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The First Smart Line in the Office Segment Went Live in Just 2.5 Months. Soonfor Software Helps Zhongtailong Group Soar

Published on: 2024-01-03

Based in Zhongshan, a successful model! Office furniture, the giant dragon takes flight!

Recently, the Zhongtailong Group and Soonfor Intelligent Manufacturing MES project created an industry first by going live in only two and a half months and being fully completed in six months, drawing heated discussion and praise across the industry. At the beginning of 2024, Zhongtailong, the giant dragon of office furniture, rode the momentum of digitalization, soared into a new world, and opened a brand-new chapter for the Year of the Dragon.

The First Smart Line in the Office Segment Went Live in Just 2.5. Months. Soonfor Software Helps Zhongtailong Group Soar

This is not only a new milestone for Zhongtailong, but also a breakthrough creation in the home furnishing industry, worthy of study by the whole industry.

Zhongtailong Group has three major groups under its umbrella: Zhongtai Group, Guojing Group, and Heyan Group. Each group has multiple subsidiaries, and the company is highly capable. As a leader in office furniture, Zhongtailong has repeatedly won numerous honors and titles such as Leading Brand in Office Furniture, Top Ten Office Furniture Brands, and Top Ten Green Office Furniture Brands. Over the years, it has provided integrated office space solutions and engineering support services for medium and large enterprises, system units, and Fortune Global 500 companies in sectors such as state-owned enterprises, central enterprises, government and military, healthcare and eldercare, education, finance, power grids, and energy. Its products are high-end, stylish, and environmentally friendly.

01

Intelligence is an important strategy for Zhongtailong

In order to adapt to the digital development trend of the industry, respond actively, and plan ahead, Zhongtailong built the Weili Smart Home Technology Industrial Park in just over a year, fully demonstrating Zhongtailong speed.

The Zhongtailong Weili Smart Home Technology Industrial Park, through the full introduction of the most advanced international equipment, has truly become the first in the industry to realize full on-the-ground production from panel warehouse to finished goods warehouse. The entire production process is automated and program-based, a sound quality management system has been established and passed ISO9001 certification, online automatic inspection functions were introduced first in the industry, quality control points are set in every workshop production link, and high-end German testing equipment provides accurate data to grasp online product quality conditions at any time, ensuring the most reliable and stable product quality.

Zhongtailong's intelligent manufacturing construction is not only a simple production line buildout, but also the implementation of the group's development strategy and philosophy for the next ten years, namely the Ninth Five-Year Plan strategic deployment, and is also an important strategic measure to promote the high-quality development of Zhongtailong Group. Zhongtailong Group's intelligent production lines cover seven major manufacturing centers: paint, laminated board, upholstery, powder coating, solid wood, steel, and injection molding, with more than 30 internationalized production lines widely serving the global market.

In order to make the production line run through and run smoothly and reach capacity targets as early as possible, Zhongtailong introduced Soonfor Software intelligent manufacturing MES in June 2023, creating the miracle of the first intelligent manufacturing project going live in two and a half months and closing in six months. Since the production line was built, it has received strong praise from the Zhongshan Municipal Party Committee and Government, including local functional departments, and has also attracted leaders and experts from the home furnishing industry to visit the line. This is a project that has attracted great attention from the entire office furniture industry.

This intelligent manufacturing project will help Zhongtailong, which has just celebrated its fortieth anniversary, maintain lasting vitality and move at full speed toward the grand goal of becoming an outstanding century-old brand!

02

Some achievements of this digital project

Project closure is not only a summary of the end of the project, but also a new starting point. It marks a new stage for Zhongtailong to move toward high-quality development and toward informatization, digitalization, and intelligence. It has realized integrated supply platform management for Zhongtailong Group from order intake, order splitting, scheduling, material optimization, production execution, and warehouse management, realized digitalization of the production process, optimized information flow and process flow, improved Zhongtailong's management efficiency and production quality, and through the intelligent manufacturing project precisely located risk issues and improved the accuracy of Zhongtailong Group's decision-making.

1. Core platform, overall collaboration: Connectivity

With the MES system as the core, it is interconnected with ERP, order splitting, cutting optimization, production line control systems, and the WMS warehouse system, realizing platform integration from order intake, order splitting, scheduling, material optimization, production execution, and warehouse management. MES is a comprehensive management platform with openness, collaboration, sharing, and scalability, helping enterprises achieve comprehensive coverage and deep integration of informatization.

2. Precise positioning, improving management and decision-making capability: Precision

MES uses digital production and order-splitting data for scheduling, production diversion, and packaging, in turn promoting the order and order-splitting departments to standardize and parameterize products and components, requiring data to be more standardized and more precise;

MES provides comprehensive production management data and reports. Through MES data analysis, bottlenecks and risk issues in the production process can be discovered more accurately, and timely measures can be taken for adjustment and optimization, improving management efficiency and decision-making accuracy.

3. Process optimization: Optimization

Through MES production data, comprehensive analysis is carried out from the perspectives of efficiency, material cost, and quality to realize the standardization and optimization of production flow. For example, beveled parts are beveled after online edge banding, panels with a cutting stack quantity of 1. are automatically assigned to the engraving machine, complete-set warehousing applications are stored by barcode scanning, and so on. Information flow and process flow are optimized, non-value-added links are eliminated, and production efficiency and quality are improved;

Production control can only be released after material lock-in is added, ensuring that materials for batch orders are complete before production is released, avoiding production stoppages while waiting for materials, and realizing rapid completeness.

4. Efficiency improvement: Elevation

Soonfor MES realizes automatic pre-packaging calculation, saving 50% of the workload of the technical department, realizing advance package splitting, and saving the number of packages and packaging materials;

After workshop completeness is achieved, MES automatically generates the warehousing application for completeness declaration, and the workshop connects directly with logistics for warehousing, reducing PMC point receipt and manual warehousing documents, with warehousing efficiency improved by 100%;

MES integrates production data and automatically processes cutting, edge banding, and drilling files after part diversion, realizing scan-code processing and real-code reporting, improving production efficiency.

03

Review of the project closing conference

At the closing conference, Zhongtailong Group President and project commander-in-chief Liu Gesheng, General Manager Chen Qiong, General Manager of the Intelligent Manufacturing Center Zhan Haigang, production plant directors, Vice General Manager of the Laminated Board Business Division Liu Shihai, IT Director Cao Chuansheng, IT Deputy General Manager Guo Xinhe, leaders of each business department, Soonfor Software project commander-in-chief Ma Jianrong, project manager Zhang Xia, and project members all attended the meeting. Both teams highly recognized the achievements of the project.

Soonfor Project Manager Zhang Xia reviewed the entire project, including implementation scope, process review, implementation results, and follow-up suggestions.

At the event, Zhongtailong Group President Liu Gesheng said: "I didn't expect this project to go live so quickly! High-quality development and intelligent production have been dreams we have had for ten years. I especially thank all project team members, especially the Soonfor team. It is precisely because of you that in just a few months Zhongtailong's intelligent production line achieved phased results. This is a very remarkable thing and a milestone event for Zhongtailong. Soonfor's working direction is correct, its logic is rigorous, and the whole work process is very clear, which has greatly helped our work to unfold.

I use 12 Chinese characters to evaluate Soonfor, and that is: exquisite technology, excellent quality, and efficient service!"

General Manager Chen Qiong of Zhongtailong Group expressed gratitude to the project team. He said: "In this project, both teams put in a lot of effort and worked overtime toward the goal. Intelligent manufacturing is the route Zhongtailong Group has always wanted to take. Right now we are still only taking the first step of a long march, and we still need Soonfor to continue empowering us. As we have worked with Soonfor all the way, we have already become like one family, getting to know, understand, and appreciate each other. Our styles are very similar. Thanks again to Soonfor and the project team."

The efficient closure of this project left everyone very satisfied with the results. Zhan Haigang, General Manager of Zhongtailong Group's Intelligent Manufacturing Center, said: "Actually, as the leader of this project team, I am truly moved today. First of all, I am very grateful for such a great Soonfor team and the high level of cooperation from the project team members, which enabled our project to land so quickly. The kickoff meeting was held on June 18, and on September 1. our intelligent production line went live. This is the fastest in the whole industry! Because our foundation was not good, while those with a good foundation normally take at least a year. But within half a year, all our orders were on the MES system, and our four major workshops all went live, which is equivalent to four companies, so the time was very tight.

After going live, I arranged intensive knowledge transfer training, hoping our team could master MES knowledge as soon as possible. Originally, I planned 8. sessions a month, worrying that Consultant Zhang Xia would not be able to handle it, but Consultant Zhang Xia did even better than I imagined and arranged 11 sessions in one month. The training results were excellent. Thank you, Consultant Zhang. Today's closing is the beginning of our move toward high-quality development."

Among the many digital service providers, Soonfor was able to stand out, and that is inseparable from Soonfor's professionalism. Guo Xinhe from Zhongtailong's Informatization Center said: "We believe that choosing Soonfor was the most correct decision our company made, because the implementation methodology and companion-style service of the entire Soonfor project team brought us significant capability improvement, which is extremely important. Of course, it also cannot be separated from the efforts of our entire project team together."

Vice General Manager Liu Shihai of Zhongtailong's Laminated Board Business Division said: "What impressed me most is that I didn't expect the Soonfor system to realize precise BOM consumption and achieve precise control over overall costs, greatly improving cost control and timely material supply. This was something I always wanted to do when I worked at Guojing under the group before, and I thought about it for seven or eight years without achieving it. I thought it was impossible. I didn't expect it to actually be realized on the Soonfor MES system. I am very grateful to Soonfor for empowering our intelligent manufacturing."

04

Feedback from key department heads

Heads of the IT Department, PMC Department, Technical Department, and Process Department spoke in turn, summarizing the project implementation process, the changes brought by the project, and subsequent work arrangements.

Head of the IT Department Cao Chuansheng:

"Through the launch of the Soonfor system, seamless connection among multiple systems has been achieved, meeting the needs of the intelligent line and the company's digitalization, improving user experience and efficiency, enabling data interconnection across the company's informatization systems, improving workflows, and optimizing data standards. Now the digital system is like a high-speed rail station: when it will arrive and what problems may occur can all be known in advance at any time. We thank the company platform for introducing the Soonfor platform.

Thanks to the Soonfor team, especially Consultant Zhang from Soonfor. Whenever various problems arose during project construction, they guided us to analyze the problems from new angles and with new methods and find better solutions. Under the training of the Soonfor consultant team, all department personnel gained a completely new understanding of MES system technology and experience, helping us become more efficient in subsequent operation and maintenance."

Head of the PMC Department Liu Xin:

Through the use of the Soonfor system, the previous ERP material requisition steps were simplified, the procurement cycle was shortened by 2. days, and more production time was reserved for the workshop;

Using workshop MES automatic reporting, we can clearly grasp the specific completion status of each process section and understand production progress;

Packaging management reduces manual secondary label printing. The non-value-added action of labeling has been reduced, saving time, labor, and paper usage;

It is more convenient and practical to modify order data for orders already scheduled to the workshop, reducing the frequency of order returns and reducing unnecessary layout optimization;

The system has various management reports, so there is no need to spend extra effort extracting data manually and creating reports;

The settings adjustment for cutting optimization is more flexible and convenient;

Workshop scan-code complete-set completion and warehousing ensure that every order package is complete and without omissions.

Head of the Technical Department Zhao Zhiyong:

For our department, the Soonfor system meets all processing flows of intelligent lines, flexible lines, and auxiliary lines, and improves process-flow information such as foot nailing, special-shaped parts, and so on;

Soonfor's pre-packaging function reduced 90% of the manual stacking and packaging workload of the order-splitting staff;

Soonfor MES helped the order-splitting staff develop good work habits, ensuring that models and output data remain consistent. It corrected the previous habit of manually changing table data without changing the source model.

Heads of the Process Technology Department He Shizhu and Liang Gaoxin:

The pre-package-splitting software project was launched in July. After repeated meetings, communication, and discussion on 12 categories of packaging issues, a perfect solution was finally achieved. Through continuous optimization, improvement, and refinement of package-splitting rules, a most scientific and reasonable pre-packaging split-package system was realized. It helped the company build complete process diversion rules for intelligent-line panels, establish rules for panel stacking, package splitting, paper cutting, box sealing, and other aspects of the pre-packaging module, participate in reviewing pre-packaging, and train order-splitting personnel to understand, deepen, and independently review pre-packaging.

The Soonfor system helped us complete the full connection of the entire production line and realize accurate conversion of rules such as process routes, as well as accurate connection of order grouping and scheduling, cutting optimization, edge banding programs, and drilling programs. This greatly improved our work efficiency.

Thanks to the company for cooperating with Soonfor and giving everyone this opportunity to work together. Since cooperating with Soonfor, every process communication and discussion has pursued excellence. Thanks to all brother departments of the company for their cooperation with process work during the project, and thanks to all colleagues on the project team for their efforts.

05

Summary and service introduction by the Soonfor project commander-in-chief

Mr. Ma, the Soonfor project commander-in-chief, said: "Beginning with the end in mind is the concept of our project management. Throughout the entire project, the Zhongtailong team was outstanding, united, progressive, and highly efficient in execution, and cooperated very well with the Soonfor team. Being able to successfully launch the intelligent manufacturing production line in two and a half months is almost unheard of in the industry. The overall layout of the intelligent plus flexible line of Zhongtailong's laminated board business division is excellent and industry-leading. Today's closing is not the end, but the starting point. Soonfor provides 7 24-hour online service to help realize the goals of Zhongtailong's Ninth Five-Year Plan."

06

Project commendation session

The success of a project is inseparable from everyone's unity and efficient cooperation. This project produced many outstanding teams and individuals, and Zhongtailong gave generous rewards to them all.

Zhongtailong highly recognized the Soonfor team, awarded them a banner for excellent service team and a plaque for strategic cooperation unit, and presented a letter of thanks to Soonfor Project Manager Zhang Xia.

Industry status of Zhongtailong Group

2023 Top Ten Leading Office Furniture Brands

Top Ten Enterprises in China's Office Furniture Industry

2022 Top Ten Green Office Furniture Brands in China

National High-Tech Enterprise

2022China's Leading Commercial Furniture Brands

2021 Leading Forestry Enterprise of Guangdong Province

2022 Leading Office Furniture Brand in China

2022 Top Ten Government Procurement Office Furniture Brands

2022 Top Ten Green Office Furniture Brands in China

Council Member Unit of Zhongshan Industrial Design Association

Guangdong Province Top 500 Manufacturing Enterprises

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