关于自动化(上)
SPECIAL FIRST OF TWO PARTS OF AUTOMATION ARTICLE
Men versus Machine?
Is it better to do it with People or with Machines?
I want to start this article with one of my stories and experiences of my first trips to China. The story is related to automation.
It was a few years ago maybe 5 or 6, we just finished the construction and had in production in Mexico the most modern and automated ceramic factory in the world. This factory had a production capacity of 700,000 m2 per month and was operated by only 80 people.
That same year we did some benchmarking in several of the main ceramic manufacturing countries in the world and traveled to Brazil, Spain, Italy, Thailand & of course China.
When we visited China that year and if we compared a same size Capacity Company in China to our factory in Mexico the Chinese company would employ 600 people and not 80 like our factory.
Wow! A 500 people difference! That was incredible and very difficult to believe or understand. So we asked ourselves a lot of questions. But at the same time, we also saw clearly in these Chinese factories why they would use so many people.
In summary these were some of the comments we did on that were done by the Chinese owners of these manufacturing facilities:
Positive Comments:
• This is good because there is more employment for all these people
• More people, more eyes, more people observing the process, better quality
• Government subsidies for employing more people
• People cost less than the cost of the equipment
• Too many people, more problems, more accidents
Negative Comments:
• Labor cost extremely high
• Machines can do a better job than people, do not get sick, no vacations, no overtime, do not get pregnant, do not complain, do not miss work, do not make mistakes!
While all of the comments above are accurate and make sense in reality things are a little bit different.
I think we all agree that is good to give employment to a lot of people and also by doing so getting subsidies from the government for employing more personnel. But all these Chinese Ceramic companies ARE NOT Charitable Institutions and were made to make money and be profitable.
Also keep in mind that the cost of the people and labor has increased a lot in China in the past 8 years.
Machines and automatic or automated technology is expensive and maybe the cost short term is high, but after a few years it is a better investment than adding a lot of people.
Remember that the machines still need to be checked, programmed and maintained by people!
I think that the best way to come up to an understandable solution or answer is by saying that there should be a balance of the right number of people and the right equipment that will maximize the cost efficiency, reduce heavy repetitive labor, accidents and mistakes.
In part two of the article I will prepare for you a good example with real numbers to be able to clearly see the difference between an automated factory vs. one that it is not and also the areas that are more automated in the western factories than in China that give you an overall better cost, efficiency and quality result.
REGARDS
Humberto Valles
ICC General Manager
人VS机器?
到底是人工操作好一点呢还是机器操作好一点呢?
我想以我第一次中国之行的一件事来开始这篇文章。
大约是5、6年前,我们刚刚在墨西哥建好并且开始投产使用世界上最先进的自动化陶瓷工厂。这间工厂每个月产能70万方,由80个人来操作。
同年,我们在世界上一些主要的陶瓷生产国进行考察,去了巴西、西班牙、 意大利、泰国,当然还有中国。
我们在中国进行考察的时候发现,如果把相同产能的中国工厂和墨西哥的新工厂比较,中国工厂需要600个人工作,而我们只需要80个人。
哇!500个人的差别!这真是难以置信,让人费解。我们问了自己很多的问题,也清楚地明白了为什么这些中国工厂需要这么多的人。
总的说来,我们对那些中国工厂经营者的做法有以下的看法:
积极的方面:
这是件好事,因为解决了更多人的就业问题
更多的人、更多的眼睛在参与生产过程,能带来更好的质量
政府对雇佣更多的人力进行补贴
雇用人比投资设备的支出更少
消极的方面:
太多人导致更多的问题、更多的事故
人工支出非常高
机器能比人做更好的工作,不会生病、不会请假、没有加班、不会怀孕、没有抱怨、绝不会旷工,也不会犯错误!
上面这些观点都说得对,并有各自的道理,而现实则并非完全如此。
我们认同雇佣更多的人是件好事,还能够从政府拿到补贴。 但是所有的中国陶瓷企业都不是慈善机构,他们都需要赚钱盈利。
而在过去的8年间,中国的人工已经大幅的提升了。
机器和自动化设备或者自动化技术是昂贵的,短期来说也许成本很高,但是从长远看来,相对于增加人手是一个更好的投入。
然而,也需知道机器同样也需要通过人来检查、编程以及维护!
我认为,如果要对此得出一个易于理解的解决方案或者答案的话,应该是在正确的人数和设备的数量之间找到一个平衡点,能够让投入的收益最大化,并且大量减少的重复劳动、事故和错误。
在这组文章的下篇我将会为大家准备一个很好的例子,在这个例子中会通过数字的列举让大家清晰地看到自动化与非自动化的工厂的差异,看到西方的工厂同中国相比哪些地方自动化程度更高,从而整体来说在成本、效率以及质量等方面做得更好的。
翻译:耿海波 吴凯怡
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