In this issue, we describe the industry’s newest banknote production facility – IMBISA in Spain. Another example of a new printworks that has also built innovation in from the start is Guangzhou Banknote Printing Co Ltd (GBPC), the seventh and newest of China Banknote Printing and Minting’s banknote factories.
In this article, we focus on one particular aspect of the new printworks – namely intelligence derived from digitization and the remarkable efficiencies that have resulted.
Visiting GBPC - located as per its name in Guangzhou, China’s fifth most populous city - has been likened to stepping into a modern garden, with the integration of a landscaped layout and neatly arranged modern building conveying greenness, intelligence, and hospitality.
The so-called ‘intelligent’ factory is nestled within the lush vegetation. According to GBPD, as the latest printing enterprise in China, the concept of intelligence has been planted into the entire construction process of the factory, with BIM (Building information Modelling) as the digital foundation and the industrial internet platform for the integration management of all processes.
‘This has achieved all-domain digitisation and the intelligent connectivity of logistics,’ said the GBPC’s Director of Enterprise Management and Information Technology. ‘We have achieved data collection from more than 57,000 IoT nodes in the factory area and loaded various types of data into the three-dimensional model to establish the 'Digital Twin' that mirrors the physical factory. Compared with the physical one, we have synchronously built a digital factory online.’
Serving as one research and development base for new banknotes in China, GBPC now possesses four state-of-the-art banknote production lines, and is also capable of producing new banknote substrates along with wide web hot transfer foil, SD intaglio printing, and four-color orlof intaglio printing.
On the production lines, intelligent screens alongside the machines display charts and numerical information, showing the daily production tasks, quality indicators, and equipment status, as well as analysis charts and warning messages for online quality checks, cost indicators, and energy consumption.
AGVs (Automated Guided Vehicles) shuttle back and forth between the unmanned warehouse and the printing machines, transporting products and materials, while the palletizers are also automated.
All production processes and situations in the factory can be monitored in real-time in the 'Intelligent Manufacturing Center’. Resembling a modern-day version of the command centre of the Starship Enterprise (for the benefit of Star Trek enthusiasts), this is where information on production, quality, equipment, personnel of each process are collected and displayed visually in the three-dimensional form of ‘Digital Twins’.
‘The Intelligent Manufacturing Center is the core area for centralised control of production and operations throughout the factory’ explains the company, ‘playing the role of a production scheduling center, a comprehensive monitoring center, a professional collaboration center as well as an emergency command center.
‘We call the center the 'manufacturing brain', where the administrators can monitor in real-time the production of front-line machines and the operation of the entire campus without leaving their seats. The multi-dimensional analysis of production data conducted based on the information system can assist the administrators in making efficient decisions.’
This level and use of intelligence is reported to have greatly improved production and management efficiency. Compared to other similar CBPM enterprises, GBPC has reduced its management personnel by about 50% and its skilled production workers by about 30%. The result is that its headcount is around 40% lower than that of other advanced enterprises in CBPM.
As the terminal of the Intelligent Manufacturing Center, GBPC has developed ‘intelligent machines’ to improve the level of flexible production. Each machine is equipped with an intelligent information system for production operations, which can receive and send instructions for plans, materials, maintenance etc, and provide real-time access to quality inspection information, financial costs, material inventory and other information.
The two-level mode – as in ‘Intelligent Manufacturing Center & Intelligent Machinery’ - has achieved efficient integration and collaboration in production organisation management, says the company. It has enabled the removal of an intermediate organisational layer on the factory floor, with the Intelligent Manufacturing Center responsible for production command and coordination, while the Intelligent Machines focus on manufacturing.
Intelligence also promotes the implementation of green environmental protection. Solar energy accounts for up to 20% of the daily power supply and about 10% of the annual total.
‘We can achieve precise control of energy consumption through the 'Intelligent Manufacturing Center & Intelligent Machines' mode. At the same time, we have built a 2.0-megawatt solar photovoltaic power generation system to ensure green and sustainable development’, the company notes.
In the future, GBPC says it will continue to adhere to a lean and efficient approach, streamline operations, firmly embrace the direction of intelligence, continuously optimise, iterate, and upgrade processes to win the future with intelligence, and promote sustainable high-quality development.
