Excessive cost slows down the progress of "machine substitution" in the Pearl River Delta

The use of robots to replace humans has become a hot topic in the manufacturing industry since 2014. Caixin reporters recently visited a number of Pearl River Delta companies and found that for three years, even with financial subsidies, early investment in capital and technology is still a major cause of trouble for companies to promote "machine substitution".

Guangdong Changying Precision Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Guangdong Changying) is a large-scale backbone enterprise in Dongguan City, which mainly produces high-precision metal structural parts and appearance parts for 3C smart terminals. Caixin reporter learned that the company has been implementing "machine substitution" since 2014, and has invested a total of about 1,500 industrial robots so far. These robots are mainly imported from abroad. On average, each industrial robot and supporting equipment is nearly 200,000 yuan, and the total investment is estimated to be nearly 300 million yuan.

Many people in the industry said: Strictly speaking, "machine substitution" is not exactly the same as "robot substitution." "Machine substitution" can be the use of automated equipment to replace labor, and industrial robots have better flexibility, accuracy and operational performance than automated equipment. It's just that "machine substitutions" are more common.

"Which production link has a fast payback period, the ‘machine substitution’ plan is adopted wherever it is, and the current progress of replacing labor is 30 to 40%,” said Ren Xiangsheng, general manager of Guangdong Changying. On June 8th, at the theme event of "Made in Guangdong – Intelligent Manufacturing in Guangdong", Ren Xiangsheng told the interview team that in addition, the production line such as grinding and polishing has a harsh operating environment and priority will be given to industrial robots.

Guangdong Changying is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Changying Precision, a listed company in Shenzhen. The financial report shows that in 2015 and 2016, Guangdong Changying's revenue was 2.056 billion and 3.935 billion yuan, and the net profit was 181 million and 364 million yuan, respectively.

However, even companies with a profit of more than 100 million yuan still pay attention to investment efficiency when promoting "machine substitution". Luo Weiqiang, assistant to the company's general manager, told Caixin reporters that from a financial perspective, the company's bottom line goal is to have an investment payback period of less than one and a half years. "Enterprises will not automate for the sake of automation, but intelligent for the sake of intelligence," Luo Weiqiang said. "In the past, we tried to invest in robots in a certain loading and unloading process, but found that it would take five years to recover the cost, so we gave up."

Guangdong Changying has saved nearly 6,000 laborers through investment in industrial robots and automation equipment, and currently has 14,000 employees.

A Caixin reporter saw in the company's production workshop that many production lines for visual inspection of product appearance were full of workers at work. Wu Zhiheng, deputy director of the Guangdong Institute of Intelligent Manufacturing, pointed out that if all these meticulous inspections are replaced with more intelligent industrial robots, the cost will be much higher, and the use of manual labor is still relatively cost-effective.

Local governments have actively promoted "machine substitution" and issued a number of subsidy policies to provide support and encouragement. However, many people in the industry have reported that “machine substitutions” are mostly subsidies after the fact, that is, the company needs to pay for the goods when purchasing, and then apply for subsidies based on relevant information. For some companies, the pressure to pay for the purchase is great.

The Secretary-General of the Dongguan Robot Industry Association once publicly stated in the media that a set of industrial robot equipment basically costs more than 100,000 yuan, which is difficult for ordinary small and medium-sized enterprises to afford.

Cost and benefit considerations are not unique to Guangdong Changying. Caixin reporter learned from Foshan Economic and Information Bureau on June 8 that since 2015, more than 300 industrial enterprises above designated size have carried out "machine substitution" in Foshan, and more than 5,000 industrial robots have been used. Above-scale refers to enterprises with main business income of more than 20 million yuan. However, there are currently more than 5,000 enterprises above designated size in Foshan, and less than one-tenth of these enterprises have tried to use industrial robots.

Foshan Mayor Zhu Wei said to the interview delegation on June 7 that he plans to use about five years to carry out technological transformation of all industrial enterprises above designated size in Foshan.

A staff member of the Foshan Economic and Information Bureau said: When companies use industrial robots, they focus on cost and input-output ratio. In the past, companies mostly used imported industrial robots, which were reliable in quality and expensive. It often cost several million yuan to complete the robots and production lines. Nowadays, companies are advocating the use of domestic industrial robots, but domestic robots still need to be improved in terms of function and stability.

The more companies use industrial robots, the higher their investment. The person in charge of a robot manufacturing company previously introduced: Even for a large company, it will take at least three years to recover the initial investment.

In order to solve the cost problem, on April 24 this year, Changying Precision officially signed a contract with Japan's Yaskawa Electric in Songshan Lake, Dongguan, to jointly fund the establishment of Guangdong Tianji Robot Co., Ltd., and Changying Precision holds 65% of the shares.

Ren Xiangsheng revealed that the establishment of a joint venture company can greatly reduce the cost of six-axis industrial robots. It is estimated that about 10,000 industrial robots will be launched by 2020. These robots can guarantee the resources of "machine substitution" within the group, and can save about 60% of the cost.

Wu Zhiheng said: Most of the domestic manufacturing industry, especially the equipment industry, is still in the industrial 1.0 and 2.0 era, and a few are in the initial stage of 3.0 or 3.0, such as joint venture auto companies. The promotion of intelligent manufacturing should be divided into categories and implemented gradually. He believes that some production lines can use automated machines, and some production lines that pursue precision can use industrial robots with a higher degree of intelligence.

"Suitable for enterprises, economical application is the best," Wu Zhiheng said. At present, the production lines of many small and medium-sized enterprises can actually use automated machines to meet their needs. The investment in industrial robots is relatively high, and the capital chain of many manufacturing companies is relatively tight.