At the mouth of Hangzhou Bay, several bends have broken apart the banks of the river. On the south side of Cixi, Ningbo, factories are located among them. Among them, a smart car factory has risen from the ground, becoming a new "tourist attraction" for industrial tourism on the south side of Hangzhou Bay.
This is the Hangzhou Bay Extreme Krypton 5G Smart Factory. It is located in the "Jinnan Wing" of the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration, the sixth largest urban agglomeration in the world. The factory covers an area of about 1946 acres, equivalent to approximately 1.29 million square meters, which is the size of 3080 standard basketball courts or 181 standard football fields.
As a national level 5G factory, intelligent manufacturing demonstration factory of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, one of the first "Future Factories" in Zhejiang Province, and an industrial tourism demonstration base in Zhejiang Province, Jike 5G Smart Factory mainly consists of a central exhibition hall and five production workshops, including an integrated die-casting workshop, stamping workshop, welding workshop, painting workshop, and final assembly workshop.
Jike 5G Smart Factory breaks through the manufacturing boundary by building a "digital brain" that fully integrates 5G AI、 Advanced manufacturing technologies such as industrial big data drive green product research and development with digital twins, control product quality with intelligent production, and achieve efficient collaboration with industrial Internet platform to form an intelligent manufacturing system of "transparency, agility, and intelligence".
Recently, Time Media Group and Jiashi Fund entered the Jike 5G smart factory to explore the production secrets of the new smart factory.
High level, fully automated smart factory
Jike 5G Smart Factory is a leading new intelligent manufacturing factory in the industry.
Construction began at the end of 2018, and the Jike 5G smart factory was officially put into operation in the third quarter of 2021, positioning itself as a benchmark smart factory for intelligence, agility, transparency, and green. This has also laid a solid foundation for the excellent quality of Jike and other brand products.
Entering the factory park, in the center is the cultural and technical exhibition hall of Jike Factory. The exhibition hall is divided into 11 visiting areas, including Jike 001, Jike 009, Haohan Architecture Platform, travel related merchandise, and coffee and leisure areas scattered among them. Here, visitors can carefully learn about various products and technological achievements of Jike, and experience the charm of Jike's products up close.
Around the exhibition hall, there are five large-scale production workshops of Jike 5G Smart Factory arranged in a regular manner, including integrated die-casting workshop, stamping workshop, welding workshop, painting workshop, and final assembly workshop. Among them, the integrated die-casting workshop is the world's first large-scale integrated die-casting L4 level intelligent production line, equipped with a 7200 ton giant die-casting machine. The comprehensive efficiency of the production line has been improved by 30%, energy consumption has been reduced by 10%, and the automation rate has reached 100%.
The stamping workshop has a fully enclosed automated five sequence production line with a total tonnage of 6900 tons. With the cooperation of the Swiss GUDEL single arm robotic arm, the production cycle can reach a maximum of 15 punches per minute. This workshop also adopts a model stamping four part mode, greatly improving production efficiency.
In addition, in the welding workshop known as the "black light factory", a truly "unmanned" management method is adopted, with 823 flexible robots and a welding automation rate of 100%. This welding workshop can meet the full flexible production of 3 platforms and 6 vehicle models, and can simultaneously produce multiple types of vehicles such as sedans, SUVs, MPVs, etc.
The welding process is completed, and the vehicle arrives at the painting workshop. After welding and assembling, the white body needs to enter the painting workshop. The body not only needs to be painted here, but also undergoes intermediate coating, color painting, and clear coating. The entire process is achieved through 88 robots for fully automatic spraying, which is efficient and safe.
The final process of car manufacturing is in the final assembly workshop. The various production processes in the final assembly workshop adopt the intelligent electric vehicle exclusive process standard C2M fully customized mode, which can achieve millions of personalized configurations for one vehicle model and meet the flexible production of 3 platforms and 6 vehicle models, meeting the needs of different users with the ability to assemble multiple vehicle models such as sedans, SUVs, MPVs, etc. The high-quality compatibility enables Jike 5G smart factory to have excellent capabilities in producing different types and specifications of vehicle models.
Each workshop has different processes, but regardless of which workshop, there are various fully automated handling robots shuttling between them. Large processing robots and assembly robots are handling various production tasks in an orderly manner. Managers and technicians carry out various tasks such as debugging, maintenance, and evaluation after the intelligent robot. The high standards, efficiency, and compatibility in this production process endow products with diverse yet equally excellent product qualities.
From production to delivery, at the Jike 5G smart factory, the transparency of the entire process interprets the "transparency" of vehicles; From 5G interconnection detection to industrial big data operation, the efficient collaboration of multi system integration and supply chain interprets "agility"; The digitization, intelligence, and customization of factories have interpreted 'intelligence'. But the "intelligence" of Jike 5G smart factory is not limited to this.
In order to pursue the ultimate product quality, the Jikrypton 5G smart factory also uses the most advanced Internet of Things, mobile Internet and other technologies to realize the intelligent collection of quality management data, achieve refinement, real-time and visualization, and build a rigorous, comprehensive and high standard quality inspection system.
At the same time, the Jike 5G smart factory has passed the five step quality inspection process of inspection line, regulation line, road test, rain line, PDI line, and more than 3000 inspection items, strictly controlling every detail to create excellent quality for many models such as Jike 001, Jike 001 FR, Jike 009, Jike 009 Guanghui, and also providing solid technical and production support for high-end new energy vehicles of brands such as Volvo, Jixing, and Jiyue.
Under such high efficiency and level, the first batch of Extreme Krypton 001 was officially delivered at the factory on October 23, 2021; On January 9, 2023, the first batch of Extreme Krypton 009 was taken offline at the factory. By April 20, 2023, when the 100000th mass-produced vehicle of Extreme Krypton was rolled off the production line at the factory, it had only been 548 days since the factory started production.
The cradle of high-end intelligent cars
With the development of Jike, Jike's 5G smart factory will usher in a new mission.
Jike was established in March 2021 and released the Jike brand and its first product in April of the same year. Extreme Krypton is positioned as a luxury technology brand and has launched six models for sale, including Extreme Krypton 001, Extreme Krypton 001 FR, Extreme Krypton 009, Extreme Krypton 009 Radiance, Extreme Krypton X, Extreme Krypton 007, Extreme Krypton 7X, and Extreme Krypton MIX.
From January to November 2024, Jike delivered a total of 194933 units. As of November 30, 2024, Jike has delivered over 390000 units, continuously breaking delivery records.
After three years of development, Jike has become one of the top new force brands in China. On December 3rd of this year, Jike announced a strategic integration with Lynk&Co, and the new company was named Jike Technology Group, which has dual brands of Jike Automobile and Lynk&Co Automobile. After the integration of the two brand strategies, the front-end will maintain independent operation of the two brands, while the back-end will be fully integrated.
An Conghui, President of Geely Holding Group and CEO of Jike Technology Group, predicts that by maximizing collaboration between the two brands, R&D investment will be reduced by 10-20%, BOM costs will be reduced by 5-8%, production capacity utilization rate will be increased by 3% -5%, and marketing and service management expenses will be reduced by 10-20%.
In addition to reducing costs and increasing efficiency, Jike Technology Group's sales targets are also very clear. In 2024, Lynk&Co is expected to exceed 280000 units in sales, and the combined annual sales of Jike and Lynk&Co are expected to reach 500000 units. Its future goal is to surpass traditional top luxury brands such as BBA.
It is reported that in November of this year, Lynk&Co delivered 32679 units and Jike delivered 27011 units, totaling nearly 60000 units. From January to November, Jike and Lynk&Co delivered a total of over 450000 units, with new energy vehicles accounting for over 75%. After the merger, the new group hopes to build a globally leading high-end luxury new energy vehicle group with an annual production and sales of millions within two years.
It is worth mentioning that Jike is currently the only mainstream innovative brand in the luxury pure electric field that can compete with a group of new force enterprises; Lynk&Co is the first domestic brand in China to break through the price ceiling and achieve cumulative sales of over 1 million vehicles.
In the eyes of industry insiders, the competition in the automotive industry will become even more intense in the next five years, posing challenges to cost control and production manufacturing.
The scale effect brought about by the integration of Extreme Krypton and Lynk&Co will further lower the cost of bicycles and increase market competitiveness. The synergy effect after the integration of Jike and Lynk&Co will cover the entire business line and industry chain, with considerable profits. According to official estimates, the cost of joint procurement and BOM consolidation will be reduced by 5% -8%, the utilization rate of production capacity will be increased by 3% -5%, the R&D investment will be reduced by 10% -20% through R&D collaboration, and the optimization of functional support departments will reduce costs by 10% -20%
On the road to annual sales of one million vehicles, Jike 5G smart factory plays a key role in the production and manufacturing process. As a national level 5G factory, a demonstration factory for intelligent manufacturing by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and one of the first "future factories" in Zhejiang Province, Jike 5G Smart Factory is a benchmark factory for intelligence, agility, transparency, and green, laying a solid foundation for the excellent quality of Jike Technology Group's products.
Not only that, while helping Jike Technology Group create excellent products, Jike 5G Smart Factory also provides support and reference for other automotive brands. Currently, there are 4 major brands and 6 models being processed and manufactured in this factory, including Jike, Volvo, Jixing, and Jiyue. As for Jike, as of December 7th, Jike has produced its 400000 cars offline.
The intelligent, high-level, and highly compatible production line has greatly released production efficiency. As Jike Technology Group enters a new stage of development, Jike 5G smart factories will become the cradle of more and more high-end intelligent cars.