Beijing, April 15, 2015 - At the "2015 National Robot Development Forum" co-hosted by the Chinese Association of Automation (CAA) and the Chinese Association for Mechatronics Technology and Application (CAMETA) on April 13, Dr. Chunyuan Gu, Chairman and President of ABB (China) Limited, made a keynote speech titled "Manufacturing Industry Evolves from 'Big' to 'Strong' - China Greets the Arrival of the Robot Era". Throughout the speech, Dr. Gu presented the challenges and prospects for the development of the robot industry. He also advocated for the application of robot technology to support the transformation and upgrading of China's manufacturing industry from big to strong.
In recent years, China's labor costs have risen rapidly, while its working-age population has declined 3 years in a row since 2012, indicating that the demographic dividend is disappearing. Dr. Gu believes that the application of smart manufacturing technology like industrial robots can substantially increase productivity, raise yield, and improve product quality while reducing costs, thus helping the Chinese manufacturing industry transform and upgrade from low-end to high-end and enter a new, more efficient and intelligent development stage.
In addition, industrial robots can also help the manufacturing industry enhance its production flexibility, shorten production cycle, thus raising manufacturers' competitiveness in the constantly changing market. The reduction of material wastes, energy consumption, and rejection rate in smart manufacturing can help enterprises not only improve performance, but also alleviate the increasingly serious environmental and resource pressures.
For example, at the Zhuhai factory of Gree Electric Appliances Inc., ABB robots have been applied to moving, palletizing, material handling and metal sheet pressing lines production lines, helping lines to improve their productivity by 30%. In the automobile manufacturing industry, ABB provides Chang'an Ford the latest flexible body general assembly positioning system, which allows as many as 6 different models to share the same production line to manufacture their bodies. It takes just 18 seconds to switch the production of different models, bringing more flexibly to customers to adjust production according to market demand.
The year 2013 was a historic one for China's manufacturing industry. The International Federation of Robotics data speaks for itself: in 2013 China surpassed Japan for the first time in terms of industrial robot sales, making China the world's largest market for industrial robots. In that year, about 20% of the world's industrial robots were sold to China. Even so, the number of robots for every 10,000 industrial workers in China is only 30. Furthermore, the robot density in China's manufacturing industry is less than half that of the world average, thus there is still huge potential for development in China. Earlier this year, robotics was selected among the 10 sectors which China will focus on in the next ten years under the "China Manufacturing 2025" strategy.
Speaking of the biggest challenge for the development of robots, Dr. Chunyuan Gu said, "The development of the industrial robot industry ultimately depends on the development of talent. With the rapid development of China's industrial robot market, a talent shortage has become increasingly prominent. Industrial robot suppliers, integrators and end users are all searching for more talent. Talent cultivation is a long process and requires the long-term joint efforts of the government, industry, and enterprises."
Looking to the future, Dr. Gu believes that the future of robotic technology will be "robotic coworkers". The human-robot relationship has evolved from the 1970's "human-robot competition" to the 90's "human-robot co-existence" to the current "human-robot collaboration". It's expected to transition into a new era of "human-robot coworkers" in 2020. ABB's recently launched YuMi, the world's first truly collaborative robot will make collaboration between humans and robots a reality. It proclaims the advent of a new era of robotic coworkers.
The world is now facing a new phase of industrial revolution. The Internet of Things, Services and People will achieve a more intelligent and efficient industrial integration. Industrial robots play an important role in this. Dr. Gu said that ABB hopes to work together with its industry peers and partners to promote the development and application of industrial robots, in order to contribute to the realization of the goal proposed in the "China Manufacturing 2025" strategy.
ABB is the world's leading robot manufacturer, providing customers with a comprehensive portfolio of robotic products, systems, and services. In 1974, ABB launched the world's first electric microprocessor-controlled industrial robot. Now, there are more than 250,000 ABB robots installed all over the world.
ABB Robotics entered China in 1994, and established its R&D center and production base in Shanghai in 2005. To date, the ABB Robotics Shanghai production base has manufactured over 30,000 robots in total. It is also the only ABB painting robot production base in the world. Currently, ABB is the only multinational company in China that builds industrial robots for the entire value chain, including R&D, production, sales, engineering, system integration and service.
ABB is a Global 500 company and a leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility, industry, and transport and infrastructure customers to improve performance while lowering environmental impact. The ABB Group of companies operates in roughly 100 countries and employs about 140,000 people. ABB has a full range of business activities in China, including R&D, manufacturing, sales and services, with 19,000 employees, 39 local companies, and an extensive sales and service network across 126 cities.
For more information on ABB, please visit http://new.abb.com/cn, Sina Weibo: @ABB China, Official WeChat Account: abb_in_china, Official WeChat QR Code:
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