SAIC Passenger Cars： Focus on Digitizing the Whole Business Chain to Build a High-tech Automobile Company
Facing the development trend of the automobile industry, SAIC took the lead in putting forward the strategy of "new four modernizations" (electrification, intelligent networking, sharing and internationalization). How will SAIC passenger cars do a good job in digital transformation and upgrading to achieve high-quality development?
User-oriented gives smart cars the ability to evolve continuously.
Wang Dazhi, chief operating officer of the Intelligent Driving Center of SAIC Technology Center, said that under the guidance of SAIC’s "new four modernizations" strategy, SAIC passenger cars have started a comprehensive digital transformation and upgrading, namely, research and demonstration of autonomous driving, and the creation of new energy, automobile research and development, parts manufacturing, supply chain cooperation, vehicle production and trial-production tests, etc., to promote the accelerated integration of artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing and automobile industry, continuously expand industrial boundaries, and comprehensively lead future travel to intelligence.
Entering the era of intelligent networking, cars will surpass the attributes of travel tools and become a new category of intelligence like mobile phones and computers, which needs to adapt to the changing travel needs of users with faster iterative speed. SAIC passenger car launched Roewe RX5 in 2016, equipped with Zebra Zhixing system, and became the pioneer of Internet car. Since then, based on the concept of "data determines the experience, and software defines the car", it took five years to develop and build a brand-new technology brands R-TECH high-energy intelligent body, which is committed to continuously excavating the value of data in the intelligent cockpit and intelligent driving, and endowing the intelligent car with the ability of continuous evolution.
At the intelligent cockpit level, SAIC passenger cars hope to provide users with smarter and more intelligent interactive experiences, and will be customized according to users’ needs to provide personalized experiences of "thousands of people and thousands of cars". The upcoming new car MG ONE and the new Roewe RX5 MAX are all equipped with the flagship 8155 chip of Qualcomm Snapdragon’s third-generation digital cockpit platform, and the first heterogeneous integrated intelligent cockpit operating system of Zebra Zhixing-Luoshen OS, which fully meets the needs of users’ intelligent scenes.
On the level of intelligent driving, SAIC passenger cars independently developed a full-stack self-developed high-order intelligent driving scheme PP-CEMTM, and built a "six-fold fusion perception system" with all-weather, all-scene, super-viewing moment and multi-dimensions, which can bring users a smarter and more imaginative travel experience. ES33 is the first smart car built by SAIC passenger car based on R-TECH high-energy intelligent agent and created with users, which will bring users a brand-new intelligent driving experience.
Building a high-tech car is completed in three steps.
Min Yang, director of SAIC Passenger Car Information System, said that the vision of SAIC Passenger Car Company’s digital transformation is to build a high-tech automobile company, which is generally completed in three steps: First, to achieve a comprehensive digital transformation-to improve its own digitalization; The second is to become a software-driven enterprise-gradually transformed into a software-driven enterprise in the process of digital landing; The third is to create an environment and create a template for the industry with its own digital ability and experience, empower the whole supply chain and lead the whole industry ecology.
In 2019, SAIC Passenger Car Company put forward the "1+4" digital transformation strategy, that is, taking product digitalization as the core, actively promoting the comprehensive digital transformation of four business systems, including digital R&D, digital marketing, intelligent manufacturing and smart parks.
Relying on a solid information foundation, the company builds a "smart factory" internally through the "industrial big data platform" and "industrial internet platform" independently developed, and strives to achieve better product quality, better service and lower cost; Empower "smart supply chain" and "digital marketing" to realize structural cost reduction of industrial chain and agile response to market demand, and promote enterprises to realize all-round digital transformation.
Focus on the digital operation of the whole industry chain
Speaking of the innovative exploration of SAIC passenger cars in the process of digital transformation, Song Zheng, director of industrial engineering of SAIC passenger car manufacturing engineering department, said that SAIC passenger cars focus on the digital operation of the whole business chain in the whole manufacturing field, which is mainly reflected in five aspects: "intelligent technology, intelligent production, intelligent logistics, intelligent quality and intelligent operation":
"Smart technology" mainly applies virtual simulation technology and digital collaborative technology to realize the design, analysis, verification and optimization of process planning, and extends to the fine management of manufacturing process system throughout the product life cycle to ensure the lean optimization of planning;
"Smart production" is to build a cross-border interconnection platform based on manufacturing execution system by relying on the deep integration of IT and OT technologies, and to create a closed-loop production system with automatic data flow, state awareness, real-time analysis, scientific decision-making and precise execution to empower production. At the same time, based on the production management system and self-developed equipment management system with intellectual property rights, 4M change point management system and lean management system, the transparency of the production process and the visibility of problems are realized, and the uncertain problems of people, machines, materials, methods and environment in the production site are solved from the root, which helps to consolidate the stable manufacturing system.
"Smart Logistics" relies on various software and hardware technologies such as Internet of Things, big data, intelligent AGV, intelligent sorting, etc., runs through the whole supply chain and the whole business data information flow, and combines the comprehensive application of transportation management system, inventory management system and advanced scheduling system to improve the operational response efficiency, prediction and risk response of each link, and gradually forms an intelligent logistics management system with high integration of internal and external businesses.
"Intelligent quality" is based on the transformation of product quality to "online, data-based and real-time". By constructing an integrated quality management system including quality detection, error prevention and early warning, and quality analysis, it can realize real-time collection and storage of key quality data, early warning and notification of abnormal situations, and comprehensively improve product quality.
The company has also independently developed a big data platform, and built a factory-level, workshop-level and personal digital application platform through the "data-information-value" empowerment model, realizing the transparency of information sharing, timely interactive update, informationization of business execution, intelligent analysis and decision-making, and fully empowering the smart operation of the factory.
For the future digital development of SAIC passenger cars, Min Yang hopes to combine new technologies such as big data, cloud computing and 5G to continuously deepen the digital environment of the whole business chain, create an open cloud technology ecosystem and build a rapid iterative empowerment platform to adapt to digital transformation, realize data asset empowerment business, and create a borderless and dynamic digital ecosystem to realize the transformation from data collaboration to intelligent decision-making to business ecology.