Feihe Dairy / Sites Gannan & Jilin

Feihe Dairy Co., Ltd. is one of the world’s leading infant formula manufacturers, headquartered in Qiqihar, China. As an industry pioneer, Feihe’s Gannan and Jilin factories have implemented a series of Industry 4.0 smart manufacturing solutions, achieving significant results in improving production efficiency, reducing costs, and optimizing resource utilization. These two factories successfully built intelligent manufacturing systems, setting a benchmark for the dairy industry and earning the 2024 Industry 4.0 Smart Factory Award.

Digitization: Focused on comprehensive production scenarios, the company has driven informatization by establishing 27 modules, including MES, NC, WMS, EV, EMS, LIMS, and QMS. With data collection from 20,535 points and over 100 information interfaces, the initiative has fully integrated the end-to-end production business chain. This robust digital foundation ensures the achievement of six key performance indicators: quality, cost, delivery, efficiency, ESG compliance, and innovation.

By establishing standardized quality monitoring templates for various modules, inspections, production processes, and patrols are effectively dispatched and executed. The integration of systems like WMS, MES, LIMS, NC, and EV ensures seamless data collection and feedback, enabling process transfers or deviation management across modules.
Concurrently, risk management modules for early indicator monitoring, foreign object circulation improvement, environmental management, and shelf life management were developed. These efforts leverage big data analysis to pinpoint core losses, drive improvement actions, and enhance first-pass yield and customer satisfaction.

By leveraging real-time monitoring of multi-parameter data, such as vibration and temperature, and integrating AI algorithms, a health model was established to predict and prevent equipment failures proactively. Previously, equipment maintenance relied on manual monitoring, resulting in delayed responses and high repair costs. At the Jilin factory, this system reduced the failure rate of drying tower equipment to 0% and optimized spare parts inventory, which saved considerable costs.

Utilizing the MES system, the process of raw material retrieval, weighing, and feeding is fully tracked and automatically validated. Addressing the issue of high manual error rates, the system significantly reduces human errors through automated process management and calibration. This improvement lowered the material feeding error rate from 4% to 0%, reducing economic losses by approximately CNY 1 million per month.

This system integrates modules such as OEE loss management, PCS performance management, QMS quality management, and EV equipment management. By leveraging comprehensive data integration and analysis, it optimizes production management processes. The system addresses traditional challenges of scattered and non-real-time operational data, significantly enhancing factory efficiency.