Customer Case: Fully Automated Smart Factory Project for a Large WPC Flooring Manufacturer in Jiangsu

Customer Background:  

The customer is a leading high-tech enterprise specializing in new eco-friendly materials in East China, focusing on the R&D and production of high-end outdoor Wood-Plastic Composite (WPC) flooring. Its products are exported to over 30 countries and regions, including Europe, America, Japan, and South Korea. In response to the "Made in China 2025" strategy and to establish an industry benchmark for smart manufacturing, the customer decided to undertake a comprehensive digital and automated upgrade of its existing production lines.

Pain Points & Challenges:  

1.  Production Efficiency Bottleneck: The traditional semi-automated production line relied heavily on manual operations for batching, feeding, handling, and sorting, resulting in inconsistent production cycles. The overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) was only 68%, and annual capacity was stuck at 8,000 tons.

2.  Quality Control Issues: Fluctuations in manual batching accuracy led to uneven product density and frequent batch color variations. Manual handling and palletizing caused a high rate of surface scratches, directly impacting the Grade-A product rate for export orders.

3.  Rising Operational Costs: The production line required 28 operators, with high labor costs in the Yangtze River Delta region. Raw material waste reached 4.5%, and energy consumption per unit product was higher than industry advanced levels.

4.  Lack of Granular Management: Production data depended on manual recording, creating severe "information silos." Full traceability from order to finished product was impossible, failing to meet the supply chain transparency requirements of major international clients.

Solution:  

We provided a tailored "Integrated Smart Manufacturing Solution for WPC Flooring" covering the entire process from intelligent warehousing to finished product palletizing:  

1.  Smart Raw Material Handling System: Built an intelligent high-bay raw material warehouse, achieving automated weighing, vacuum conveying, and precise batching of wood flour, plastic pellets, and additives, with an error margin controlled within ±0.5%.  

2.  Central Control System (SCADA + MES): Deployed a Manufacturing Execution System (MES) and a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system, integrating data flow from order release to equipment execution. This enabled automated production scheduling, one-click distribution of process parameters, and real-time monitoring.  

3.  Fully Automated Extrusion and Post-Processing Units:  

      Extrusion Section: Utilized automatic screen changers and online thickness/density detectors for closed-loop quality control.  

      Post-Processing Section: Integrated six-axis robots for automated length cutting, marking, visual defect inspection, and sorting.  

      Logistics Section: Deployed AGVs (Automated Guided Vehicles) and fully automated bundling and palletizing robots to achieve automatic material transfer between processes and finished goods storage.

Results & Impact:  

Upon completion and operation, the project has become a smart manufacturing demonstration factory in China's WPC industry, delivering remarkable results:  

1.  Significant Leap in Production Efficiency: OEE increased to 89%. Annual production capacity surpassed 15,000 tons, an increase of nearly 90%. The number of production personnel was reduced to only 8, whose primary roles shifted to monitoring and maintenance.  

2.  Revolution in Quality and Consistency: The Grade-A product rate rose steadily from 92% to over 99.5%. Customer complaints regarding batch color variation dropped to nearly zero. Each flooring plank now has a unique identification code, enabling full lifecycle traceability.  

3.  Substantial Reduction in Overall Costs: Labor costs decreased by 70%. Raw material waste was reduced to below 1.2%, saving over 2 million RMB annually on this aspect alone. Energy consumption per unit product was lowered by 22%.  

4.  Enhanced Market Competitiveness and Brand Value: With superior delivery capability and consistently high quality, the customer successfully entered the core supplier systems of several global building materials retail giants. Annual export revenue grew by 120%. The factory was awarded the title of "Provincial-Level Smart Manufacturing Demonstration Workshop."