欧洲农机制造业的3点启示（英）

Three Implications for Europe’s Agricultural Machinery Manufacturing Industry

“Agricultural Machinery Professional Technology Visiting Mission” organized by the Agricultural Machinery Magazineset foot on the land of Europeat early November 2016, and then paid a visit to 5 agricultural machinery-related manufacturing plants, 3 farms andranches and 1 agricultural machinery dealer in 14 days across four countries including Italy, Austria, Germany and the Netherlands.During the period, the mission also paid a visit to the EIMA in Bologna, Italy and animal husbandry exhibition in Hannover, Germany.

During the visit to Europe, we understood the world’s advanced agricultural machinery products and the development trend of the agricultural machinery industry in the world, enabling us to have a concrete understanding of European agricultural machinery enterprises in terms of factory management, procurement, manufacturing, testing, inspection and sales mode.Meanwhile, we also learned the matched pattern for agricultural planting and agricultural machinery in different European countries as well as the agricultural development situationduring investigation. It goes without saying that we are most deeply impressed by the advanced agricultural machinery manufacturing industry in Europe as well as their meticulous attitude towards the quality of agricultural products.

Agricultural machinery products tend to intelligent development

Agriculture is well developed in Europe. As we know, Europe has a total area similar to China’s land area, but it has large stretches of fertile land suitable for farming, and France, Germany and Italy are even known as big exporters in grain and fruits and vegetables.The developed agriculture contributes to a developed agricultural machinery industry, and a number of well-known agricultural machinery manufacturers have emerged in Europe, such as the high-end tractor manufacturer Fendt, harvester and stockbreeding machinery manufacturer CLAAS, soil cultivation and preparationspecialistLemken, Kverneland and Kuhn, etc.

These outstanding agricultural enterprises attended the EIMA. In addition, the EIMA attracted more than 1900 exhibitors all over the world, gathering tops products and technologies of the agricultural machinery industry.

With the application of high and new technology and the penetration of computer and Internet technology, exhibitors widely used hydraulic control, intelligent and automatic control technology to improve product performance, operation convenience, comfort and safety.

For example, CLAAS’s new product TUCANO 560 combine harvester adopts the unique tangential threshing system and residual grain separation system, so that it can achieve the optimal threshing effect according to the parameters of the automatic control system such as weather conditions, time, straw quality and grain separation effect;Fendtapplies the autopilot system to the new product Vario 500 series in the low power section, so that the operating accuracy can be controlled within 2-20 cm.

At the exhibition, it is the consistent pursuit of many exhibits to pay attention to comfort. As a result, the suspension seat with cushioningbecomes a standard configuration, and cab with air conditioning, 360 ° total field of view and ergonomic control panel are prevailing.Power shift and stepless speed change have become an optional configuration for many tractors.For example, the standard configuration of the New Holland T6 tractor istheintervalpower shift transmissionwhile that is the stepless transmission in the large power section; as for Zymark’s 55kW (75hp) medium-sized tractor, the power shift is optional, and the front wheel is independent half-bridge and independentsuspension, which can adapt to the uneven ground.

Strict quality control in manufacturing

During the visit to Kohler engine plant, Comer transmission plant, Poettinger plant and John Deere plant in Mannheim, the product quality control is very strict, and these enterprises win the world-class reputation with global competitiveness with quality and technology as the core value of their brand.

Its quality control is guaranteed by the automated production lines, online identification and skilled factory workers.

In Kohler engine plant, the entire assembly line uses a large number of robots to complete the precision operation in the assembly process, while the robotswill coordinate with the laser sensors for online detection of the assembly process.

For example, a robot will spray uniform sealant on the cylinder body before the final combination of the engine cylinder head and the cylinder body. Later, the robot will take out the laser sensor to replace the spray device to detect the sealant that has been just sprayed to check if it is sprayed completely and uniformly.After passing the test, the robot will cover the cylinder head on the body, or it will continue to spray the sealant.

In addition to this, the entire production line has the ability of flexible production, so that it can timely adjust the production schedule according to production needs.

Stable industrial worker team and training mechanism. For complex, most of these plants have professional, stable operating personnel and will provide them with professional training for complex and key processes.

TakeComer for example, that provides supporting transmission system for the main engine of Case New Holland, Krohne, Claas and other agricultural machinery, factory workers are required to study relevant theory knowledge before entry and later take part in pre-job training and assembly line practice, with a total of nearly 50 training items for more than 5000h.

Therefore, the world-class parts manufacturers have constructed the core competitiveness in the following aspects:

First, the cutting-edge R&D ability. Relying on the international industry status, they have set up the global working condition database based on end user needs, so as to achieve the reserve of international leading technology.

Second, the advanced trial-manufacturing, testing and experimental ability. They possess the development capability to promote or participate in main engine enterprises’ product upgrading.

Third, the sustainablelean manufacturing management. Ergonomics, board management, lean logistics, preventive technology, automated production, online monitoring and other means are widely used in the manufacturing link to ensure product quality uniformity and achieve the full integration of flexible manufacturing and modular production.

Fourth, the stable industrial worker team. Complex and key processes are equipped with professional, stable operating personnel.

Fifth, the compliant and efficient enterprise management. The compliant, honest, standardized and uniform process shapes the unique culture to lead theenterprise development.

Extensive use of Internet+

During the visit, we found that Internet+ has been widely used in Europe, mainly manifested in the following three aspects.

First, the factory digitization. For example, the machining equipment bus data collection and the whole course are traceable. All factory parts are marked with two-dimensional code, which can be identified by scanning the code; all accessories will have a 4-digit digital coding. In this case, the parts are traceable from the initial state of the product until leaving the factory.If there is a problem with the parts, you can know the delivery time and location by entering the coding only, and the parts can receive early warning and be recalled in case of batch failure.

Second, the product digitization. Such as Deere’s assembly design, return and analysis of machine operation parameters, control machines and tools and mode of operation.Product digitization has developed very fast in Europe. During our visit to Europe during 2013-2014, machine parameter return was limited to some very simple applications, but it has been well developed in the products in Europe during this visit.Parameter return is not only applied by John Deere and other large enterprises, but is widely used in other enterprises and different products, including soil online detection, yield map collectionand automatic control of agricultural machinery, etc.

Third, the use digitization. Such as customized products by order, access to peripheral information through the products and so on, that is, the precise agriculture.

Users will be aware of the exact time of factory production and accessories they need when they purchase. In the using process, the surrounding information can also be collected, such as electronic remote sensing system and electronic scheduling system, known astoday’spreciseagriculture, which has been widely used in Europe.