Using Wisdom Sensing to Create Application Value of Artificial Intelligence

Advanced countries use policy forces to promote the intelligent transformation and upgrading of manufacturing industries, such as Industry 4.0 in Germany and the Advanced Partnership Program in the United States. The Chinese government is also not worried about it. In 2016, the Smart Machinery Industry Promotion Program was launched, using " The "precision machinery" industry combines intelligent elements, especially domestic industrial sensors, to develop application knowledge, experience and technical services that meet market needs; the machine tool industry is a locomotive industry and an important foundation for manufacturing in various countries. Smart manufacturing function, the Ministry of Economic Affairs Bureau of Industry counsels’ manufacturers to invest in the innovative development of industrial sensors and uses cross-disciplinary cooperation to promote intelligent technologies such as machine learning, deep learning, and artificial intelligence. It is expected to become a key component of global smart machinery and high-end equipment R&D and manufacturing center.

Benchmarking of international smart machinery

Germany is a leading country in the global machinery industry and is also the learning objective of machinery manufacturers in various countries, especially high-quality, high-precision, high-value products, and technologies. Global manufacturing regards German equipment as the primary choice, thereby promoting output quality. In response to changes in customer needs, German Machinery has also developed products, services, and business models that are different from those in the past, and are facing challenges in sales promotion and profitability.

According to VDMA and McKinsey surveys, there are 10 future success models for the German machinery industry, and five are related to management issues, such as enterprise-scale, internationalization, production efficiency, global production layout, management models, and strategic intentions. Related to global competition and operating efficiency, the other five items are product innovation and business expansion, such as innovation activities, standardization and modularization, business models, after-sales service and innovation services, and industry alliances. The specific content is as follows:

1. Innovation activities
   The German machinery industry emphasizes innovation, but it must have a clear market positioning and differentiation in order to have better prices and profitable space. It also develops new processes by means of industry-academia cooperation, technical consultants, and network cooperation. It is best to integrate products, Technology, process, and application solutions, such as robotic arms and automation.
2. Standardization and modularization
   German machinery manufacturers use a modular approach and cooperate with value chain manufacturers. Individual manufacturers provide standardized machinery or components, focusing on their own technologies, emphasizing economies of scale, the professional division of labor, and core capabilities. Value chain manufacturers promote together Customized solutions have a better profit space, share development risks, and seek future growth opportunities. It is standardized for individual companies and customized for external customers.
3. New business model
   The German machinery industry focuses on core competence, develops modular and standardized performance, and creates learning curve benefits. It can take into account profitability and growth space, and only invests in highly feasible development projects. When the existing market is saturated, it will also the development of emerging markets should still be based on core competencies, link with after-sales service and new service providers, and work together to outline new business models.
4. After-sales service and new services
   German machinery industry believes that after-sales services and new services have growth opportunities, but may not have profit margins, mainly because customers are reluctant to pay, service quality is difficult to assess, only mechanized demand, customers are unwilling to outsource. At present, most services are only basic needs such as maintenance, such as providing zero hardware, software, and services are required for hardware maintenance, education, and training, equipment or system assembly, etc., in order to require users to pay.
5. Industry Alliance
   With changes in application requirements, such as robotics and automation, power transmission and distribution engineering, process technology, mobile application technology, etc., the German machinery industry has to develop different success models in response to the innovative requirements of different expertise, and it must also correspond to the overall environment of different markets. , Such as policies, regulations, industry standards, sales services, etc., the joint cooperation of cross-domain or cross-market manufacturers can promote the development and grasp business opportunities.

Global production status of machine tools

According to Gardner's statistics, the global production value of machine tools in 2018 was US$94,596 million, an increase of 4.6% from 2017's 90,473 million. This is the second year of growth since the bottom of the 2016 climb and is close to the output value of 2014 It can be seen that the ups and downs of the global machine tool industry, especially the continued changes in the U.S.-China trade war in 2018, have intensified the trade friction between the two major economies of the United States and China, and the possible negative impacts that deserve attention. In detail, to individual countries, mainland China is the world's largest producer of machine tools. In 2018, the output value was 23,460 million US dollars, accounting for 24.8% of the global market. Compared with 2017, it declined by 6.5%, which is in line with the decline in demand in mainland China. Relevant, followed by Germany's US$14,987 million (accounting for 15.8% of the global market, an increase of 9.8%), the third-largest is Japan's US$14,765 million (accounting for the global market of 15.6%, an increase of 10.3%), the top three It has accounted for more than 50%, followed by Italy, the United States, South Korea, Taiwan, Switzerland, India, Spain, etc., and the top ten accounted for a higher proportion with 88%, it also points out the representative position of Taiwan's machine tools in the global market. With the rapid changes in the international situation, how can Taiwan machine tools innovate and change in order to enhance international competitiveness?

Development trends of international machine tool manufacturers

In recent years, countries have successively introduced policies related to smart manufacturing, which have made process technology and virtual-real integration systems and product performances valued. Such trends are closely related to data-driven, machine learning, and artificial intelligence technologies. The machine tool industry, also known as the locomotive industry, is also an important the foundation, in order to strengthen the intelligent manufacturing function of machine tools, further analyzes the development trends of international machine tool manufacturers, including business status and patent analysis, to explain the development trends of international machine tool manufacturers.

1. Operating status

   As mentioned above, Mainland China, Germany, and Japan are the top three suppliers of machine tools in the world. In addition to the slow start in mainland China, the main domestic market is the main export market, and the proportion of exports is less than 20%. The remaining two countries are all global machine tools. Important exporting countries have high standards in the competitiveness of machine tools, such as quality, precision, reliability, service life, etc., and major international machine tool manufacturers also derive from this, such as DMG of German machine tool factories. MORI, TRUMPF, SCHULER, etc., AMADA, OKUMA, TOYODA, etc.

   Judging from the current operating situation, DMG MORI is the world's largest machine tool factory, with an operating income of US$4,537 million in 2018, an increase of 13.4% from 2017. The company emphasizes changes in the external environment, such as the medical needs of an aging society and Workforce reduction, changes in processing technology for different materials used in electric vehicles, and innovative applications of artificial intelligence technology in machine tools, etc., also proposed the development of compounding and automation to digital factory. The development plan and the new business model of "One-stop service" are not only traditional machine tool manufacturing but also involved in the operation of peripheral equipment and application software. They also need to cooperate with relevant members, such as research and development, procurement, production, and sales, installation, etc., so actively promote innovation training. It is followed by TRUMPF, with an operating income of US$4,485 million in 2018, an increase of 14.6% over 2017. The main products are machine tools and laser equipment, and more active development of digital, industrial 4.0 and other technologies, including software, hardware, and manufacturing processes, Committed to more economical, more precise and future forecasting solutions.

   The third-largest is AMADA, with an operating income of US$2,829 million in 2018, an increase of 7.8% from 2017. The company proposed a “V-factory” factory innovation concept, including “Visualization” for manufacturing information visualization and “Value Creation” "Value" and "Victory" of business success, because machine information can be uploaded to the Internet, as long as the APPs of personal computers or mobile devices, you can grasp the status of the production site, and respond quickly to achieve the benefits of reducing waste and maximizing machine benefits. It can also develop IoT solutions to create application values such as maintenance, abnormal diagnosis, and production improvement. All development concepts are derived from customer needs, and customized solutions are also provided to meet customer needs.

   The operating revenues of the remaining major international machine tool manufacturers are all below US$2,000 million, including US$1,992 million for OKUMA, US$1,646 million for TOYODA, and US$1,431 million for SCHULER, which are still the world of Japanese and German machine tool manufacturers. In terms of per capita output value, OKUMA ranks first among major international machine tool manufacturers. In 2018, the per capita output value was US$554,000, significantly leading other manufacturers, followed by US$348,000 from DMG MORI, US$344,000 from AMADA, and 33.4 from TRUMPF. 10,000 US dollars, the gap between the factories is not significant, the last is SCHULER and TOYODA, only 217,000 ~ 218,000 US dollars. Overall, the international machine tool is large the per capita output value of the factory is not low, which represents higher operating efficiency and added value.

   In terms of R&D expenditure and the proportion of R&D, the first place of international machine tool manufacturers is TRUMPF. In 2018, R&D expenditure was close to US$400 million, and the proportion of R&D can reach 9%. This is because of the relative stability of family companies. More R&D resources are expected to create a better future. The R&D of other major international machine tool manufacturers accounts for a relatively low percentage, roughly between 1% and 4%. Due to the low operating income, there is still a considerable R&D scale, such as DMG MORI, TOYODA, AMADA, etc. more than 60 million US dollars, OKUMA more than 20 million US dollars.

2. Patent layout

   In order to grasp the intelligent manufacturing trends of international machine tool manufacturers, this paper uses the patent layout of six international manufacturers such as DMG MORI, TRUMPF, AMADA, OKUMA, JTEKT, and SCHULER as the main body, and uses "Sensor" as the necessary key to query the patent database. This is because the sensor is a key component of smart manufacturing and Industry 4.0. It can grasp all kinds of manufacturing information, such as vibration, pressure, distance, temperature, humidity, etc., and derive a variety of smart manufacturing functions, supplemented by " The secondary keywords such as "Machine Learning", "Artificial Intelligence" or "System Integration" were collected during the statistical period from 1999 to 2019. A total of 2,321 patients were obtained. It can be seen from this that international machine tool manufacturers continue to increase their patents related to smart manufacturing. From the low-end hovering of 1999 to 2004, there were only 46 to 69 pens per year, which increased to 125 pens per year in 2007, breaking through 100 barriers per year, and then rising to a new high of 152 pens in 2008, and presenting from 2009 to 2014 The fluctuating situation is roughly between 113 and 180, and then climbed to 209 in 2016, breaking through the 200 levels per year, and continuing to increase to 237 in 2017, hitting a record high, and also pointing to the trend of smart manufacturing. Continue to heat up, especially after 2012~2013, countries have successively launched policies related to smart manufacturing, driving a new wave of industrial innovation. In terms of individual manufacturers, JTEKT is the most intelligent manufacturing-related patent among international machine tool manufacturers. There were 731 patent applications from 1999 to 2019, accounting for 31%, followed by OKUMA's 603 patents (accounting for 26%), DMG MORI 411 (18%), TRUMPF 330 (14%), AMADA 190 (8%), SCHULER 56 (3%), etc.

Overview of domestic smart machines and sensors

Advanced countries use policy forces to promote the intelligent transformation and upgrading of manufacturing industries, such as Industry 4.0 in Germany and the Advanced Partnership Project in the United States. The Chinese government is also not worried about it. The Smart Machinery Industry Promotion Program launched in 2016 is also among the top five One of the innovative industry plans, the use of "precision machinery" industry combined with intelligent elements, such as sensors, robots, etc., to develop application knowledge, experience and technical services that meet market needs, and promoted to "smart machinery" industry, let China It has become a global R&D and manufacturing center for key components of smart machinery and high-end equipment.

Industrial sensors and application systems are also one of the main spindles of innovation, using the functions of detection, judgment and information processing of smart sensing to promote the development vision of smart machinery, smart manufacturing, industry 4.0, etc., only limited by the majority of domestic sensors For 3C industrial applications, it may not be able to meet the stringent requirements of the industrial environment, such as precision, dirt resistance, reliability, service life, etc., must make self-made domestic industrial sensors, in order to create import substitution benefits, and at the same time meet the manufacturer Customized needs.

So far, domestic manufacturers have used policy resources such as production and innovation platforms to invest in the innovative development of multiple industrial sensors, such as accelerated scale groups, infrared distance sensors, 3D image sensors, etc., which can be used as smart machinery industry development Key components and components to create the benefits of autonomous sensing technology. More importantly, the value-added and customized application of domestic industrial sensors, and the joint cooperation between supply and demand, can create the most suitable sensing module, mainly because the production environment of most factories is different, including processing machines, Process arrangement, personnel quality, etc., adopt the industrial sensing of international big factories.

Device components, which are usually mass-produced standardized components, may have limited customization space, or only reach a certain procurement scale before they can be customized, which is restricting the innovation and development of domestic smart machinery. Therefore, the innovative development of domestic industrial sensors, including the large-scale application of standardized components, must have the economies of scale of domestic industrial sensors in order to be profitable and sustainable. At the same time, with the customer's differentiated requirements, it may be different machines Taiwan or different manufacturing processes, if you have independent technology sensing modules and systems, you can meet different needs and provide differentiated solutions, or use sensory information feedback for further development, using machine learning, deep learning, and artificial intelligence. Technology can also create differentiated value for domestic industrial sensors.

Work together to promote smart value-added solutions

According to Gardner's statistics, the production value of Taiwan's machine tools in 2018 was US$4,700 million, an increase of 7.1% from 2017, ranking seventh in the world, and the export value was US$3,602 million, ranking fifth in the world, and the export ratio was more As high as 76.6%, it is a typical export-oriented country and highly dependent on overseas markets. Affected by the prosperity of the US-China trade war, lagging manufacturers such as mainland China have also risen rapidly, and they are also facing labor problems in an aging society. Taiwan's tool machine manufacturers must innovate and change to consolidate their global competitive position. The Industry Bureau of the Ministry of Economic Affairs promotes the "Intelligent Sensor Application Industry Promotion Plan" and counsels’ domestic manufacturers to invest in the innovative development of industrial sensors, such as accelerated scale groups, infrared distance sensors, and 3D image sensors. Related products are launched and correspond to the intelligent value-added of domestic machine tools. They must meet the precision, reliability, and service life requirements of durable production finance. At the same time, they correspond to different machines and different process requirements. They must rely on smart machinery and industrial sense. The supply and demand of the sensor can work together to create an optimal solution for smart sensing.