CRI听力:China's 1st rail-transit smart production line

As the country's leading developer and manufacturer of train traction systems, the Zhuzhou Institute under the China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation completed China's first rail-transit smart production line in October.

Characterized by the massive use of robots and mechanical arms, the automatic line makes it much easier to produce various parts for train, subway and light light rail vehicles.

Yi Weihua is the deputy director of the production center at the company.

"We have lots of automated guided vehicles in the workshop. The most replaceable human taks are material delivery and pick-up. The vehicles can do this by automatically recognizing which materials to deliver and the delivery destinations. Mechanical arms have been employed in some of our key processes, such as the demanding procedure of coating chips."

But Yi said they don't pursue total automation blindly; instead, the combination of people and machines is more ideal.

"One disadvantage of total automation is the lack of flexibility. Customers' individual needs cannot be met. Combining people and machinery means we use the strengths of both. For example, people are highly flexible. Your hands can extend to any place you like, whereas machines are good at computing, making judgmental decisions, and conducting logical control."

Yi said simply employing some robotic arms is far from smart production, which indeed requires a lot of basic work such as sorting out production procedures.

Since 2013 the CRRC institute has carded 112 procedures, in a bid to optimize their production processes and avoid malfunction.

Zuo Shiquan, equipment industry researcher from China Center for Information Industry Development, agreed that automation is not as easy as just installing some robots.

"Automation is based on digitalizing techniques and procedures. Techniques have to be programed before plants can use robots. Some workers can do a good job as they are experienced after much practice, and the experience cannot just be clearly explained or passed on to other workers. But automation memorizes this kind of experience in procedures and fixes them digitally for permanent use. This guarentees the quality of all products."

Yi Weihua said smart production can only be realized after all procedures are well implemented and digitalization fulfilled.

To build a truly smart factory, Yi said their mid-to-long term blueprint will go beyond production and reach both the client side and the supply side.

According to him, the plan is expected to bring changes in all respects from design to sales.

For example, data on production lines can help with seamless decision making, and simple design concepts can be demonstrated to clients in 3D format almost instantly.