BlueSword: Innovation or Nothing，To be "China's DAIFUKU”

*The following article is from Shanghai Securities News, reporter Liu Li.

Palletizing robots, warehousing robots, handling robots... Walking into the pilot workshop of BlueSword located in the Shandong Dezhou R&D Center, it is like entering the world of logistics robots.

From the beginning of its establishment in 1993, it was mainly engaged in logistics consulting and planning, software business, and carried out system integration in 1999; in 2003, it entered the tobacco logistics industry; in 2013, it expanded to electric power, medicine, e-commerce, fast-moving consumer goods and other industries; 2016 , with the help of the Vipshop project, a new model of intelligent warehousing and logistics system operation service has been added; in December 2020, BlueSword successfully landed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board... After nearly 30 years of steady development, BlueSword has become a leading full-process smart logistics system in China solution provider.

Facing the footage of "Technology China", Wu Yaohua, chairman of the company, said confidently and firmly: "BlueSword's core concept is 'only innovation'. From the very beginning of our establishment, we have followed a path that is different from that of other logistics technology companies. The road is not to be a follower. We want to do things that the industry does not have, research more innovative technologies, and be 'China's great blessing, the world's BlueSword'."

There is no "wisdom", no standing: the business chain is fully covered

As the chairman of the Science and Technology Innovation Board, Dr. Wu Yaohua's own "scientific innovation attributes" are very sufficient. Wu Yaohua has been engaged in warehousing and logistics automation research for more than 30 years. He is also the commander-in-chief of the company's R&D team and the dean of the BlueSword Research Institute.

In Wu Yaohua's view, the future of the logistics automation industry is not "intelligent".

"Automation has basically exhausted the various application scenarios of the previous logistics industry, but the lack of intelligence restricts its further application and development."

Wu Yaohua told reporters that logistics automation originated in the United States in the 1950s; in the mid-1960s, Japan began to build automated high-bay warehouses, and automated logistics systems began to develop rapidly in developed countries in Europe and the United States and Japan. Among them, the Japanese enterprise Daifuku (DAIFUKU) It is one of the representatives; my country's intelligent logistics equipment industry began to grow with the development of the manufacturing industry in the early 1990s.

At present, with the application of Internet, Internet of Things, big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and other technologies, my country's warehousing and logistics automation system industry is in the stage of developing from integrated automation to intelligent automation.

How different is logistics intelligence from traditional automation?

"Some application scenarios cannot be automated without intelligence. For example, if robots, stackers, and shuttles can be intelligently controlled, the intelligence of the entire logistics automation system will be increased, and the traditional logistics automation system will be expanded. The boundary of the application can achieve more intelligence and automation." Wu Yaohua explained.

The core product of BlueSword is a series of robots with intelligent "wings" for logistics automation. Its business scope has covered the entire business chain of the intelligent logistics system.

After 30 years of development, the company has become not only a software developer, but also a hardware equipment manufacturer and a system solution provider.

In the front-end market, the company can provide customers with engineering and technical consulting and planning services, so as to design a system solution with good applicability according to the actual situation of the customer; the mid-end market is also the market and advantageous links that the company focuses on. The company can provide intelligent robots and intelligent A customized intelligent warehousing and logistics automation system with highly integrated software; in the back-end market, after the system is delivered, the company will provide after-sales operation and maintenance services after the warranty period. In addition, the company can also provide customers with RaaS (Robot as a Service) operation services based on the logistics system.

It is worth mentioning that the company's product line has a self-developed and self-produced rate of 80%, with obvious cost advantages. The product quality, performance and indicators are comparable to those of overseas developed countries, and the safety, stability, reliability, and efficiency have all reached international standards. .

At present, the company's products have been successfully used in various industries such as new energy, communications, consumer goods, and military industry. It is one of the few domestic manufacturers that has achieved the overall export of logistics equipment to overseas developed countries. resource.

 Innovation or Nothing ：Be the industry leader

Wu Yaohua's favorite phrase is "only innovation", which is also the core concept of BlueSword.

He explained, "When we entered this industry, there were few domestic related enterprises, and those who needed to compete were foreign manufacturers, forcing us to take a more innovative path. Only by making our own technology more advanced, making our products more innovative and able to solve the deeper needs of our customers, can we better sustain our development and survival."

What is innovation? According to Wu Yaohua, it is what no one has and what no one has.

He said, for example, that when the first company did the unmanned sorting of the whole storage of cigarettes, there were no relevant products and technologies in the international arena. Later, Lan Jian proposed a third generation of automatic sorting line, called waterfall automatic sorting line. parallel waterfall sorting system, which has achieved high efficiency and throughput leadership.

With the rapid rise of domestic e-commerce economy, in recent years, BlueSword has developed a set of hive technology that surpasses Amazon's flat goods-to-man system - a 3D goods-to-man system with shuttle robots as the core product, also known as the "3D three-dimensional goods-to-man system".

"This system is five times more efficient than the flat system, and the 3D cargo-to-person system can better solve the problem of massive throughput of Chinese e-commerce." Wu Yaohua said.

At present, BlueSword Intelligent's 3D cargo-to-man complete system with shuttle robot as the core has been exported to Japan, Germany, the United States and other developed countries.

In 2021, the company also developed the first digital twin system in international logistics, and it has been landed and applied in actual projects. The system can simulate and analyze the operation dynamics, link beat, personnel cost and system resource utilization of large and complex warehousing and logistics automation system, find the bottleneck of the solution, obtain the optimal design solution and the best operation parameters, provide effective guarantee for the implementation and management of the actual warehousing and logistics automation system, and provide better customized intelligent warehousing and logistics automation system solutions for customers.

Innovation relies on its own technical research and development strength, which is one of the core advantages of BlueSword.

In recent years, the ratio of R&D investment to operating revenue of the company is above 7% annually, and it is as high as 8.78% in 2020. The company has a research and development team led by a number of doctors in the United States, and has established extensive cooperation with many famous universities in China, such as Shandong University, to jointly undertake a number of national, provincial and municipal scientific research projects. The company has also established a national logistics engineering personnel training and practical training base, and innovatively implemented a comprehensive orientation training program for logistics engineering talents. In the first list of "New Generation of Artificial Intelligence Industry Innovation Key Tasks Unveiling Winning Units" issued by the General Office of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology recently, BlueSword Intelligence was listed on the list. Up to now, the company has applied for 342 intellectual property rights, including 143 invention patents; it has obtained 221 intellectual property rights, including 50 invention patents.

The long-term innovation gene is gradually building a wall barrier for BlueSword Intelligence, and the customer stickiness is continuously strengthened.

Wu Yaohua admits that there is no dark horse in the intelligent logistics industry, and the top 10 global companies in the industry have a history of hundreds of years. The supply chain of the logistics industry is very long and is a comprehensive discipline, so to do it well, every field has to be deep and thorough. This is not easy and requires years of accumulation of technology and talent.

Stable and far-reaching

To be "China's DAIFUKU, the world's BlueSword"

In December 2020, BlueSword landed on the science and technology innovation board.

"After standing on the capital market stage, we have more vigor and ability for high-quality development." Wu Yaohua told reporters that the company's IPO fund-raising project intelligent logistics equipment production experimental base, also known as the super future factory.

"A stable line can lead to a long way, and building a solid foundation is the key to high-quality development. Our IPO fundraising is basically used on the construction of the super future factory, which is to lay a good foundation for the future development of the enterprise." Wu Yaohua said, "In the Super Future Factory, we will use robots to produce robots and develop to the whole field and scenario, which will bring continuous growth of business volume for the company. At present, the main body of the Super Future Factory has been built and some production lines have been put into production; other production lines are in the process of installation and commissioning, and will be put into operation in FY2022."

It is reported that after the Super Future Factory reaches production, it is expected to open the ceiling of the company's profit scale. The company's existing production capacity can support 1 billion yuan scale orders, as of the end of June 2021, the company's orders on hand has reached close to 1 billion yuan level, the production capacity is more saturated, the super future factory can support the company's production capacity to 2 billion yuan order scale after it is put into production.

Talking about the future of the industry, Wu Yaohua believes that intelligent warehouse logistics has a super future. China's manufacturing industry is in the key moment of industrial upgrading to 4.0, for the degree of division of labor refinement, automation rate, the whole industry chain synergy and production efficiency to improve the direction of higher requirements, intelligent warehousing and logistics equipment is gradually become just in demand.

"The company will rely on the '14th Five-Year Plan' and the 2035 Vision Plan, actively layout the head customers of related industries, grasp the opportunity of rapid development of the industry, and achieve rapid growth in the next 5-10 years." Wu Yaohua said, "30 years may be a long time for some industries, for BlueSword, it is just the youth. Our goal is to be 'China's DAIFUKU, the world's BlueSword'."