The robotic arm is conducting foreign object detection on battery packs and installing door seals, while the AGV intelligent handling robot is orderly shuttling through various production sites. This is a daily routine in the final assembly workshop of SAIC Volkswagen MEB factory located in Jiading, Shanghai.
As Volkswagen's world's first factory built specifically for the production of MEB platform models, it has over 1400 industrial robots, achieving full automation of the manufacturing process. For example, 8 of them have "fire eyed" At line measuring robots, which can perform 100% visual online inspection of the body's components and key parts. Even hair like defects cannot escape their eyes. "On November 6th, Xu Zhiqin, the director of SAIC Volkswagen MEB factory, said in an interview with First Financial reporters.
The 7th China International Import Expo (CIIE) will be held in Shanghai from November 5th to 10th. Since its first hosting in 2018, the CIIE has become an excellent window for Shanghai to showcase its products to the outside world, and intelligent manufacturing is a new calling card for Shanghai. According to the "White Paper on Shanghai's Future Manufacturing Development 2024", Shanghai has become the largest exporter of intelligent manufacturing system integration solutions in China, as well as one of the gathering areas for the intelligent manufacturing core equipment industry.
On the occasion of the CIIE, Chinese and foreign media visited one of the landmarks of Shanghai's intelligent manufacturing - SAIC Volkswagen MEB factory.
This factory is an important component of SAIC Volkswagen's electrification strategy and has been put into operation under the Volkswagen brand ID The series of pure electric models, as well as the Audi Q5 e-tron, are planned to have an annual production capacity of 300000 vehicles. According to SAIC Volkswagen, the factory pays special attention to the intensive use of land from the beginning of its design, and the total land area is only one-third of that of factories with the same production capacity; The entire factory extensively applies cutting-edge technology used by Volkswagen Group for the first time in the world, and is the first factory to achieve full coverage of industrial wireless networks; The factory combines the characteristics of intensive environmental protection, high automation, and intelligent networking, and has been awarded the title of "2021 China Automotive Industry Benchmark Intelligent Factory".
Specifically in terms of automation, SAIC Volkswagen MEB factory combines advanced digital production concepts, adopts a new production network architecture, and fully utilizes intelligent manufacturing technology to create modular, flexible, and automated workshop production lines, greatly improving the automation rate of each workshop.
Xu Zhiqin added that the automation rate of the body workshop at SAIC Volkswagen MEB factory has been further increased to 84%; The automation rate of battery packaging and wiring in the battery workshop reaches 78%, and the automation rate of the shell line reaches 88%; The automation rate of the final assembly workshop has increased by 45%, and the number of workstations has been optimized by 25%; The paint workshop is Volkswagen Group's first brand new environmentally friendly process workshop with a production capacity of 120JPH per hour.
Intelligent manufacturing also relies on green manufacturing. Xu Zhiqin told reporters that SAIC Volkswagen MEB factory relies on the "EMS intelligent energy management system" to conduct real-time dynamic monitoring of all energy types in the factory, and uses big data analysis to develop the optimal energy use plan. In addition, the factory attaches great importance to carbon emission indicators, and through the precise command of the intelligent energy system and the combination of 28 energy-saving and environmental protection measures in the factory, it has achieved a 60% reduction in single vehicle carbon dioxide emissions and a 20% reduction in key environmental indicators.
Intelligent manufacturing is the main direction of "Made in China 2025", and smart factories are the entry point and breakthrough point of intelligent manufacturing. Promoting the construction of smart factories and facilitating the transformation and upgrading of traditional manufacturing industries has become an inevitable path to cultivate new driving forces and advantages in the industrial economy.
Relying on intelligent manufacturing, SAIC Volkswagen's electrification transformation is accelerating. Recently, SAIC Volkswagen released the latest sales data. In October of this year, SAIC Volkswagen ID The family delivered 14286 new cars in a single month, setting a new high for the year; In the first 10 months of this year, the ID. family's cumulative sales have exceeded 100000 units, making it the best-selling pure electric vehicle among joint venture brands.