BMW Brilliance puts digital factory of the future on display

An event entitled Digital Plant 2021 held by BMW Brilliance Automotive at its Tiexi plant in Shenyang, Liaoning province, from July 19-21, gave visitors a glimpse of the factory of the future.

From digital platforms to multiple applications of digital technology, the event displayed the joint venture's latest achievements in its digital factory, revealing its future vision of digital development and ambition to achieve high-quality sustainable development.

In the digital plant, a highly connected intelligent data ecosystem integrates data collected from equipment, processes and technologies, and automates processing and analysis, to help optimize and upgrade the entire value chain from manufacturing to logistics, according to the joint venture.

"We stand for high-quality development," said Franz Decker, senior vice-president of technology and manufacturing at BMW Brilliance, at the opening ceremony of the event on July 19.

The future vision of the digital plant will tap into BMW Brilliance's potential to achieve more efficient, flexible and people-oriented sustainable development, according to Decker.

He added that looking ahead, the joint venture will continue to introduce cutting-edge technologies, empower the integration and digital upgrading of the whole industrial chain and promote the digital transformation of the automobile manufacturing industry.

Digital transformation has become one of the important tasks for the manufacturing industry to enhance market competitiveness and achieve stable and sustainable development.

Decker explained that BMW Brilliance has a clear approach when it comes to digitalization. "Value-driven digitalization means applying new technologies in the right applications."

BMW Brilliance's digital plant is empowered by a digital platform, which supports the integration and intercommunication of digital solutions across digital planning, digital production, digital logistics and a digital campus, to help create highly connected production and operation modes and improve production efficiency and product quality.

The digital platform serves as the foundation for the unified aggregation of scattered equipment, technology and system data, for processing and analysis, and for applying the data back into different scenarios.

Digital planning utilizes digital tools such as 3D modeling and virtual reality technology to develop and test products and production processes virtually, in order to save time by increasing the speed of implementation.

Digital production focuses on achieving a more flexible, efficient and sustainable production system through the use of cutting-edge digital production technologies.

Digital logistics aims to achieve an interconnected, transparent and efficient logistics management system through digital technologies, including artificial intelligence, the internet of things and big data.

A digital campus helps create a more energy-saving, environmentally friendly and people-oriented green factory by integrating facility management via digital methods.

The application and integration of advanced digital technologies will further improve the level of production and help produce competitive products for consumers, according to BMW Brilliance.

For instance, the automaker makes full use of the self-learning and information processing capabilities of AI and big data analysis to help improve its product quality.

The AI visual detection system applied at BMW Brilliance's powertrain plant can achieve an accuracy rate of 99.7 percent in detecting small defects on the surface of engine cylinder heads.

In addition, BMW Brilliance uses visual systems and data analytics to perform in-line geometric detection on each car body, including checking gaps between body parts, which helps provide customers with better products by adjusting the production.

The application of digital technologies also helps optimize production and operation processes to improve productivity and enhance flexibility, according to the joint venture.

Based on IoT technology, BMW Brilliance has developed a welding gun predictive maintenance system, which collects equipment data from more than 2,000 welding robots for real-time online analysis and fault prediction, to help reduce downtime for maintenance.

In logistics, the joint venture uses automated guided vehicles to assist employees, helping cut the time taken for order picking and transportation.

The logistics area in the automaker's powertrain plant has 20 automated guided vehicles that can pick 300 orders per hour, further enhancing the plant's logistics management capability, according to BMW Brilliance.

BMW Brilliance, as the world's first automobile manufacturer to achieve full 5G coverage in its factory, is benefiting from the high-level stability and high-speed information transmission of 5G technology to empower its production.

"Technologies support our people," Decker said at the event, adding that technology can help release employees from repetitive tasks, enhance connection and collaboration and introduce new modes of training.

In digital factories, employees can not only enjoy a safe and healthy working environment, but benefit from more intelligent and flexible work planning, helping them achieve growth in personal capabilities, according to the joint venture.

Despite its increasing application of cutting-edge technologies, BMW is not denying the efforts and importance of people in its production and development.

Decker added in an interview that BMW aims not to build an unmanned factory, but will be highly dependent on the experience and spirit of its staff members, with "big decisions always made by people".

Factories of the future will still rely heavily on people's experiences, people's questions and people's understanding of how to optimize processes, according to Decker.

BMW Brilliance applies VR technology in its staff training. Employees can visually understand the internal structure of parts and components in complete 3D images created by the VR system, as well as conduct simulative disassembly and assembly, to help improve learning efficiency.

In addition, the joint venture has developed the JoyChat mobile office platform, which integrates functions including daily communication, approval processes, work reports and schedule management, to closely connect the staff members of various departments.

Looking ahead, BMW Brilliance aims to further explore digital technology and its applications, and pay attention to the cultivation of professionals to take the lead in promoting the digital transformation of the manufacturing industry in Shenyang, and even Liaoning province.