Smart factory of Hotel Star sets an example of digital transformation for SMEs

Recently, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the cost of labor and raw materials has been rising, and the traditional manufacturing industry is facing increasing challenges. If enterprises want to have a foothold in the market and achieve sustainable development, they must take effective measures to improve product competitiveness. Therefore, digital transformation has become a good choice for enterprise development. It uses 5G and other advanced information technologies and lean manufacturing and management concepts to continuously improve production efficiency and product quality on the basis of controllable cost, so as to effectively improve customer satisfaction and ultimately win the market and development space. However, on the practical implementation level, especially for SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) that account for more than 90% of the total number, the way to build a 5G private network based on the traditional new independent equipment has a huge cost challenge, whether in terms of hardware networking or new business deployment. Therefore, it is of clear practical significance to achieve 5G digital transformation efficiently and economically. China Mobile Zhejiang Branch, based on the NodeEngine Pro solution integrating network, cloud and applications provided by ZTE, helped Zhejiang Hotel Star Technology Co.,Ltd build the first fully intelligent carton manufacturing factory in China, providing a good example for the digital transformation in the intelligent manufacturing field, so that a large number of SMEs can also fully enjoy the bonus brought by 5G and accelerate the industrial development.

Zhejiang Hotel Star Co., Ltd. is a typical SME specializing in the production of medium and high-grade corrugated boxes. With the expansion of production scale, the traditional private network based on WiFi can no longer meet the actual needs. How to effectively improve the private network coverage under the condition of controllable cost and support more advanced business applications conveniently and quickly is a practical problem to be solved. After detailed comparative analysis, the base station solution integrating network, cloud and applications provided by China Mobile Research Institute emerged as the best choice for the construction of the Hotel Star’s private network.

The base station solution integrating network, cloud and applications is carried by NodeEngine Pro solution provided by ZTE. With merely add a board to the existing network BBU, can build a 5G private network at a low cost without the need for engineering survey or new machine room space. At the same time, it provides a large number of endogenous functions, such as low latency video transmission and high-precision positioning and intelligent SLA (service level agreement) guarantee, which can fully meet various specific business needs. Furthermore, through capability exposure, can achieve one-stop deployment of cloud featured services, help the integration of cloud, network and industry, and create an agile and efficient private network service platform for enterprises.

Through the deployment of the 5G private network based on base station solution integrating network, cloud and applications, the performance of the private network of Hotel Star has been greatly improved, and the cloud based AGV (Automated Guided Vehicle), data collection, machine vision, electronic fence and other businesses have been effectively deployed, effectively improving the efficiency of production, operation and maintenance. “After the implementation, the production equipment and external equipment in the park have achieved 5G full connection, so that the whole process of scheduling, production, quality inspection and transportation can be visible, manageable and controllable, and the network throughput and reliability are effectively improved. The deployment of various new businesses has also brought significant gains, including 35% improvement in production efficiency, 15% improvement in storage efficiency, and 15% reduction in manpower investment, which has completed the overall goal of the digital transformation of the factory. In the future, we look forward to long-term cooperation with China Mobile and ZTE to expand more advanced business applications in the field of corrugated paper production, achieve more efficient production, and bring the level of enterprise intelligence to a higher level.” Lu Yanbo, Deputy General Manager of Zhejiang Hotel Star Co., Ltd., said.

As a typical case of China Mobile’s “high-quality connectivity+rich capabilities+featured services” cloud network industry integration service, smart factory of Hotel Star has good replicability due to its typical scenarios and business applications. Deng Wei, Deputy Director of Wireless and Terminal Research Institute of China Mobile said: “The base station solution integrating network, cloud and applications used in the Hotel Star has four advantages: controllable cost, agile deployment, integrated service and rich capabilities, which can effectively meet the needs of SME customers in quickly building private network infrastructure and flexibly deploying new services, and has achieved good deployment results. The production line scenarios and data collection, AGV cars and other applications it serves are also the most typical applications in the field of intelligent manufacturing. Therefore, 5G private network construction in Hotel Star is a good example of China Mobile’s ‘5G+industrial internet’ deployment and integrated service provision of network, cloud and applications, and is worth promoting vigorously.”

“ZTE has always been committed to providing users with solutions that closely fit the needs of the scenarios. The base station solution integrating network, cloud and applications based on NodeEngine Pro is a good choice for private network construction for SMEs. It has the advantages of one-stop integration of network, cloud, intelligence and industry, thus helping more SMEs to complete the digital transformation in low cost, high efficiency and high quality way, so as to remain invincible in the fierce market competition.In the future, we will work more closely with China Mobile and Hotel Star to create a 5G-empowered smart manufacturing industry. ” Bai Gang, Vice President of ZTE, said.