Tesla recently appeared in the author's line of sight, first when a U.S.-Chinese driver crashed in the auto mode; then April Fool’s Day Musk posted a bankruptcy joke on Twitter, and then U.S. traffic safety regulators came out to fight. Tesla, said that the performance of Autopilot had not been evaluated in 2017; Tesla had suffered a series of downtime afterwards; and now Tesla’s earnings report for the first quarter of this year was a good enough for the passers-by. It surprised the author. In an analyst conference call after the financial report was released, Musk took the fluffy robot as an example to show that these robotic equipments need to do a lot of maintenance when they are running. These maintenance engineers will spend a lot of money, so the company has eliminated this in order to reduce costs. Part of the robot.
In the field of food and related machinery and equipment production, China is facing practical difficulties such as difficulties in recruiting labor, rising labor costs, etc. In solving these problems, automation and intelligence have become the more appropriate solutions, and unmanned factories have gradually become the trend of the times. However, according to Tesla's development experience, automation and intelligence may not be the key to solving these problems. Food and related machinery and equipment manufacturers need to pay attention to the following three points in the actual automation and intelligent transformation process.
Automation upgrades more than one robot solution
As the smart manufacturing 2025 slogan was repeatedly mentioned, the use of robotic devices in the production of food and related machinery and equipment was increasing. The noodle cooking robot was upgraded from the original one minute noodle to 20 seconds to complete noodle cooking; the meat grinder was put into the assembly. On the production line, eight robots start to work together and it takes only 12 seconds to complete the meat grinder assembly. It is true that the robot has become an important part of the intelligent production process with its unique flexibility, high precision, and high efficiency. The high maintenance requirements of robots and the long cycle required for R&D are also problems that cannot be avoided in the production process.
In fact, automation upgrades are not just a solution for robots. Enterprises like non-standard automation equipment providing complete solutions are also emerging. Taking packaging as an example, Nongshim, Bosch Rexroth, Beijing Omori Sky and other companies are Try to provide customers with a complete set of automation solutions. Through the interconnection of devices, production information can be communicated to customers while also achieving communication and interoperability between devices, and automating the production process.
Thinking about whether food automation reform may lose its spirit of inheritance
Unlike Tesla's automotive industry, China has a long history. The production of food has been inherited for thousands of years. It is entirely mechanized and automatic equipment replacement is bound to lose its traditional charm.
Shaoxing rice wine production has found a balance between modern production methods and traditional craftsmanship. In the traditional production process of rice wine, the entire production process requires constant attention from the master chef, which makes it difficult to increase the production volume. Facing this phenomenon, Shaoxing’s rice wine company introduced automated brewing. The production line, rice wine automated packaging and logistics, etc. will automate the reform of yellow rice wine. However, if all the mechanization will lead to a uniform taste and lose the characteristics of yellow rice wine, some companies still insist on using the traditional method of rice soaking, only changing the original open-air placement to The roof of the self-opening weather conditions has inherited the yellow rice wine tradition on the basis of improving food safety standards.
Follow-up maintenance talent cultivation is a top priority
Tesla discovered during the production practice that in the production process of placing the fluff on the battery pack, the cost of the application and maintenance of the robot far exceeds the labor cost. According to the current situation in China where there is a serious shortage of high-end technical personnel, this issue In the food and mechanical equipment production areas are also very likely to appear.
We know that in the process of technological innovation, it is inevitable that there must be corresponding technical personnel to support it. Faced with the fact that China's high-tech talent is not yet sufficient, on the one hand, automation equipment manufacturing enterprises will try to simplify the operation when manufacturing equipment. The maintenance process is simplified. , Some companies try to perform predictive maintenance on food machinery and equipment. Specialized personnel perform real-time tracking of performance data on online data and perform remote maintenance in the event of a sign of performance degradation. This concentrates maintenance personnel on food machinery equipment manufacturers. The way to reduce the maintenance personnel's rush and improve the maintenance efficiency. On the other hand, the enterprise and the society are strengthening the cultivation of technical talents and strengthening the technical capabilities of talents by providing training opportunities.
Nowadays, automation is becoming increasingly fierce. However, Tesla’s production difficulties are ahead of it. Food and related machinery and equipment manufacturing companies need to combine their own strengths, needs, talent pools, and other factors in the automation and intelligence process, and carefully choose automation. Roads. Ensure the automation of the equipment can truly promote the development of the company.