On June 5-7, 2017, the "2017 Phoenix Contact Innovation and Industry Development Forum" was grandly held at the Langham Place Hotel in Nanfeng, Guangzhou. Phoenix showcased a fully automated unmanned intelligent manufacturing demonstration line on site, which simulated the entire process of customer personalized customization order issuance, intelligent product assembly, personalized customization, intelligent distribution, and intelligent packaging and shipping. Guangzhou SIE Technology Co., Ltd. is the software system contractor of Phoenix Contact's demonstration line, which is delivered with SIE independent MES software.

What's so magical about this? Don't worry, the editor is here to popularize science for you!

Science Popularization 1: 6 Major Characteristics Composed to Grab Prophets

1) The production line adopts modular design, realizing personalized customization and flexible production of "power banks".

2) The three-dimensional warehouse uses mobile robots to shuttle and distribute materials between shelves and production units, achieving on-demand production based on the concept of production pull.

3) The modular production unit consists of four production units:

Semi finished assembly unit

L Testing&Assembly Unit

Laser printing unit

Packaging&Labeling Unit

4) AGV flexible distribution is used between production units;

5) The main control system communicates wirelessly with various production units and AGVs.

6) Each unit undergoes visual appearance inspection and simulates online electrical performance testing.

Science Popularization 2: 3-Week Accelerated Strength is King

       SIE Information Technology Co., Ltd. is the software system contractor of Phoenix Contact's demonstration line. This demonstration line focuses on SIE MES software, covering the whole process from customer order to product delivery. With customization as the theme, integration as the condition, and intelligence as the direction, the team members of SIE Intelligent Factory Department invested nearly 3 weeks to complete the whole process from scheme, commissioning, and delivery through more than 20 days of efforts.

Science Popularization 3: One Stop, Simple and Convenient

       At the exhibition hall, numerous guests came to observe and exchange technical knowledge, and personally experienced the process of on-site customization:

1) Ordering on WeChat customization platform: customers can place orders through WeChat official account, customized (to meet personalized needs such as customized colors, handwritten signatures, and artistic characters). And the estimated delivery time can be automatically calculated based on the order placed. During the production of customized products, the MES system actively pushes the production progress through the official account. Customers can monitor the delivery time of their items in real-time.

4) The customer can pick up the goods and scan the code: after the order is completed, the official account will automatically push the QR code for picking up the goods, and the customer can scan the code to pick up the goods.

Science Popularization 4: One Step Technical Support

Several core applications of this fully automated unmanned demonstration line:

1) Visual technology: detecting the quality of assembly through automatic photography;

2) RFID technology: By automatically scanning RFID, personalized product identification and customization process traceability can be achieved;

3) The combined application of robots and stereoscopic libraries: achieving automatic delisting and automatic stocking process;

4) Logistics distribution platform: By integrating with AGV, it realizes automatic distribution of materials, automatic transfer of semi-finished products between processes, and automatic warehousing of finished products. Through the setting of inventory management and safety stock, distribution rules, etc. for each production unit and raw material warehouse, the distribution platform can automatically generate AVG scheduling instructions and optimize the path to achieve automatic logistics process;

5) By integrating with SIE SCADA and equipment, real-time access to equipment status, fault causes, and locations can be obtained and 3D simulations can be conducted. MES system integrates process planning, equipment output, downtime, and graphically displays equipment operation information;

6) Processing unit monitoring dashboard: It realizes the visual display of information such as orders, products, production volume, personnel, and equipment operation status of each processing unit.

7) Pull based production process: By utilizing the actual input, output, and workstation inventory of each production unit, pull material warehouses to manage on-demand material allocation, pull production and production instructions for previous processes, and automatically achieve on-demand production.

8) MES monitoring platform: comprehensively display customer orders, tasks of each work unit, inventory of input and output areas of work units, AGV tasks, inventory of raw material areas and finished product areas in the form of kanban, and issue warnings for workstation inventory. The on-site situation is under control.