Enter Toshiba Air Conditioning "Ingenuity Educating, Intelligent Technology" Hangzhou Characteristic Production Base
With the growth of Toshiba Air Conditioning, Toshiba Air Conditioning’s high-tech production base has taken root in China. The reporter walked into Toshiba Air Conditioning China Smart Factory (hereinafter referred to as "TCAC") to interview the Chinese market, technological innovation, process quality control, and product quality.
TCAC President and Tian Honger: Localized production will create an exclusive "Hangzhou brand" of Toshiba air conditioners
TCAC President and Tian Hongji
Toshiba Air Conditioning’s new Hangzhou base was officially launched in June last year. This base integrates R & D and production. It is a high-efficiency and high-quality smart factory. In the future, it will greatly enhance the speed of Product Research & Development and commodity competitiveness in the Chinese market.
In order to better meet the expanding Chinese market demand, TCAC has strengthened the function and positioning of "local production, local sales", said TCAC president and Tian Hongji.
For the Chinese market, especially the home multi-connection market, in the face of increasingly fierce competition, Wada Hongji feels that TCAC has achieved significant growth with the support of Toshiba Carrier Air Conditioning Sales (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.’s strong sales team. Under the strong growth trend, Toshiba Air Conditioning Headquarters also believes that the Chinese market is a huge market with sustainable growth potential. Wada Hongji said: TCAC’s R & D and manufacturing strength can be further improved, thanks to the headquarters to increase investment, so that the new base can play an important role in accelerating product development and expanding production capacity supply. He believes that the growth of TCAC will be even stronger in the future.
Since TCAC is established in China, it must be adapted to local conditions. Wada Hiroji emphasizes: Only by grasping the real needs of customers can it be called local conditions. Establishing a base in China allows you to feel the needs of customers firsthand, which is the biggest advantage. In addition, in terms of production, under the recognition of the quality management system, the adoption of local Chinese parts that meet the requirements will be further promoted.
TCAC is of milestone significance, and Wada is full of confidence in Toshiba air conditioners in the future: TCAC will create unique products and create Toshiba air conditioners "Hangzhou brand" through intelligent manufacturing.
TCAC real picture
TCAC Design Center General Manager Gu Jieshengmei: Domestic innovative technology can produce high-quality products at the same level as Japan
Gu Jieshengmei, General Manager of TCAC Design Center
TCAC adopts the same production management system and quality inspection and testing standards as the parent company’s Fuji factory in Japan to ensure that the product quality is consistent with the original imported products, and at the same time of technological innovation, it has developed energy-saving products that meet the goal of carbon neutrality, making positive contributions to China’s environmental protection cause.
Japanese craftsmanship is widely known, but whether domestic production will be different from local production in Japan will inevitably become a concern for the public. Katsumi Ku, general manager of TCAC Design Center, said: Usually, in the product development stage, it is necessary to complete important nodes such as technical review, product safety evaluation, and reliability evaluation with senior technical experts in Japan, and then TCAC strengthens the detailed design and sells it to the Chinese market. The products produced in China not only have the same technical level as those produced in Japan, but in the new base, we also have high-end testing equipment, which can help us develop new products independently. TCAC can fully produce products that can make customers feel at ease, safe, and satisfied.
Regarding the high-end laboratories set up by TCAC, Gu Jieshengmei said that by effectively using these laboratories, we can provide customers with high-quality products that can effectively meet their diverse needs with heat pump technology as the core, contribute to the protection of society and even the earth’s environment, develop energy-saving products that meet the goal of carbon neutrality, and provide a series of products such as "cold and warm feng shui" to meet market demand. The construction of TCAC’s high-end laboratories plays an important and positive role in the development of technological innovation.
Noise Lab
In addition, a good factory needs to have more high-end technical talents. TCAC has truly stimulated the potential of technical talents and helped technical employees to further grow. Gu Jieshengmei said: In the product development stage, in order to better help domestic technical personnel to improve their own level, TCAC provides the opportunity to go to the Japanese technical department for training and study. In the development stage, designing new products makes technical personnel constantly face challenges in their work, which can stimulate the potential of technical personnel, continuously consolidate the technical foundation, gain technical experience, and achieve personal growth.
TCAC general manager Masato Okuda: cell production, artificial intelligence intervention, standardized operations, process quality control and upgrading
Masato Okuda, General Manager of TCAC
Every employee on the TCAC production line is not only the "manufacturer" of the product, but also the person responsible for the quality of the product. In addition, with the support of IT tools, the process quality control will be upgraded again.
Masato Okuda, general manager of TCAC, said in an interview: The traditional assembly line production method cannot give full play to the personal ability of the operator, especially the slow work pace of the newcomer will affect the overall production progress. Cell production can give full play to personal ability, shorten the production cycle and increase production capacity. Moreover, customers can easily switch production models when they temporarily request expedited shipments, which has the advantage of being able to produce various models at the same time.
The process quality control of products is an important link in the production of Toshiba air conditioners. Masato Okuda believes that TCAC does a good job in process quality control, and the following links are required: In the main assembly process, a production line inspector is equipped to conduct a full inspection. In order to prevent ingredient errors, some processes are checked by QR code and image recognition technology. When poor quality occurs in the process, countermeasures to prevent recurrence should be implemented immediately, and regular quality inspections should be carried out to determine whether to continue to implement the countermeasures. In addition, product quality traceability should be strengthened through the process history sheet, as well as the data collected by the tablet computers and test devices installed at each assembly station.
TCAC has also undergone great changes after artificial intelligence intervention. Okuda Masato concluded: Before the AGV automatic handling robot was put into use, there were more than 40 material truck transporters in the assembly area of the indoor machine alone, walking tens of thousands of steps every day. There have also been cases where people wait for materials due to untimely delivery of materials by transporters. By introducing AGV, we removed manual handling and eliminated the loss of man-hours for people and other materials.
The production method in the intelligent mode has improved production efficiency and also increased the requirements for TCAC employees. Masato Okuda said: With the increase in production, new operators have also increased. In addition to continuing to implement basic requirements such as safety KYT, 5S, and TPM, operators are also required to be proficient in processes and standardize operations as soon as possible. Proficiency in processes and standardized operations does not depend solely on the operators themselves, but can also be supported by tools such as IT.
test tower
In the future, the quality control of the TCAC process will be upgraded again. Okuda Masato requires that while strengthening the traceability management of the manufacturing process, the loss and waste in the process should also be strengthened. On the premise of "people can make mistakes" to avoid operational mistakes, and improve the system that allows operators to realize mistakes.
Hiroyuki Takeuchi, the person in charge of TCAC quality: Toshiba air conditioners have strong hard power, and all products have "high quality"
Hiroyuki Takeuchi, TCAC Quality Manager
TCAC has always strictly controlled the production management standards, earnestly fulfilled the user’s quality requirements for the product, and truly achieved "even after the product warranty period, it can be used with confidence for a long time without failure".
For air conditioners, the most lethal quality defect is "refrigerant leakage". TCAC will conduct welding skills training for welding operators, set up a welding operation judge system, etc., and strive to maintain a high level of skills for welding operators. Takeuchi Hiroyuki, the responsible person for TCAC quality supervision, said: In order to prevent "refrigerant leakage", in the manufacturing line, helium detection and refrigerant sniffer will be used for leakage detection. In addition, for outdoor units, after the product is offline, after a certain period of standing time, it will be confirmed again whether the refrigerant is leaking. Through these inspections and confirmations, the problem of refrigerant leakage in the production process of the product can be solved.
Takeuchi Hiroyuki emphasized: TCAC’s development quality evaluation during new product development and manufacturing quality management during product production basically use the same management benchmarks as in Japan. And, according to the unique situation of the Chinese market, we will more strictly control the evaluation management benchmarks. By strictly controlling the quality and then putting it into production, we can ensure that the product quality is consistent with that of Japan, and strive to solve customers’ quality concerns about domestic production.
Users feel good is a really good product. Takeuchi Hiroyuki believes that customers will only choose to buy if they recognize the quality of our products. And emphasized the quality requirements of Toshiba air conditioning products: even after the product warranty period, it can be used with confidence for a long time without failure. Only in this way can we proudly say that the characteristics of Toshiba air conditioners are high-quality across the board.
Now that Toshiba air conditioners are developing rapidly in China, it is natural that countless Toshiba fans are looking forward to new products and new breakthroughs. Hiroyuki Takeuchi said: The new base has high-tech testing equipment to promote product development. These equipment can support TCAC’s independent product development work, providing users with more powerful and more in line with social needs. Of course, these new products will also be "high-quality" products.
This in-depth interview with Toshiba Air Conditioning China Smart Factory allowed everyone to better understand Toshiba Air Conditioning from the four aspects of the Chinese market, technological innovation, process quality control, and product quality. I believe that in the future, Toshiba Air Conditioning will rely on high-quality and high-quality cutting-edge technology products to create Toshiba Air Conditioning with Chinese characteristics in the Chinese market. With the support of advanced technology and technology, Toshiba Air Conditioning, which has the ability to control the hard core process quality, will continue to win public praise. Good product users have the final say. Toshiba Air Conditioning, mission must be achieved!