Danfoss collaborates with FanRuan to lead the way in smart manufacturing

Danfoss was founded in Denmark in 1933 and has grown into a global leader in refrigeration, heating, water treatment, and transmission control industries. As Denmark's largest industrial group, Danfoss employs 20,000 people across four continents. With advanced facilities and subsidiaries in over 100 countries, the company's annual turnover is nearly $6 billion.

Danfoss (Tianjin) Co., Ltd. is Danfoss Group's first wholly-owned factory in China. Recognized by the World Economic Forum as a “Lighthouse Factory" leading the fourth industrial revolution in smart manufacturing, it ranks among the top 16 smartest factories worldwide. Through collaboration with FanRuan, the factory has achieved digitization and data-driven management, transforming data into value.

Challenges

Factory F's Digitization Odyssey: Formidable Challenges Ahead

The machining workshop in Factory F at Danfoss began its digitization journey in 2011. Over the years, it developed more than ten digital systems, such as SPC systems, automatic measurement data uploading systems, and pressure monitoring systems. However, these systems had their limitations and were not compatible with each other. As a result, they failed to integrate effectively, leading to what we call data silos. Furthermore, the user interfaces of these systems were quite rigid, making it challenging for the company to independently adjust and optimize them when needed. Instead, they had to rely on system suppliers for maintenance, which significantly increased maintenance costs.

In addition, the machining production workshop is characterized by a large number of equipment, diverse product models, and small production batches, making it a typical discrete manufacturing mode. Therefore, recording and product tracking for each workpiece have always been important yet labor-intensive tasks in the machining workshop. In the past, the entire workshop generated approximately 10,000 manual records per day, putting significant pressure on record-keeping and retrieval.

Moreover, in the past, workshop KPIs were manually calculated using traditional Excel sheets. Even with Excel templates for each KPI, the process remained time-consuming. It took one to two hours daily to calculate KPIs based on production data, while weekly KPI reports required four to six hours. This not only consumed time but also resulted in lagging KPIs that couldn't accurately reflect the real-time production status.

Besides, in the machining workshop, the SOP, CI, machine tool inspection, and other documents are posted on machine guard plates, leading to issues of dirty, damaged paper documents and outdated updates. Furthermore, all production records and CMM reports need to be printed on paper, resulting in significant paper usage costs.

As a result, the machining workshop in Factory F urgently needs to integrate and optimize its existing digital systems to break down data silos, enhance system flexibility and usability, and reduce maintenance costs. Additionally, it is necessary to explore more efficient methods for information recording, tracking, and transmission to meet the demands of a discrete manufacturing model, thus reducing costs and improving production efficiency and management effectiveness.

Solutions

Conquering Challenges with Innovative Solutions

In 2020, the machining workshop launched an information management system project, ultimately opting for a solution that combines handheld PDA with FineReport for data entry and data display. This solution not only tackles the workshop's challenges of multiple equipment, diverse product models, and small batch sizes but also enhances transparency and visualization throughout the production process.

On one hand, the compact and portable handheld PDA devices allow for flexible deployment among various equipment, making data collection via QR code scanning well-suited for discrete manufacturing modes. On the other hand, FineReport supports rapid deployment and offers a powerful designer with robust data entry and query analysis capabilities, as well as impressive display functionality. With a wide range of visualization options, including rich charts and 3D chart plugins, it enhances the workshop's data presentation.

Following the implementation of the solution, the machining workshop's display screen was set up in just about two weeks. Subsequently, within a short span of one month, the workshop successfully developed KPI tracking and analysis reports.

Real-time KPI monitoring and anomaly warning accelerates respond mechanism

FineReport successfully integrated the machining workshop's key KPIs, such as output quantity, OEE, scrap rate, equipment status, customer feedback, and safety status, into the KPI dashboard. Data from the production floor can be updated in real-time on the display screen within just 6 seconds, enabling centralized monitoring and real-time display of data. "We chose FineReport based on practicality. It allows us to display the scrap rate of each production line and employee in real-time, saving us a lot of time", said Chunguang, Wang.

Thanks to this efficient real-time monitoring, process and maintenance staff can quickly identify and address any anomalies shown on the dashboard. This rapid response mechanism significantly improves the timeliness of problem resolution and overall work efficiency, resulting in a direct efficiency improvement of 2.8%.

Machining paperless application achieves low-carbon development and cost reduction

As the group steadily advances its green and low-carbon development initiatives, the machining workshop has embraced paperless operations with the help of FineReport. Today, processes such as document distribution, production plan integration into the system, CR records, CMM reports, hourly tracking, and machine and tool inspections have all been streamlined through digital management.

Apart from safety signs, no documents are posted on the machine surfaces anymore. Instead, various documents are directly distributed to production workstation displays, which are centrally updated and managed in the background. Production records and CMM reports are displayed in electronic format on workstation screens or PDAs, eliminating the need for printing. This saves approximately 30 boxes of paper per month and reduces annual paper and printer maintenance costs by 35,000 yuan.

Real-time data insights improve production efficiency and quality control

Output and quality analysis are essential aspects of the production process. With FineReport, the factory can query and analyze data in real-time and across multiple dimensions, gaining a comprehensive understanding of workshop production efficiency and product quality. These data provide strong support for the company's continuous improvement efforts, enabling more accurate formulation of improvement measures. Each year, the workshop can visibly see the improvement in production efficiency and reduction in scrap rates through dashboards. FineReport has brought tangible benefits to production, driving the company's steady development.

Insights

Elevated Efficiency: Unleashing Digitization's Power

Since October 2020, Danfoss Factory has successfully developed 6 analysis modules and over 100 analysis reports using FineReport. Every month, the factory can swiftly implement new ideas and innovations with the help of FineReport. In just a few months, the factory has saved the equivalent of several manpower resources, with OEE improving by over 3% and overall efficiency increasing by around 6%.

The application of the FanRuan platform at Danfoss Factory has delivered positive results, bringing substantial improvements to production management. In the future, FanRuan will continue to support Danfoss Factory in further optimizing data analysis processes and enhancing production efficiency.