Sustainable Manufacturing Center (SMC)
The country’s key infrastructure for automation, robotics and smart electronics in the Eastern Economic Corridor of Innovation (EECi).
The Sustainable Manufacturing Center (SMC) is a pilot project of the Automation, Robotics and Innopolis (ARIPOLIS), which is one of the four innovation cities of the EECi. SMC will help solve problems of Thai industrial manufacturing sector that lacks necessary skilled labors, the machines currently in use that are obsolete which eventually cause the efficiency in the production process to decline, as well as significantly reducing energy consumption with IDA (Industrial IoT and Data Analytics Platform).
Davis Kirachaiwanich, Ph.D. Researcher Industrial Power Electronics and Product Technology Advance Automation and Electronics Research Unit, The National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (NECTEC), The National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA), revealed that, SMC is one of the agencies responsible for providing supports to the manufacturing industry in the Eastern Economic Corridor of Innovation (EECi), (i. e. Rayong, Chon Buri and Chachoengsao). SMC’s main duty is to assess the readiness of Industry 4.0. The application of Smart Industry Readiness Index (SIRI) will help make the assessments of the readiness of factories in 3 main areas which are the Process, Technology and Organization. The information obtained from the assessments will help promote and support the reform of the industry systematically including helping entrepreneurial establishments, factories, and companies to be able to set guidelines and make adaptations towards the direction of Industry 4.0 in a sustainable way. A sandbox is set up within the Center in which modern technologies have been placed on display for interested persons to visit and meet the leading technology owners that are displayed within the Center. It is also a central point for researchers, manufacturers and users in the development of Industry 4.0 to meet one another. In addition, this Center is responsible for assessing the industry 4.0 readiness of entrepreneurs to determine at what level your establishment is, in order that such assessment certificate can be used to support the submission of an application for the investment privileges from the BOI, as well.
Respective to the SMC’s other work role, it has placed the emphasis on the matter of Electric Vehicles (EVs), i. e. the EV Conversion industry, in particular, which is to take old cars using oil for conversion to a new drive system, i. e. from refueling to a full 100% electric system. In this respect, SMC will have personnel specialized in electric motor design, a team of specialists in Electronics Control Unit (ECU) including a working team on electric charger design and installation, etc., to carry out the operations. Therefore, if it should be an EV Conversion work, the SMC would have personnel readily available to give advices to you who are in need of such information.
“Many establishments have begun to pay attention in converting old cars to EVs because they don’t want to invest in new cars, but, prefer to use old cars for conversion to new ones. The SMC has a design and consulting service to serve the purpose as well as having partners to supply new technology to use in the vehicle modifications. There is also a linking matter to perfectly fit the Industry 4.0 being the EVs which may be the matter of the data server that the factory or EVs data, etc., is required to be stored. Lastly, the SMC’s service work includes electric motor testing room. VCU test room and other test room for equipments used in EVs.”
Modified Vehicles with Higher Technology Transitions:
Dr. Kirachaiwanich, gave additional information that, in the past, Thailand was considered the top car production base of Asia and exported cars to countries all over the world, but, with the global trend of EVs which is tremendously growing, the total volume of exports have constantly dropped. So, there arises a question as to why the total exports have been declined. This is because the Thai production bases are unable to produce EVs due to the reason that we have focused too much on producing hybrid cars and when the global trend has shifted to EVs, it has resulted in Thailand to lack cutting-edge technology and partners specialized in EVs. So, if we don’t do anything…what will happen is that Thailand will no longer be a leading production base, but, will just merely be a consumer country. This is a significant point to think about. For this reason, the government has figured out on how things should be done in order to be able to produce anything in connection with EVs’ components. The EV Conversion is henceforth a Sandbox for Thai entrepreneurs or manufacturers in developing the production of automobiles to EVs, because EV Conversions are seen to be easy for manufacturing and in technology transfer without any entangled complexity. The significant advantage is that, we can get rid of old cars or convert them to become EVs for reuse or if we should have a good development, we would probably be able to sell solutions to developing countries or countries wanting to convert a large quantity of old cars to EVs.
EV Conversions requires equipments which are unnecessary to be very advanced because most of them are electronic devices that Thailand can self-produce: such as; motors or inverters, etc. Therefore, when the existing car production lines are probably 2.0 or 3.0, the factories can bring automation equipments to undergo adaptations in the production lines to be 4.0, thus, making it easy for EV Conversions because the Industry 4.0 platform doesn’t specify what needs to be produced. So, we can produce what we need to, in accordance with our requirements.
“It is expected that the market for EV Conversions will grow at 400,000 units per year in converting old cars to EVs which is somewhat very interesting market for entrepreneurs who are turning to EVs business, especially, OEM operators in Tier 2 who are automotive parts manufacturers and begin to pay interest in converting their own production lines to EVs. Another group is a new group of people with keen interest to turn to EVs productions,” said Dr. Kirachaiwanich.
Therefore, if there should be no adaptations of the entrepreneurs to catch up with the global trend in a timely manner, major car manufacturers or investors may relocate their production bases to countries with more readily available resources. Therefore, if any country has the resources that are ready in every aspect, such country will have an advantage in the EVs markets.
However, the conversions of cars to EVs is yet another market apart from EVs markets because EV Conversion is a group of people who are interested in converting old cars into EVs without leaving alone the old cars previously in large quantities unattended, but, to help reuse them once again.
