| The
plant floor is one place that is ripe for wireless M2M
(machine-to-machine) applications and Dongfeng Honda Engine Co. Ltd.
(DHEC) is deploying Strix Access/One OWS and IWS in several DHEC
plants,including Honda’s main automobile engine factory, the engine
assembly facility, and the automobile casting plant to provide
strategic,facilities-wide wireless access throughout eight plants in
Guangzhou, China. |
 |
DHEC is a joint venture of Dongfeng Motor Corp., www.dfmc.com.cn, Wuhan, China, and Honda Motor Co. Ltd., www.honda.com,
Tokyo, Japan. DHEC is responsible for the development, manufacture, and
sale of car engines and transmissions and their parts; it also provides
after services. These products are mainly used in the Accord, FIT
Saloon, and Odyssey car series made by Guangzhou Honda. DHEC also
supplies engines to Guangzhou Honda Automobile and Dongfeng Honda
Automobile. The company’s yearly manufacturing capacity is 360,000
engines and over 480,000 sets of spare parts.
The
previous wired infrastructure limited users’ ability to access this
information in a timely manner. To resolve the issue DHEC looked at
wiring the facilities, however it was determined expensive, time
consuming, would impact the 24x7 operation and would be difficult to
install. Also, if and when the manufacturing plant changes its design,
wiring would need to be re-routed or re-installed. Using Strix
products, DHEC benefits from secure, high-performance, enterprise-class
wireless network infrastructure for plant workers, managers, executives
enabling fast and cost-effective deployments. The solution was a
combination of Strix IWS inside and OWS outside the facilities creates
a seamless mesh throughout and across all locations, thus enabling
process monitoring, stock control, and components tracking.
Strix Gold partner eSolutions Tech Co., Ltd.,
provided the software and hardware that enables manufacturing and
operations automation over DHEC’s Strix Access/One mesh network.
eSolutions’ system enables stationary and mobile connectivity with the
ability to track DHEC’s automobile product quality information system
and implements enterprise resource planning (ERP), a manufacturing
execution system (MES), a warehouse management system (WMS), service
logical circuit plan systems, bar code and data acquisition systems,
the wireless network system, and the axle bush select and matching
system.
 |
The
Oracle-based process control and data collection system developed by
eSolution is a critical component requiring "real-time" communication.
Strix products were the only products found, out of many evaluated,
that could connect the ERP and the process control systems and enable
the exchange of data collected from fixed or mobil data terminals in |
manufacturing plants with the required performance, resilience and
reliability. This new installation provides access to critical supply,
manufacturing, and operations information.
The wireless real-time control systems enabled by Strix Access/One
enhance automated manufacturing and quality control and help reduce
manpower costs by increasing people’s ability to resolve problems that
may occur. Where previously an individual would have to sit at a
terminal to monitor certain processes, now he or she can look at live
networked data and video information from the floor. This ability also
reduces the response time for resolving problems.
“The real-time business intelligence system we’ve developed for
Dongfeng Honda takes threshold-based logic and applies it to process
control systems and more. Strix IWS and OWS are critical components in
the manufacturing, assembling, automation, and monitoring processes.
We commend Strix because its products are a benchmark of wireless
network performance and reliability for this industry.” said Alvin Ma,
Vice President of Business Development, eSolutions Tech. |