Nori Intelligent Equipment Co., Ltd. (formerly known as Zhejiang Nori Machinery Co., Ltd., hereinafter referred to as "Nori") was established through a complete transformation of Changxing Nori Machinery Co., Ltd., which was founded in 2000. It was listed on the A-share main board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 2015.

For over 20 years, Nori has developed into a company that can simultaneously provide material handling equipment, intelligent three-dimensional warehouses, intelligent conveyor sorting systems, AGVs and their systems, supply chain integrated system software, and intelligent manufacturing full system solutions through continuous technological innovation and planned scale expansion; Its equipment manufacturing capability ranks among the top in the industry, and its market share for light and small industrial vehicles has been leading the world for 17 consecutive years. Its sales of electric storage forklifts are leading in China.

In response to the new demand for high-quality development of the manufacturing industry, Norinco has created a logistics system platform type "Future Factory" (hereinafter referred to as "Future Factory"), among which the two logistics scenarios of "intelligent warehousing" and "precise distribution" have been selected for the "2022 Intelligent Manufacturing Excellent Scene Publicity List" released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, providing successful experience for the digital, service-oriented, and integrated development of equipment manufacturing enterprises.

1、 Future Factory Planning and Layout

The "Future Factory" project of Noli is located at 1888 Central Avenue, Changxing County, Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province. The construction period is from January 2019 to December 2021, with a total investment of 201 million yuan, including equipment investment (including software) of 161 million yuan. It has been fully put into operation by the end of 2021.

The "Future Factory" platform of Nori Logistics System is designed with the concept of logistics centralization, aiming to create an "intelligent manufacturing chain for logistics handling equipment production". Through the construction of the "Future Factory", it will achieve intelligent and refined manufacturing throughout the entire process and cycle, greatly enhancing the supply capacity and flexible manufacturing capability of the industry. The project construction includes nine major construction contents, including the construction of intelligent metalworking workshop, intelligent welding workshop, intelligent spraying workshop, intelligent final assembly workshop, intelligent logistics and warehousing construction, digital R&D collaborative platform construction, intelligent production control system construction, supply chain collaborative platform construction, green manufacturing and new generation green technology construction. Through the integration of software and hardware, a digital driven intelligent factory has been formed, consisting of three automated three-dimensional warehouses and 38 logistics mobile robots combined to form an independent intelligent logistics overall solution. Eight major system integrations (ERP PLM、MES、WMS、SCADA、CRM、SCM、 The remote operation and maintenance system has formed a "Noli Digital Brain", introducing standard processes to achieve digital design, intelligent production, intelligent management, collaborative manufacturing, green manufacturing, and secure control, with industry-leading integration level.

The 'Future Factory' adopts a large factory building layout design and establishes various production units for flexible production modes. The production line layout follows the material flow in an S-shaped layout, including sheet metal cutting production line, CNC machining production line, channel steel cutting production line, automated welding line for gantry and frame, and automated assembly production line; And build a semi-finished three-dimensional warehouse, a purchased parts three-dimensional warehouse, a painting three-dimensional warehouse, and a finished product warehouse. At the same time, material buffer areas are set up along major production lines, such as welding secondary matching areas, spraying line buffer areas, and standard parts warehouses along the assembly line. All material transportation from the three-dimensional warehouse to the edge of the line is carried out by AGV carts.

This production process layout optimizes the logistics direction within the factory, maximizing the reduction of material distribution and work in progress circulation time in limited space; Simultaneously shorten the AGV transportation distance, ensure efficiency, and avoid path conflicts; The raw material inlet and finished product outlet are effectively separated to ensure transportation efficiency.

Below, we will focus on the planning and construction of smart logistics in the "Future Factory", with a particular emphasis on the "precise delivery" of the final assembly production line, the intelligent warehousing and logistics of the factory, as well as the four core contents of the factory's intelligent material management system and supply chain collaboration platform. We will also summarize the project's innovation, key technological breakthroughs, and application value.

2、 Precise delivery of the final assembly line

The assembly automation production line is mainly used for the assembly of logistics and handling equipment, realizing unmanned operations (composed of AGV vehicles flexibly combined to achieve workflow automation), intelligent production control (perfectly integrated with MES system, precise material distribution), intelligent monitoring and flexible production (establishing online detection equipment, robot assisted assembly), and product full cycle management (bolt tightening data can be saved, traced, and transmitted).

The automated production line adopts a backpack AGV; Flexible production method of assembly operation and automatic transfer between workstations through AGV; The automatic delivery of materials adopts the form of AGV+pallet, which automatically delivers materials to the assembly station according to demand and cycle; Assembly tooling (different workpieces are uniformly equipped with tooling for easy transportation and clamping, and the tooling is fixedly connected to the AGV); Each manual assembly station is equipped with dynamic electronic operation guidance and scanning guns; The loading and flipping stations of the transport vehicle are operated by ABB 6-joint robots; The quality points that need to be inspected after assembly are all equipped with laser ranging inspection and image sensors (CCD) at the assembly station; Set up a buffer station in the repair area. When there is a station on the main line that cannot be completed according to the rhythm requirements, it needs to be transferred to the buffer station to ensure the smooth operation of the main line; After the completion of the whole vehicle assembly inspection, the packaging of the whole vehicle is completed through manual transportation and packaging line.

Among them, the backpack AGV can move forward, turn left and right, run continuously along any curve, and move efficiently and flexibly in all directions. Capable of handling various complex road surfaces and driving smoothly both indoors and outdoors. The positioning accuracy can reach ± 10mm; Long service life; Extremely safe and reliable; The wheels are sturdy and durable, with strong load-bearing capacity, and do not damage the ground.

AGV can set two operation modes, synchronous operation and step-by-step operation, according to the production pace, and can also adopt fully automatic/manual operation control mode. The speed adjustment range is 0-10m/min; The AGV front-end is equipped with imported infrared anti-collision sensors and fault sound and light alarm devices, touch sensitive mechanical anti-collision devices, and imported travel switches.

3、 Intelligent warehousing and logistics system

The intelligent manufacturing of logistics handling equipment requires the storage of a large amount of raw materials, purchased parts, production components, and process equipment. In addition to using the above flat warehouse storage and outbound scheduling process for raw materials, solder, and oil products, three automated three-dimensional warehouses have been built for purchased parts, outsourced parts, and assembled components, achieving automated warehousing operations for various materials. Autonomous material handling robots are used to handle internal material handling and transfer operations from receiving and entering the warehouse to transferring and shelving, and from line end distribution to automated three-dimensional warehousing.

The main operational process is as follows:

1. In and out of semi-finished product warehouse

When semi-finished products (or empty pallets) need to be stored, the forklift AGV places the goods directly on the conveyor at the storage port. After passing the appearance inspection, they are directly transported to the conveyor in the storage direction for storage. Goods that fail the appearance inspection are directly returned to the storage port for manual sorting and re storage; When semi-finished products (or empty pallets) need to be sorted or directly shipped out, the stacker crane transports the goods directly to the outbound port or sorting station. At this time, the industrial vehicle transports the goods to the corresponding location according to the prompts on the display screen at the outbound port. (Refer to Figure 1)

When the goods need to be sorted, the stacker crane takes out the goods from the vertical warehouse and transports them to the manual sorting conveyor through the conveyor. At this time, the manual quickly sorts the required goods according to the instructions on the display screen, and the remaining goods enter the next sorting port or directly enter the warehouse. (Refer to Figure 2)

2. Outbound and inbound of purchased parts warehouse

The inbound and outbound operations of the purchased parts warehouse are basically the same as those of the semi-finished product warehouse. (Refer to Figure 3)

3. Intelligent inbound and outbound of painting warehouse

When goods (or empty pallets) need to be stored, forklifts place them directly on the conveyor at the storage port. After passing the appearance inspection, they are directly transported to the storage conveyor line and transported to the stacker crane for storage. If the appearance inspection fails, the goods are directly returned to the storage port for manual sorting and re storage.

When semi-finished products (or empty pallets) need to be shipped or sorted, the stacker crane directly transports the goods to the conveyor at the outbound port, and then transfers them directly to the conveyor at the outbound port through shuttle cars. For the goods that need to be shipped directly, industrial vehicles transport them to the corresponding location according to the display screen at the outbound port. (Refer to Figure 4)

4、 Factory Material Management System and Digital Collaboration Platform

1. Intelligent Material Management System

The intelligent material management system of "Future Factory" integrates various system software such as MES, ERP, WMS, APS, etc., achieving precise and efficient management of normal materials. The material management process is shown in Figure 5.

Smooth material management through MES system to complete production material requisition and semi-finished product completion and warehousing processes.

The cutting and machining production processes receive materials from the ERP system, and after production is completed, they interact with the WMS system to enter the semi-finished product warehouse.

The materials required for welding are sorted and distributed by the MES system in the welding secondary matching area. After welding is completed, welding is marked and the materials in the welding buffer zone are managed. During the spraying process, coding and binding are carried out according to the order of material online, and re coding is carried out after the spraying is offline, and the semi-finished products are stored in the WMS managed spraying warehouse.

All materials produced by the department shall be coded and marked, and incorporated into the purchased parts warehouse managed by the WMS system.

The assembly production process is carried out by each warehouse for material distribution based on the complete set of order materials. At the same time, the MES system is responsible for managing the material calling management of standard parts on the production line. After the product assembly is completed, it is coded and placed in the finished product completion area, and the ERP is notified to enter the finished product warehouse.

Due to the inability to lock inventory materials required for orders, the system plans to implement the principle of complete set of order materials. Calculate the actual available quantity of each material when reading the complete set of order materials.

When running the Advanced Planning and Scheduling System (APS), it is necessary to first check whether the current order materials are complete, that is, to compare the amount of materials received with the actual available quantity. If the demand is met, the production plan can be issued. When the order materials are actually released from the warehouse, changes will be made to the existing inventory and requisition quantities simultaneously. In addition, when the ERP production plan changes, the occupied inventory should also be released synchronously. (Refer to Figure 6)

2. Supply Chain Collaboration Platform

In order to solve pain points such as long communication cycles with suppliers, lagging procurement management, slow update of reconciliation data, inability to collaborate in management, and inability to share data, "Future Factory" has built an integrated platform for production, supply, and marketing resources, which enables dynamic analysis and flexible configuration of manufacturing resources through the cloud based industrial chain. Establish a "high-quality, high-efficiency, high-efficiency, and sustainable" supply chain system to support the business needs of enterprise supply chain. Taking into account the integration and optimization of the entire supply chain resources, sustainably reducing procurement costs, efficiently handling procurement business, achieving cost reduction and efficiency improvement, enhancing company management, improving work efficiency, enhancing work effectiveness, and achieving sustainable development of business and systems.

5、 Innovation and highlights of intelligent logistics projects

1. Solve the overall logistics intelligence demand with independent technology as the core

Based on the characteristics of the intelligent logistics equipment manufacturing industry, Nori proposes a comprehensive and complete factory logistics system solution. It adopts an independently developed intelligent three-dimensional warehouse, uses independently developed integrated factory design, automated three-dimensional warehousing, intelligent warehouse management system WMS based on barcode and RFID recognition technology, as well as independently developed core logistics equipment and software such as AGV handling system based on 5G communication technology, intelligent logistics equipment based on electromagnetic guidance and environmental guidance for handling robots/palletizing robots, etc., to achieve seamless integration with the production line, automatic coding, scanning and warehousing of offline products. It has flexible and customized distribution rules to improve material retrieval efficiency, independent decision-making for material distribution, and is equipped with an intelligent operation and maintenance platform for data cloud storage and traceability.

Build an automated logistics platform with independent intellectual property rights in various process links of the entire factory, realizing the intensification, lean, standardization, and modernization of material management, realizing the intelligence of production logistics, and forming a demonstration application of the overall solution of independent intelligent logistics system.

It is worth mentioning that in the "Future Factory" project, the procurement amount of Noli's self owned brand products (including equipment, systems, and software) accounts for 79.8%. The self owned brand industrial robots used have passed CR certification, and the CNC rate of key equipment has reached over 95%, the automatic collection rate of production data has reached over 95%, and the automatic data transmission rate between the data collection and analysis system and the manufacturing execution system (MES) has reached 100%.

2. Breakthroughs have been made in key technologies of intelligent logistics equipment

The "Future Factory" construction project of Noli has achieved multiple technological innovations and breakthroughs through independent innovation and joint innovation:

The intelligent warehousing and logistics system has solved key problems such as intensive utilization of site space, efficient transportation and operation, more intelligent operation, high-speed energy saving, and labor saving through optimized design of stacker crane structure and research and development of control system; Developed on-site decentralized control drive system, servo positioning system, scheduling information system, and fully integrated electrical control and scheduling software to ensure the stability and efficiency of the system; Simultaneously utilizing Siemens bus technology and TCP/IP protocol of industrial Ethernet, hardware facilities are installed to combine software and hardware modules in a centralized management and decentralized control manner, fully adapting to the control requirements of the three-dimensional warehouse system.

Based on the innovation and application of logistics robots, Noli has overcome common technical challenges in the industry such as "multi-objective cooperative control technology for robots" and "high-precision, high flexibility access technology". On the basis of the breakthrough in multi-objective cooperative control technology for robots, it has developed an autonomous collaborative scheduling system, which solves technical problems such as many to many matching between scheduling system tasks and robots, shortest path optimization, traffic deadlock and unlocking, and can achieve efficient collaborative operation of 50 or more intelligent logistics robots. The system can replace imports. High precision flexible docking technology achieves precise positioning and connection between AGV and docking targets at workstation nodes, with a docking positioning accuracy of ± 5mm, realizing the import substitution of some AGV technologies. The AGL-PS10LMT unmanned stacker truck with ultra small turning radius developed for narrow channels has a minimum turning radius of 1115mm, which is at the forefront of international standards.

3. Implement technology verification and application demonstration of cloud based AGV and 5G+AR

Norris has deployed the AGV dispatching system on the MEC edge cloud platform to achieve the cloudization of the dispatching system. The AGV of multi factories has realized the centralized dispatching of multi factories and multi AGVs through the cloud networking technology and CUII Unicom 2B backbone network to maximize the logistics efficiency. In terms of remote operation and maintenance, research and application of 5G+AR technology to achieve remote diagnosis and guidance from different locations. By applying the innovative results of joint research and development to this project, not only can on-site technical verification of technological innovation be achieved, but demonstration and promotion can also help break through the effective application of new generation information technology in more scenarios, drive industry development, and assist in the implementation and construction of "Made in China 2025".

4. Fully utilize digital twin technology

The 'Future Factory' adopts a combination of virtual and real methods to construct an integrated production management mode for production lines, establishing virtual three-dimensional static models and dynamic models of manufacturing resources for each production line. By integrating with the MES system on the production line, real-time information on workshop, production line equipment, materials, logistics status, and production order execution can be obtained, enabling the linkage and interaction of information data. Virtual devices can dynamically reflect and control the operating status and production process of physical devices online, achieving orderly flow of information flow, material flow, and control flow. At the same time, they can also predict possible failures, make timely decision guidance, and improve production efficiency.

6、 Project operation effect and value

The construction of the "Future Factory" smart logistics project has greatly contributed to the efficiency and cost reduction of factory logistics. For example, the construction and application of intelligent warehousing and logistics systems have minimized error rates and operating costs, improved work efficiency and production capacity, and achieved flexible storage of goods of different weights and sizes, achieving efficient space utilization and inventory turnover. The intelligent logistics construction in the final assembly workshop not only helps improve production efficiency, but also effectively reduces labor costs, reducing personnel by 39 people and achieving an average reduction rate of 60.25%.

Through the construction of a logistics system platform based "Future Factory", Nori has achieved intelligent and refined manufacturing throughout the entire process and cycle, greatly enhancing its industrial supply capacity and flexible manufacturing capabilities. Despite the severe impact of the epidemic in recent years, Nori's factory has maintained efficient operation: compared with 2018 before construction, the per capita production efficiency has increased by 59.68%, the energy utilization efficiency has increased by 104.69%, the research and development cycle has been shortened by 53.20%, the operating cost has been reduced by 25.17%, and the defect rate has been reduced by 43.52%. Under the dual pressure of the epidemic and foreign trade disputes, we have achieved rapid growth against the trend, with a total output value of 5.887 billion yuan in 2021, an increase of more than 120% compared to 2018, and outstanding economic benefits.

At the same time, Noli has facilitated collaboration between supply chain enterprises, improved service capabilities and customer satisfaction, and promoted the transformation of the enterprise into a service-oriented manufacturing industry through the construction of the "Future Factory". It has also driven upstream suppliers to undergo intelligent and digital transformation, promoting the construction of an intelligent manufacturing ecosystem in the industrial chain. In addition, Noli's "Future Factory" has demonstrative value in technology, management, environmental protection, and other aspects, setting an industry benchmark with significant social benefits.