MIT LGO Delegate Finish its Visit to CLGO - Plant Tour

In the morning of March 26, 2019, CLGO students of 2018 class of Antai College of Economics and Management，Shanghai Jiaotong University, together with more than 60 students from MIT - LGO, visited Shanghai General Motors Corporation Limited and the factory. The students of the two sister projects discussed and learned a lot from it. 

Shanghai General Motors Corporation Limited is a joint venture of China leading passenger vehicle production established by General Motors China Limited and Shanghai automotive industry (Group Corporation. General Motors Corporation Limited has 50% of the shares. Established in June 1997, Shanghai General Motors has a large sales and after-sales service and parts supply network, imports and produces and sells Buick, Cadillac and Chevrolet and other brand products. Following its manufacturing bases in Shanghai, Yantai of Shandong province and shenyang of Liaoning province, Shanghai General Motors began the construction of the fourth manufacturing base in Wuhan of Hubei province in China. 

At 9 'clock in the morning that day, in the lobby of the General Motors Corporation, the exchange visit officially started. Firstly, the responsible person of the General Motors Corporation invited students to put forward their interesting question. In the discussion site where had the students of two countries, students are focusing on the questions of how to increase the cooperation between China and the United States and what are the differences between the two markets, as well as How to expand the business of the two countries and other international trade issues. The person in charge of General Motors Corporation answered the questions of the students, and pointed out that China and the United States would be the most important markets for General Motors Corporation in the future. However, because of the different customer demands in the two countries, the vehicle models launched in the two countries are also different at present. Each region will have its own unique series of models, and the current situation is very stable. 

Then, the students took a bus and went to visit Cadillac factory of Shanghai General Motors Corporation under the guidance of the staff. Cadillac factory of Shanghai General Motors Corporation are striving to build an intelligent manufacturing factory that represents the leading level of global automobile manufacturing. The official said that Cadillac factory of Shanghai General Motors Corporation covers an area of 477,000 square meters and has a planned capacity of 160,000 units per year, including the automotive body shop, painting workshop, assembly shop, high-speed proving road, joint station house and other complete supporting facilities. At the same time, the factory makes various general own proprietary composite connection technology, including the global first aluminum resistance spot welding used for CT6 production, and the Aluminum laser brazing first introduced by the domestic auto industry, the self-tapping screw and self-piercing riveting of large - scale application and the car body cold connection process of domestic leading, shows the highest level of domestic luxury automotive body manufacturing technology. 

In the front desk of the factory, each student got a set of explanation equipment which was received by the staff on behalf of them, and visited the assembly shop and the automotive body shop in turn. The assembly workshop integrates flexibility and intelligence. It can not only support the flexible assembly of 7 vehicle model models, but also trace the torque information of each key fastening point through the industry-leading intelligent Internet of things system, so as to build a world-class digital assembly system. In the process of construction, the assembly workshop also used a lot of green design concepts and measures, and innovatively adopted the industry-leading automatic exhaust gas collection system and exhaust equipment. The vehicle exhaust gas collection effect is greatly improved, making the Cadillac plant a truly world-class green luxury car factory. The automotive body shop is the first workshop with the manufacturing capacity of all-aluminum body of Shanghai General Motors, also is the first benchmark workshop with 100% welding automation of Shanghai General Motors, There are 386 robots in total, which has realized full automation. 

At the end, all the visiting teachers took a group photo together in front of the factory logo, which drew a satisfactory conclusion for the visit of general enterprise.  

In the afternoon, five CLGO students followed the MIT-LGO bus to visit ABB located in Jinqiao. ABB (ABBN: SIX Swiss Ex) is a global technology leader in the field of global power grid, electrical products, industrial automation and robotics and motion control, dedicating to helping customers in industries such as electric power, industry, transportation and infrastructure to improve performance. Based on more than 130 years of innovation history, ABB technology covers the power and industrial automation value chain comprehensively, and is applied in various scenarios from power generation end to power consumption end, and from natural resource exploitation to finished product completion is creating a digital future for the industry.

The destination of this visit is ABB global robot research and development center. The software project manager Kevin of research and development center firstly introduced the sales scale and development trend of ABB robot in the world to the students and pointed out the broad prospect of ABB robot in the Asia-pacific region. What impressed the students most was that Kevin mentioned that ABB would build a fully automatic chemical plant to produce robots in Jinqiao, which made students having more expectations for the future of industrial automation. 

After listening to the introduction of by Kevin to ABB robot from the simple to the profound, all the accompanying members were divided into three groups and entered the factory area of the robot research and development center. Compared with the large and complete GM factory visiting in the morning, the robot research and development area of ABB was small and sophisticated. There are three different working modes of human and robot, which respectively are the unrelated work of human and robot, the work of human and robot in the same workspace, and the collaborative work of human and robot. In ABB factory, it is mostly the third mode of collaborative work between human and robot.

In the last part of the visit, the students visited ABB auto spray paint test production line. ABB customized the details of the test production line to meet the needs of different customers. The strong flexible service capability enables ABB robots to be at the forefront of the industry. 

After the end of ABB visiting, the students ended the one day plant tour visit and returned journey. So far, the “plant tour” activity of CLGO and MIT LGO ended successfully. Through this visit, the students have a deeper understanding on lean production and innovative management, also promoted intercollegiate friendship with MIT LGO students. The CLGO students will keep in touch with enterprises; focus on enterprise operation optimization for a long time.