Dongguan aims to develop intelligent manufacturing
http://www.dongguantoday.com/ 09/12/2017 17:10
Situated in south China's Pearl River Delta region, the city of Dongguan is known for being the world's largest consumer electronic manufacturing base. But after its labor-intensive industries were hit by the 2008 financial crisis, Dongguan began its process of transformation. Our reporter Ge Yunfei went to Dongguan and tells us the story of the city known as the world’s factory.
Smartphones - a thing most people can’t live without in this booming and expanding information age.
In 2016, nearly 1-point-5 billion smartphones were produced around the world - with a staggering one-fifth of them being manufactured here in Dongguan - a manufacturing hub of apparel and technology.
Dongguan started with processing material provided by overseas clients. Anything from toys to shoes, from home appliances to electronic products, orders just kept coming in over the last few decades. The city boomed in a short period of time and more than 6 million migrant workers flocked to the city to form the largest manufacturing work force in the world.
But for companies depending on orders from outside and involved in the low-end of the supply chain, crisis may come at any moment.
HUANG HE, GENERAL MANAGER
JANUS PRECISION MANUFACTURING, DONGGUAN
"In early 2015, we signed around 20 big deals. But by the end of that year, lots of clients canceled orders and we only had 3 orders left. We knew we had a big problem."
Janus used to be number one in China when it comes to making the plastic back plates of smartphones. But when metal back plates suddenly took over, adapt or die were the choices left for Janus.
But the company created a third option - this intelligent factory. Boasting 160 automated machines, no workers, and robots carving metal plates without human instruction.
HUANG HE, GENERAL MANAGER
JANUS PRECISION MANUFACTURING, DONGGUAN
"In this factory, we reduced the number of workers from around 197 people to just 33. And the whole manufacturing process is connected to the cloud. Now we can monitor all the real-time statistics and situation inside the factory."
Now the factory can produce 5000 back plates every day. Janus is planning to upgrade all of their factories to intelligent bases in the future.
来源：CGTN Editor:谭晶