As an irreversible trend, artificial intelligence is sweeping the globe. For home appliance giants, industrial robots are one way they embrace artificial intelligence.
During the AWE2018 held in early March, the United States released the 'new generation of man-machine strategy', Haier officially released the "Haier wisdom family - service robot strategy 1.0." Earlier, Gree chairman Dong Mingzhu mentioned that smart equipment will Gree is the second major business in the future.
According to statistics, the output of industrial robots in China grew by more than 80% last year. With the tightening layout of home appliance giants and the continuous deepening of user demand, many challenges in the development of the industry are becoming increasingly apparent.
Appliance giants collective depth layout
On March 21st, another heavy news came that Midea Group announced that it will inject capital into the subordinate business of Kukka China and set up three joint venture companies to expand the business in the three major areas of industrial robotics, medical care, and warehouse automation to conform to the Chinese market. High-speed development needs in smart manufacturing, smart medical and smart logistics, new retail, etc.
Gree is also alive and well in the robotics industry. For Gree's development plan on smart equipment, Gree Electric Chairman Dong Mingzhu stated at the 2018 Gree Cadre Conference that in the past Gree's smart equipment realized its own production automation. Gree in the year to force the smart equipment. She is the first time in the future of Gree Electric Appliances to locate the strategic significance of intelligent equipment.
On the eve of AWE, Haier announced a strategic cooperation with Softbank Robots, introducing SoftBank’s humanoid robot 'Pepper' into the Chinese market. On the same day, Haier officially released “Haier Smart Home - Service Robot Strategy 1.0”, proposing service robots from a single function, a single scene. The upgrade to full-scale scenarios has entered the field of service robots. It is understood that Softbank R&D robots Pepper and NAO have been used in more than 70 countries around the world to provide innovative services related to retail, finance, healthcare, travel and service industries.
Zuo Yanyao, general manager of China Yikang Brand, believes that as China’s demographic dividend weakens and Industry 4.0 advances, China’s manufacturing industry has embarked on an era of automation and efficiency. “Machine substitution” is frequently performed in labor-intensive home appliance factories. , Smart factory began to appear.
The foreign giants also rushed to raise the Chinese market. Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Fujikoshi has decided to increase production in Chinese factories. The Swiss company ABB has factories in China and other countries, intends to increase the global production capacity of industrial robots in the next two years More than twice.
Differentiate the same skills to win strategic transformation
The significance of the strategic layout surrounding the robotics industry, the industrial Internet sector, Midea, Gree, Haier and other home appliance leading enterprises far exceeds the improvement in manufacturing efficiency and the industrial layout.
With the 'second main business' positioning intelligent equipment plate, the importance of smart equipment in Gree's transformation is self-evident.
For Midea, the human-computer strategy also bears the dream of transition. On the 2018 China Manufacturing Forum, Fang Hongbo, Chairman of Midea Group, stated: 'This is our vision for the future and we hope to truly transform ourselves into a consumer appliance, HVAC, robotics and automation. The system, the technology group of the four major business segments of the intelligent supply chain, is driven by technology and is no longer a labor-intensive company.
Whether it is the head company of the robotics industry, such as Kuka or Yaskawa, or its own smart equipment, the leading companies are all aiming at the 100 billion-level robot market and are pursuing the vast demands of the industrial and consumer robot market. Market research and consulting organization Tractica Data show that under the impetus of consumer robots, corporate robots, autopilots and drones, the global robot market will grow from US$34.1 billion in 2016 to US$226.2 billion in 2016, with a CAGR of around 46%.
'With the rise in labor costs, smart manufacturing is a key point in the transition of home appliance companies. It is also something that every company must do. Enterprises need to design and develop smart products, otherwise it will be difficult to mix in the market. 'Deputy Secretary General of China Electronics Chamber of Commerce Lu Renbo said.
Home appliance industry observer Hong Shibin believes that smart manufacturing can not be separated from the Internet and Internet of Things applications, although China's smart manufacturing has not yet formed the industrial market prospects, but it already has the foundation for development.
Breakthrough Must Turn to Intelligent Manufacturing
In fact, behind the transformation and upgrading of China's home appliance companies is the rapid rise of the Chinese robot market.
Insiders pointed out that with the advent of China's aggressive manufacturing 2025 strategy and consumer upgrades, the inevitable result is a dramatic increase in demand for robots. According to data released by the International Federation of Robotics, China has become a record-breaking speed in industrial automation. World leader.
The 2017 China Robotics Industry Development Report shows that currently in the global manufacturing industry, the density of industrial robots has exceeded 70 sets per ten thousand people. In the future, industrial robots will be further popularized. Data show that in 2010, the sales volume of Chinese industrial robots was only 14,978 units. In 2016, it will reach 90,000 units, and the market scale will increase more than 6 times. From 2018 to 2020, it will be the most important three years for the development of China's industrial robot industry. Its development will be directly related to the "Robotic Industry Development Plan (2016-2020)". The achievement of goals.
With the expansion of home appliance giants and some vertical professional companies, the newly-started factories will be mass-produced in 2018 and 2019. Industry agencies predict that the output of domestic industrial robots will double on the current basis in the next three years. In 2020, the output of domestic industrial robots will exceed 250,000 units.
Liu Buchen, an analyst in the home appliance industry, believes that in the future, China’s home appliance companies must gradually expand the use of home appliances instead of only producing home appliances. It must be extended and the scale of enterprise development may become larger and larger. The development of the market is already very saturated, if the company is still confined to the home appliance category, the future is very difficult to make big. China's home appliance to intelligent manufacturing transformation is intended to break through the limit.
Observed
The bottleneck of the development of industrial robots in our country
Although the development of China's robot market ushered in a good opportunity, there are still some problems and development bottlenecks.
From the perspective of the company itself, the domestic industrial machinery manufacturing enterprises are technically weak. The domestic enterprises have insufficient product innovation capabilities, the industrial robots produced can only complete simple processes, and high-end products still need to rely on imports; second, domestic robots. The scope of application of the product is not wide. The application of domestic robots in China mainly focuses on mid-to-high-end manufacturing industries such as automobiles, machine tools and electronics. It does not cover a wide range of labor-intensive and low-end manufacturing industries. Third, domestic industrial robots are expensive and cannot be used. Widely used. Related data show that domestic robots accounted for only 1/3 of the domestic market in 2016.
From the external environment, on the one hand, the domestic robot market is facing fierce competition. The robot high-end market has formed an oligopoly, the top four companies ABB, KUKA, Fanuc, Yaskawa currently occupy 60% of China's high-end market share. In China, local industrial robots have low barriers to multi-targeting in the low-end market, and their competitiveness is limited. On the other hand, the industry standards for industrial robots, such as the standard testing and certification system, are still not perfect, which seriously restricts the development of the industry.
In view of this, it is not easy for domestic robots to obtain a share in this blue ocean market. If you want to gain a firm foothold in the market, first of all, companies need to strengthen their investment in innovative R&D, and transform from processing companies to technologies. Type-based enterprises grasp core technologies as early as possible, and even form technological superiority, and get rid of the technical dependence on foreign companies. Second, companies need to start with procurement, technology, and production processes to lower production costs, thereby lowering product prices and forming price competitiveness. Finally, the domestic industrial robot companies are still in a weak position. The government needs to increase its policy support to enterprises, prompting the industry to enter the right track, and prompting the industry to form relevant regulations.