improvements in information management:

In the era of Industry 4.0, individualized demands will make PCB production cycles shorter and shorter. Therefore, the primary task of information management is to help factories reduce turnaround waiting time and speed up production cycles. When the customer places an order through the mobile APP or online, the Junen ERP system will automatically calculate and determine all the materials required for this batch of orders based on the order characteristics , and timely judge whether the materials are sufficient through the Junen ERP system. If not, Junen ERP The system will automatically place an order to the material supplier, and prepare the material in the fastest time.

The Junen ERP system allows the processes and equipment to be connected in a pipeline style. Manual input is only the part of placing an order. The other processes are completed through the dialogue between Junen ERP and the machine. For example, ERP transmits the order production information to the machine and equipment. , And machinery and equipment will convey the production results to Jun En ERP, and because each link is connected in an assembly line, when a problem occurs in a link, PCB production cannot continue. This can reduce errors caused by the arbitrariness of human input, and can also avoid problems that cannot be discovered and tracked in time due to overlapping processes.

Through the above information management, Junen ERP system can help customers realize the ideal of zero time difference in information transmission and zero waiting for decision-making.

In addition, Jun En ERP will make full use of the dialogue function of the system and ERP to realize the management of the equipment database in thefactory, and use the database to analyze the statistical results of equipment service life, accessory service life, material consumption, output and product quality characteristics. The best maintenance time, capacity and equipment production characteristics and material consumption per unit area, the system monitors and optimizes the production status based on the analysis results, etc., determines which machine is suitable for a batch of orders, machine maintenance time, and calculates a batch of orders Material consumption and so on.