Human quality inspectors on the production line spend more than 10 hours to judge the quality every day. In order to guarantee the “eyesight” of quality inspectors, the work shift system is implemented for the post of human quality inspectors.
AI quality inspectors Play the Role of Eyes Although They Are Not Eyes
In Ningbo, AI quality inspectors manufactured by the enterprise GIIG may work efficiently and reliably without rest for 24 hours every day, with AI intelligent algorithm and automation control, and the data may be continuously updated, so as to be able to save a lot of human costs.
It is Zhang Wenbo that established this enterprise specialized in manufacturing AI quality inspectors, and he graduated from major of Communication Engineering of Dalian University of Technology and worked in Keyence Corporation.
"The product quality risks will not be effectively reduced if we ignore the process control and only rely on the final finished product inspection. Quality control must focus on the manufacturing stage, i.e., production process stage, instead of the after-event checks, and in the industry, we call it as IPQC (input process quality control" Zhang Wenbo thought.
Attracted by the Atmosphere, a Person from Hangzhou Settled the Company in Ningbo
In 2014, Zhang Wenbo resigned from Keyence and decided to establish GIIG. The new energy industry had huge potential, but the existing detection and quality control means had bottlenecks, and he thought that the product quality could be promoted by strengthening the process control by means of intelligent manufacturing.
At present, Ningbo GLOB Robot Co., Ltd. mainly carries out the full-work-procedure and full-process product quality detection and control of the traditional manufacturing industry, new energy industry, consumer battery industry and 3C electronic product production line.
Zhang Wenbo said, “GIIG provides customers with complete solutions including visual detection system, intelligent traceability system, high-precision on-line detection system, and intelligent equipment manufacturing in the production line according to the field working conditions and production processes of different industries, combined with customers' functional demands”.
Intelligent manufacturing of core technology robots of GIIG is the detection application in the field of new energy battery production as well as the intelligent manufacturing services of the battery upstream traditional material suppliers based on the robots and the robot’s visual intelligent algorithm. In the midstream, in the case of the world’s largest consumer battery company’s battery plan Ningde Amperex Technology Ltd, GIIG helped the client to increase the yield of battery winding power from 95% to 99.5%. In the upstream lithium ion battery cathode material plants, such as the enterprises including Shanshan New Energy, the net weight of cathode materials recovered by the sintering bowl automatic cleaning and inspection integrated workstation every day has increased by 400% to create benefits of RMB 9,000 averagely every day.
Battery production process detection is to control the risks in the source and the links and to be able to reduce the investments in the follow-up redundant processes at the same time so as to save more costs. At present, GIIG has established three companies, which respectively are Shenyang GLOB Lithium Ion Battery Equipment and Technology, Ningbo GLOB Robot and Ningde GLOB Intelligent Technology.
"I wanted to start business in Hangzhou originally because my home is in Hangzhou. I once came to Ningbo and surprisingly found the down-to-earth processing atmosphere and strong overall supporting, so I finally decided to settle GIIG in Ningbo. I think that it is also a predestinated relationship between Ningbo and me", said by Zhang Wenbo.
People first, the Company Has Become a Giant Dupplier of Lithium Ion Battery
In the past 5 years of entrepreneurship, in the aspect of how to retain the talents, Zhang Wenbo has made great efforts. He established branches in Shenyang and Ningde not only because he considered taking full advantage of technical characteristics and advantages of the engineering technicians in each region, optimizing the company’s talent structure and adjusting the resource allocation, but also because he humanely considered the feelings and demands of each employee’s family members to make it convenient for the out-of-town employees to get on and off work and solve their worry of leaving their native place. He timely cared for the employees and their family members, and at some important festivals, he would give greetings and gifts. Even if for the birthdays of employees’ family members, he would gift something special. He would also provide the subsidies for the employees to buy houses.
"Employees are the most valuable treasure of an enterprise. No matter how sophisticated the equipment is, if there is no relevant technician, it will be only a machine; no matter how improved the system is, if nobody observes it, it will be only a piece of waste paper. Therefore, satisfying the employees and considering for the employees are the truth that we, as a founder of the enterprise, should most know and are a proposition in lifetime." Zhang Wenbo said.
At present, GIIG has obtained 12 patents for invention, 22 software copyrights and 3 utility models, and has become the supplier for the leading customers in the lithium industry, such as ATL, CATL, Shanshan Group and China Minmetals Corporation.
In the future, GIIG will resolutely follow the four-step strategy: first, it will provide the full-work-procedure intelligent detection equipment supplier in the midstream battery cell plants with IPQC as the entry point; second, it will develop the special detection and intelligence manufacturing equipment of lithium ion battery upstream material suppliers with the data and business collected by the midstream battery cell plants as the guidance direction, to help the lithium ion battery upstream enterprises to promote the intelligent manufacturing ability and promote the product quality; third, it will march into the downstream industry of lithium ion battery, carry out the fine recycling business at the end of life of lithium ion battery, and develop the fine recycling equipment of lithium ion battery to help the downstream industry manufacturers complete the green disassembly of discarded lithium ion battery and recycling of fine by-products to create a value chain of turning waste into treasure; fourth, it will complete the transformation of GIIG from an equipment supplier to a product supplier in the lithium ion battery industry by opening up the upstream and downstream production and manufacturing processes.