Guiyang firm focuses on intelligent manufacturing upgrade

Guizhou Chalco Aluminum Co -- which relocated in Baiyun district of Guiyang, capital of Southwest China's Guizhou province in 2011 -- is pushing hard to become the best supplier in the global aluminum foil industry and the best service provider for high-end printing plates in China.

At present, the company is making every effort to build a digital factory for the aluminum strips industry.

An employee of Guizhou Chinalco Aluminum Co scans a QR code to view the production data of aluminum strips. [Photo/gywb.cn]

At the end of 2017, the company's restructuring was listed as one of Guiyang's top intelligent manufacturing transformation and upgrading projects. It received financial support and the company launched the first phase of its intelligent manufacturing industry information integration project.

Based on technologies, including the industrial internet, big data, cloud computing and artificial intelligence visual recognition, its intelligent production auxiliary decision-making system was launched for trial operations in July this year.

The system covers production execution and decision analysis.

The company has put in place intelligent management from sales orders, production plans, material procurements, inventories, production executions, logistics and transportation -- promoting the transformation of traditional manufacturing to intelligent manufacturing.

After the system started up, the data management costs have been reduced by about 20 percent and the production efficiency has been increased by 30 percent.

In addition, the product supply speed has been accelerated by about 30 percent and the order response rate has been increased by about a third, greatly improving the overall competitiveness of the company.

To date, a total of 251 projects have been included in the in-depth integration of big data and industry in Guiyang, including 30 smart manufacturing projects with a total investment of 1.85 billion yuan ($281.41 million).