5G IIoT to reduce workers by over 60% in Jiangxi
Local media have reported that China’s Jiangxi province is “vigorously” promoting the adoption of a 5G-enabled Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) across textile enterprises within its territory, thanks to difficulties the province has experienced with upgrading its textile industry in recent years.
Issues the province has experienced include a “sharp increase” in labour costs, high personnel mobility and additional requirements for equipment management, all leading to recruitment difficulties.
One example is Jiangxi Mingheng Textile Group, a local company, which, as a consequence of personnel issues, has partnered with the Fuzhou branch of China Unicom to roll out high-bandwidth, low latency 5G IIoT technology across its business.
In its first phase, the ongoing project realised the real-time upload of production data from 66 pieces of spinning equipment in the company’s workshop, assisting with production management, fault warning and intelligent diagnosis, data analysis, maintenance management and equipment optimisation. Ultimately, this phase reduced the business’ workforce by 100 to 200 workers after two months.
Once the second phase of the project, building a smart factory platform using IIoT data, is put into operation, the company will be able to further decrease the number of its workers to less than 100 (amounting to a total reduction of more than 60% since the project began).
This instance of intelligent manufacturing has allowed the enterprise to reduce its operating costs by 15%, increase its production efficiency by 15% and shorten its product innovation cycle by 15%. The business’ utilisation of energy has increased by 10%.
