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Abstract: Based on a deep understanding of benchmark smart factories, GETECH is committed to becoming a whole-plant solution provider that offers intelligent manufacturing upgrade and empowerment to lithium battery customers. It will empower the intelligent manufacturing upgrade of the lithium battery industry from multiple dimensions including production, equipment, quality, energy, and logistics.

Facing the TWh era, the rapid expansion of power battery production capacity and the move towards extreme manufacturing require battery companies to optimize and upgrade from plant design, equipment selection, production line planning, production control, and warehousing logistics.

According to incomplete statistics, the number of newly built lithium battery factories in China has grown rapidly in recent years, with over 50 new battery factories built in 2022 alone. In this process, how to achieve rapid production line replication, how to accelerate production ramp-up, and how to narrow the gap between planned capacity and actual capacity have become urgent problems for battery companies to solve.

GETECH believes that lithium battery companies currently place great importance on intelligent manufacturing, but have not achieved ideal results in its final implementation and application.

One reason for these problems is that battery companies did not fully consider aspects during the initial factory design and planning stages, leading to the need for continuous equipment modifications and layout optimizations later.

For example, during factory planning, the later introduction of an automated logistics system was not considered, resulting in issues like insufficient aisle width or unsuitable factory floor conditions for AGVs when they were later deployed; the plant's ceiling height and floor load-bearing capacity were not designed to support automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS), leading to low transportation efficiency; equipment production cycle times failed to meet standards during actual line operation, causing designed capacity to fall short of expectations.

"The core of intelligent manufacturing is leveraging data well, using data analysis to guide our quality analysis, quality optimization, and cost reduction. However, various problems are encountered during the implementation process."

On the other hand, from GETECH's perspective, lithium battery companies may encounter the following obstacles when promoting intelligent manufacturing:

No Data Available to Collect: For instance, in the coating area density analysis process, some key parameters of the coating machine cannot be automatically collected, hindering equipment optimization and the implementation of industrial AI applications.

Data Available but Difficult to Collect: Data is stored in the equipment, but due to a lack of predefined communication standards with the equipment supplier beforehand, it takes an additional 3-6 months after equipment installation for data collection and protocol parsing, wasting significant time.

Data Available but Difficult to Use: Data fields were not standardized with the equipment manufacturer in advance. When applying the data across business domains, such as for full product life cycle traceability, the data quality is found to be poor and cannot be used directly.

In response, GETECH believes that lithium battery smart factory design requires the organic integration of factory design, factory planning, and intelligent manufacturing planning. Content related to factory planning and intelligent manufacturing planning must be front-loaded to effectively build benchmark lithium battery smart factories.

Regarding the front-loading and integration of factory planning: Through value stream simulation evaluation and system simulation, a digital twin system is constructed to achieve verification and continuous optimization of the factory layout plan.

Regarding the front-loading and integration of intelligent manufacturing planning: Standards and specifications for equipment connectivity, energy management, and business applications involved in the planning are front-loaded, providing forward-looking guidance for equipment procurement and factory construction, thereby ensuring the rapid implementation of the smart factory.

Based on a deep understanding of benchmark smart factories, GETECH is committed to becoming a whole-plant solution provider that offers intelligent manufacturing upgrade and empowerment to lithium battery customers. It will empower the intelligent manufacturing upgrade of the lithium battery industry from multiple dimensions including production, equipment, quality, energy, and logistics.

GETECH is an industrial internet enterprise strategically incubated by TCL and is also certified as a national "Cross-Industry, Cross-Domain Industrial Internet Platform" enterprise by the MIIT in 2022. For the lithium battery industry, GETECH can provide lithium battery companies with full-chain services from whole-plant consulting and planning to system software implementation, helping them build benchmark smart factories. Currently, GETECH's business covers the entire new energy industry chain, including lithium battery materials, equipment, battery manufacturing, recycling, and new energy vehicles.

Addressing the urgent need for intelligent manufacturing upgrades in power batteries, GETECH will work with manufacturing companies, design institutes, and equipment manufacturers to jointly explore the standard system for smart factory construction in the lithium battery industry, empowering the rapid development of the lithium battery sector.