The fourth industrial revolution led by information technology has opened a new era of "digital intelligence transformation and great navigation" for the global industry. As an industry that is the first to connect with the global market and has the most full market competition, China's home appliance industry, through its courage and determination of self innovation, has once again taken on the pioneering role of the transformation from made in China to scientific and technological innovation and intelligent manufacturing system. Haier Midea was once again selected as the "lighthouse factory" In order to meet the peak sales season of refrigerators, recently, Midea refrigerator factory in Jingzhou, Hubei, is running at full capacity to schedule production. In the fully automated injection molding workshop of this factory, there is no worker in the whole workshop. After the raw materials are automatically proportioned, they are injected into the injection molding machine through the pipeline, and the program is set to press and shape independently. One refrigerator drawer is "spit out" by the machine instantly, and then conveyed to the robot through the conveyor belt. The robot grabs the drawer and places it on the designated shelf. After the shelves are fully stored, the scheduling system "calls" the AGV robot through the intelligent optimization algorithm to support the shelves and send them to the target location. After unloading, the empty shelves are transported back to the designated location next to the robot. "With 5g, big data and other applications, these scenarios are staged every day in the factory." Li Zhen, general manager of Midea refrigerator Jingzhou factory, said that the injection molding workshop is the first intelligent workshop of Midea refrigerator Jingzhou factory. It is also known as the "black light workshop" because it can turn off the lights without manual operation. It is understood that Jingzhou factory is one of the core factories of Midea refrigerator business unit, and its main products are mainly oriented to the medium and high-end market. Li Zhen said that in recent years, consumers in the refrigerator market have increased their demand for high-end products. "Mixed production at the high and middle end and mixed production for domestic and foreign sales have brought great challenges to our manufacturing and production scheduling." Based on this, Midea has developed an overall solution for intelligent manufacturing, introducing flexible automation, Internet of things and artificial intelligence technologies. After the transformation and upgrading, Jingzhou factory has realized the mixed line production mode, and one production line can produce multiple batches of products at the same time. Moreover, thanks to the digital technology, the labor productivity of Midea refrigerator Jingzhou factory has increased by 52%, the production cycle has been shortened by 25%, the market defect rate has decreased by 64%, the process defect rate has decreased by 53%, and the manufacturing cost of a single unit has decreased by 20%. Li Zhen said that next, the "black light workshop" will be extended to the extrusion, blister, electronics and other workshops of Jingzhou factory to realize unmanned manufacturing in more links. Similar to Midea refrigerator Jingzhou factory, entering the workshop of Zhengzhou Haier water heater interconnection factory is also like entering a "robot world". Intelligent spray coating, intelligent automatic shell wire, microchannel intelligent gluing, intelligent laser welding of inner tank, visual identification detection, intelligent packaging... The "intellectualization" and "digitalization" are vividly reflected in Zhengzhou Haier water heater interconnection factory. Chensheng, general manager of Zhengzhou Haier water heater interconnection plant, said that the plant has three highlights: first, based on IOT equipment IOT digital platform, 100% interconnection of key equipment is visible, which can realize fault diagnosis and abnormal early warning; Second, support the improvement of assembly efficiency through 5g+mec high-speed operation; The third is the intelligent communication test platform, which meets the intelligent test mode of water heater under the diversified needs of users. It is precisely because of the deep integration of big data, 5g, simulation and other industrial 4.0 technologies with advanced manufacturing technologies that Zhengzhou Haier water heater interconnection factory has realized the transformation and upgrading from product development and design to multi-energy intelligent water use for users, with production efficiency increased by 31%, overall cost reduced by 4.8%, non-performing rate reduced by 56% and energy consumption reduced by 20%. With excellent performance, Zhengzhou Haier water heater interconnection factory and Midea refrigerator Jingzhou factory were selected into the latest batch of global lighthouse factories list of the World Economic Forum (WEF). So far, Haier and Midea have each owned four lighthouse factories, becoming one of the enterprises with the largest number of Lighthouse factories in China. Lighthouse effect spillover enables manufacturing transformation After reviewing the development of Haier and Midea, it is not difficult to find that the integration and comprehensive application of automation, digitalization, intelligence and other technologies are the biggest characteristics of the lighthouse factory. It is understood that the original intention of Haier to build a lighthouse factory is to quickly respond to the change of the whole process value chain required by users and realize the transformation from mass manufacturing to mass customization. As early as 2005, Zhang Ruimin, then chairman of the board of directors of Haier Group, proposed to transform traditional manufacturing to mass customization. In 2008, Haier carried out modular transformation on the product design and manufacturing system of the whole enterprise, and went through the process from modularization to automation and then to "black light factory". In 2018, Haier built the first central air-conditioning interconnection factory, and gradually built an innovation system of interconnected factories focusing on user experience. From "no one" in one process to "no one" in one workshop, and then to the automation, digitization and intelligence of the whole factory, Haier finally formed the end-to-end interconnection capability and ecosystem of the whole value chain. All of this benefits from Haier's CAOS industrial Internet platform. In the process of building a "lighthouse factory", the CAOS industrial Internet platform not only realized the digital transformation and equipment networking of Haier's Internet factory to improve labor productivity and reduce error rate, but also opened the whole production process to users through digital means, enabling them to participate in the enterprise's R & D, design and manufacturing, helping Haier realize the transformation from one-time user thinking to lifelong user thinking. In addition to assisting Haier internally, the CAOS industrial Internet platform has also enabled the transformation of the manufacturing industry by spilling the lighthouse effect. For example, it has jointly built an industrial Internet platform for the beer and beverage industry with Tsingtao beer and the country's first industrial Internet demonstration base for the beer and beverage industry, helping it become the world's first beer and beverage enterprise selected as a lighthouse factory; It has jointly built China's first industrial Internet platform for chlor alkali chemical industry with Yibin Tianyuan Group, integrated its experience and models into services and products, attracted small and medium-sized enterprises to the platform, and realized the co creation and win-win of upstream and downstream resources in the chemical industry. The relevant person in charge of Haier CAOS industrial Internet platform said: "only by allowing the 'beacon' experience to enter all walks of life can we promote the innovation and healthy development of the digital economy." In Midea, the lighthouse factory embodies Midea's digital intelligence ability. From the agile and accurate response of the supply side to the overall top-level planning and design of the factory, from the industrial 4.0 use case design to the subsequent implementation of IT systems, an important support is indispensable, that is, Midea's overall solution for intelligent manufacturing - Midea cloud intelligence. Midea cloud smart data, which is precipitated and fermented by Midea Group's more than 50 years of manufacturing experience, not only provides assistance for the digital transformation of more than 30 manufacturing bases throughout Midea, but also accelerates the deployment of external empowerment. At present, the solutions of Meiyun Zhishu have been applied in more than 40 sub sectors. According to the relevant person in charge of Meiyun smart number, this year, we will continue to open the channel ecology based on the ability of "digital landing + digital factory construction", recruit more than 1000 ecological partners through six cooperation modes, and plan to reach more than 20000 enterprises to jointly create a digital ecology of intelligent manufacturing. Become a pioneer in the transformation from "made in China" to "smart manufacturing in China" It is reported that the lighthouse factory project aims to select the leading enterprises that have achieved fruitful results in the application and integration of cutting-edge technologies in the fourth industrial revolution. The lighthouse factory is a benchmark practice factory for the application of industry 4.0 technologies, representing the high level of global intelligent manufacturing. Therefore, in order to become a lighthouse factory, manufacturing enterprises need to have a clear value creation for the industry. In terms of reducing manufacturing costs, improving production efficiency, green and sustainable development, they need to integrate at least five world-class leading technologies and build an extensible Internet of things architecture to support large-scale replication and promotion. In addition, they also need to have a matching digital management model, talent team and corporate culture, Provide the foundation and guarantee for technological innovation and business transformation. Obviously, the evaluation of Lighthouse factory is not only at the factory level, but also takes into account the product competitiveness, market competitiveness, brand strength and other comprehensive strengths behind it. Through the lighthouse factory, we can learn which production methods can become a new engine to drive global economic growth. By using forward-looking thinking to deploy new technologies, we can push the efficiency of the manufacturing industry to a new level. For an enterprise, being selected as a lighthouse factory means that it is at the forefront of the world in the large-scale adoption of new technologies, has outstanding and in-depth innovation in business processes, management systems, industrial Internet, data systems, etc., and can form a new form of rapid response to market demand, innovative operation mode and green sustainable development. Zhaomeimei, assistant to the president and general manager of Research Department of AVC, said that the eight factories of Haier and the United States were selected mainly by virtue of their advantages in advanced production lines, system architecture, product quality, factory efficiency, technological innovation, intelligent manufacturing and process supervision. This shows that China's leading household appliance enterprises have been at the forefront of intelligent manufacturing. Yang Ling, deputy general manager of CCID Consulting intelligent equipment industry research center, believes that intelligent manufacturing is the target of a new round of global manufacturing transformation in the future. From the smart factories of Haier and Midea, we can see the determination and effectiveness of China's home appliance enterprises in self innovation around the track of intelligent manufacturing. As an industry that is the first to connect with the global market and the most competitive in the market, it is through this courage and determination of self innovation that China's home appliance industry stands at the center of global home appliance manufacturing. The industry believes that the current digital wave is becoming more and more surging. The new round of industrial reform led by the fourth industrial revolution is accelerating the deep integration of the real economy and the digital economy. The global industry has opened a new "digital intelligence transformation Voyage". As the only country in the world with all the industrial categories listed in the United Nations Industrial Classification, the integrity and uniqueness of China's industrial environment and industrial scene are unparalleled. At the same time, the home appliance industry is an important part of China's manufacturing industry. Its intelligent manufacturing development level affects the overall situation and plays a leading role in the transformation of Chinese manufacturing to scientific and technological innovation and intelligent manufacturing system. Therefore, the exploration and practice of Haier and Midea in the field of industrial Internet and intelligent manufacturing also provide reliable experience and innovative methods for solving practical problems in global industrial transformation. (Xinhua News Agency)