The digital intelligence project of Wanxiang Qianchao continues to be promoted, and outstanding cases have emerged across various companies, among which the achievements of Jinggong Jiangsu and Huainan Bearing are particularly encouraging.

In the early stages of construction, the second manufacturing division of Seiko Jiangsu experienced a relatively high equipment failure rate. Moreover, the skills of TPM maintenance personnel needed further improvement, resulting in low labor productivity on the production line and failure to meet expected output targets. Therefore, the Digital Intelligence Engineering Team at Seiko Jiangsu established a task force dedicated to enhancing labor productivity. Using digital dashboards, the team conducts performance dialogues, analyzes the root causes of production-line issues, and breaks down action items accordingly. The team’s efforts focus on several key areas: improving equipment availability, enhancing workers’ operational skills, shortening cycle times, streamlining tooling management processes, reducing labor intensity, and perfecting on-site visual management.

The team employed the “Seven Steps and Seven Determinations” approach to streamline job descriptions and staffing levels for frontline managers. They provided a series of training sessions for team leaders, covering topics such as standardized line inspections, identification and handling of on-site anomalies, and more. Through classroom exercises and on-site coaching, the team leaders and equipment maintenance teams learned Job Instruction (JI), mastered effective training techniques, and became better equipped to guide their staff. Meanwhile, addressing issues such as unclear responsibilities and cumbersome procedures in tool and fixture management, the team focused on strengthening the management of logs, records, and resumes, as well as refining approval workflows, thereby making work processes clearer and more efficient. In terms of mold and product changeovers, the productivity improvement task force developed a changeover process that is closely aligned with the production schedule, standard operating procedures for rapid mold changes, and standardized guidelines for managing tools and fixtures. Additionally, to facilitate management, the team assigned specific locations, fixed positions, defined capacities, set quantities, and designated personnel responsible for items in each area of the workplace, thereby improving the working environment and reducing the time employees spend searching for materials and tools.

Through the series of initiatives outlined above, the overall equipment failure rate in Manufacturing Department No. 2 has dropped from 2.3% to 1.82%, and line productivity per worker has improved by 12.3%. Xie Peining, Manager of Manufacturing Department No. 2, explained: “In running our workshop, we focus on both cost control and production efficiency. As the level of automation continues to rise, the company has made full use of both personnel and equipment, effectively boosting productivity, reducing costs, and ensuring greater stability in product quality. We’ve initiated improvements in areas such as Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), Single-Minute Exchange of Die (SMED), and First-Time Quality (FTQ). As a result, the average takt time on the production lines has increased by 10.2%, the first-pass yield has risen by 4.8%, and overall output has significantly improved. Moving forward, we’ll continue to work diligently and pursue ongoing improvements to generate even greater benefits for the company.”

The implementation of digital and intelligent operations has also yielded remarkable results at Huainan Bearing Company. In response to the issue of low production line efficiency, the digital and intelligent innovation team collaborated with Huainan Bearing Company, focusing on improving OEE and establishing an improvement task force. Based on a bridge analysis of OEE losses along the benchmark production line, they identified factors such as availability and performance utilization rates, and clearly determined that minor stoppages, breakdown-related downtime, and changeover losses represent the primary areas for improvement.

The improvement team has established an employee skills matrix from multiple dimensions—including people, machines, materials, and methods—developed standards for replacing grinding wheels and diamond pens, created a rapid changeover process, and streamlined the tooling management workflow. To clarify responsibilities and authorities, the improvement team has redefined the functional division between equipment engineers and equipment technicians: the former focuses on preventive maintenance, major overhaul and fault management, and spare parts management, while the latter concentrates on autonomous equipment maintenance, minor repair and fault management, and commissioning. The team has introduced several performance indicators—such as planned maintenance completion rate, average time to repair faults, average interval between failures, and changeover time—as key metrics for evaluating performance. These indicators are monitored across a series of steps—from fault occurrence and feedback, through assessment and maintenance, to tracking and standardization—thus achieving closed-loop management of issues.

In addition, the team has refined and streamlined the changeover procedures, clearly defining the distinctions between internal and external changeovers. It has also consolidated, eliminated, and optimized certain changeover steps, thereby reducing the proportion of internal changeovers. Furthermore, a changeover handover confirmation form has been introduced to standardize and solidify the changeover’s standard operating procedures. To enhance employees’ job competencies, the team has skillfully utilized a skills matrix to identify areas where employees’ skills are weak. Based on this analysis, tailored training programs and plans have been developed, covering dimensions such as pre-operation preparation, error-proofing verification, equipment operation, handling common malfunctions, product appearance inspection standards, self-inspection procedures, and tool usage.

Through the series of measures outlined above, the OEE of the four benchmark production lines for inner ring and outer circle grinding at Huainan Bearing has improved by 7%. Yao Lihui, Manager of the Grinding Manufacturing Department, said: “For a long time, everyone has been eager to address the issue of low production efficiency, but we’ve been hampered by the lack of a systematic solution and have had to proceed by trial and error. Now, thanks to the introduction of a systematic approach, along with training and practical implementation, everyone has learned how to leverage data for analysis and tackle problems in a targeted manner. By using waterfall charts to identify the top sources of loss and employing tools like fishbone diagrams for root-cause analysis, we’ve meticulously determined improvement measures for each specific issue, achieving the desired results. During this improvement initiative, we’ve solidified the relevant processes, laying a strong foundation for the comprehensive rollout of these improvement methods in the future. Moving forward, we’ll continue to extend this approach—following the OEE improvement model established on the benchmark lines—to all production lines across the workshop.”