Wanfeng Auto Holding Group Paints a Smart Manufacturing Blueprint

Striving for a New Journey in the 14th Five-Year Plan Period

As a leading international group in the advanced manufacturing industry of transportation, Wanfeng Auto has been dedicated to the mission of "contributing to industrial development and building a strong nation" for over two decades. It actively aligns with national policy and develops a strategic plan every five years. During the upcoming five-year development period, Chairman Chen Ailian of Wanfeng Auto Holding Group has set the strategic goal of "Digital WANFENG," aiming to achieve digitalization across all subsidiary companies by 2023.

Founded in 1994, Wanfeng Group operates across diverse industries such as automotive parts, general aviation, intelligent equipment, and financial investment. The group comprises two business sectors, with its listed company, WANFENG AUTO WHEEL, being the industry's pioneer. Primarily focused on automotive parts, WANFENG AUTO WHEEL's magnesium alloy division is a top-tier supplier to Tesla globally, while its stamping parts business serves as a second-tier supplier to Tesla.

Another key business sector is Wanfeng Aviation, established in 2014 as a significant milestone in Wanfeng Group's transformation and full-scale entry into the aviation industry chain. Presently, Wanfeng Aviation has evolved into an integrated industrial chain model encompassing aircraft manufacturing, airport management, air traffic operations, flight school training, low-altitude guarantee, and aviation club services.

Wanfeng has built an aviation town in Xinchang, with a total investment of 10 billion yuan.

Bird's-eye View of Wanfeng Aviation Town

Complex and Diversified Service Systems Pose Challenges to the Information Network

Wanfeng Aviation Town spans 2.2 square kilometers and adopts a "one core and two wings" layout, with aircraft manufacturing as the "one core" and aviation equipment and services as the "two wings". Wanfeng operates four integrated aircraft R&D and manufacturing bases in Vienna, Austria; London, Canada; Xinchang, Zhejiang; and Qingdao (under construction). The Xinchang base focuses on the R&D and manufacturing of the best-selling model DA40, and also oversees the construction and implementation of the low-altitude air defense system management.

The town is open to the public and is a national 3A scenic spot and Shaoxing's study and travel base. Since its construction, the town has become a well-known landmark in Shaoxing, attracting a steady stream of tourists and students during holidays.

To effectively control the flow of people, the town has built a unified cloud platform, which integrates management of employee consumption, access control, monitoring, alarm, and patrol. The fire control center is responsible for unified management and handling of various emergencies. Personnel are on duty 24 hours a day to record and handle the flow of people and abnormal situations. During the pandemic, the cloud platform is also used to effectively limit the flow of personnel and measure body temperature.

The town's network must support various daily operations, including production, office work, aviation, monitoring, and subsidiary access to the data center. Service systems range from common ones like CRM, ERP, and PLM to specialized systems for flight school management, aviation experience, maintenance, VIP club management, and low-altitude assurance. This diversity poses a challenge to the network's overall stability.

In addition, there are many information resources in Wanfeng, including wired and wireless networks, equipment rooms, servers, and dedicated lines. The IT department is struggling with managing these resources in a unified manner to achieve visualized management of IT infrastructure, improve O&M efficiency, and reduce the probability of faults.

From Switches to More Products, Impressed by Ruijie's Consistent High Quality
Full wireless coverage

Data is the basic element of the industrial Internet. How to collect and control data from various service systems is one of the top priorities of the town's information construction. The town adopts Ruijie scenario-based wireless solution. Ruijie wireless APs are deployed in different scenarios such as production lines, offices, halls, auditoriums, and air traffic control buildings in the town to ensure data collection.

In addition, the town is fully covered by wireless networks, including desktop computers. The all-wireless design is not only aesthetically appealing but also convenient. Meng Fansheng, the IT manager of Wanfeng Aviation, said, "Sometimes we need to change offices frequently. We use wireless desktops, so IT personnel do not need to check office network ports. We can move the desktops directly."

Smooth transition, stable and reliable network

Meng Fansheng recalls, "Ruijie was chosen in the early stage of building the data center. Since then, Ruijie switches have been used for new construction on the campus."

Two RG-N18012 core switches, four RG-S8612E core switches, and more than 100 RG-S2910 switches are deployed in Wanfeng Aviation Town. After data collection, Ruijie access, aggregation, and core switches are used to ensure the stable operation of overall services.

When asked about his evaluation of using Ruijie products, Meng Fansheng smiled and said, " We used to use a foreign brand, but now we use Ruijie. We were impressed by the seamless switchover, and we did not have to adapt to the new model and did not encounter any faults. The transition is very smooth."

It is true that no need for adaptation is the biggest recognition when it comes to switchovers.

Visualized O&M, Saving Time and Effort

The IT department of Wanfeng Aviation has six employees, and two of them are responsible for O&M. If a network fault occurs, they need to travel back and forth in the town to locate, troubleshoot, and fix the fault, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive. In addition, two O&M personnel are far from enough.

Things are different when Ruijie RIIL platform is deployed in the town to monitor servers, wired and wireless networks, security systems, and service systems in a unified manner and visualize IT resources.

If a network device becomes faulty, the BMC platform will prompt the alarm information of the device, which can quickly locate the fault. If the O&M personnel are not in the monitoring room, RIIL-BMC will also notify the fault through the APP, SMS, or email, and then quickly process the fault. Before the user feels the impact of the fault, the fault has been solved, improving user experience and reducing complaints.

Ruijie Networks is dedicated to closely engaging with customer scenarios and excelling in innovative solutions. Within the manufacturing industry, Ruijie Networks specifically targets the electronic information, automotive, pharmaceutical and biotech, and steel manufacturing sectors. It offers comprehensive network services for mobile offices, safe production, intelligent warehousing, and logistics supply, thereby assisting traditional manufacturing enterprises in transitioning towards intelligent manufacturing through digital technologies.