The Impact of Information Technology on the Machine Tool Industry

The influence of information technology on the machine tool industry is mainly reflected in two aspects: machine tool form and machine tool manufacturing mode. Machine tools will no longer be isolated processing equipment, but in the network environment and CAD/CAPP engineering design system, MRPII management information system directly connected nodes, can dynamically reconstruct processing routes, remote management processes and troubleshooting. At the same time, the production and operation process of machine tool products will also realize the network of the whole life cycle of the product. The advanced manufacturing technology represented by agile manufacturing will become the main means for enterprises to respond quickly to market needs, survive and develop.

The innovation of machine tool industry will be mainly reflected in business ideas and management concepts, organizational structure and management mechanism, management norms and workflow, as well as management methods and manufacturing technology, from the overall improvement of manufacturing capacity, flexible manufacturing and effective supply chain. With the increasing use of network technology, it is only a matter of time before the Internet enters the workshop, which will be the main symbol of digital manufacturing. In fact, if enterprise information is limited to business management departments (people, finance, goods, production, supply, marketing) or design and development of enterprise upper-level departments is far from enough, the lowest level of processing equipment - CNC machine tools can not be connected to the network, can not provide the bottom data for the design and management of information, it will inevitably form an information bottleneck. Therefore, for modern manufacturing plants, in addition to improving the CNC rate of machine tools, but also to make the CNC machine tools have two-way, high-speed network communication functions, to ensure that the flow of information between the bottom of the workshop and between the bottom and upper layer unimpeded.

At present, some machine tool manufacturing developed countries in this area of technology has been very leading, for example, Japan Mazak company launched a new generation of processing center not only to achieve the processing process and tool exchange automation, but also equipped with an external equipment called information tower, including computers, mobile phones, off-camera and in-machine cameras, to achieve voice, graphics, video and text communication functions. The machine is connected with the production plan scheduling, which reflects the working status and processing progress of the machine in real time. The operator needs fingerprint confirmation permission to observe the processing process on the screen. It is an independent, self-managed manufacturing unit. The production planning scheduling system of an enterprise arranges a week's processing tasks and sends them to the information tower. The information tower gives instructions to the operator and displays the real-time operating status of the machine on the screen. The operator follows the on-screen instructions. If you encounter problems, you can always consult the operating manual on your computer. Under normal circumstances, the machine operates automatically and the operator and the machine are separated in time and space. Managers and operators can query production conditions on their mobile phones, anticipate processing completion times, and delay reports and fault alarms. In the event of a machine failure, the screen shows the troubleshooting method, and the Mazak service center can see the problem at the same time, providing timely assistance over long distances to minimize machine downtime.