Manufacturing companies use IT technology to build digital factories

Under the banner of “Industry 4.0”, manufacturing companies integrate products and Internet technologies, use information and communication technologies to digitize production processes, improve quality and efficiency, and save costs. However, this seemingly wide road is not smooth. The current IT infrastructure and production systems are very closely coupled. It is imperative for companies' IT operational management capabilities to keep up with the times.

As the birthplace of China's first car, the informationized blade of FAW Jiefang Automobile Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “FAW Liberation”) has been devastated by prickly horns. Then, the IT management department that came all the way has become a miracle in this digitalization. Can the time withstand it?

"Storage failure" caused by operational changes

FAW Jiefang was established in 2003. It is a medium and heavy truck manufacturer based on the main professional factory of the former First Automobile Manufacturing Plant and rebuilt by the technology center of China FAW Group Corporation. It is China FAW Group Corporation. A wholly-owned subsidiary.

At the beginning of the establishment of the company in 2003, the informationization of the company was basically in a blank state. After that, it experienced the construction of a management system, the construction of a digital plant at the factory level, and now has a number of automobiles such as OA, PDM, ERP, TDS, MES, SCM, and EOL. The core manufacturing business system has led the company's information system management to the forefront of the domestic commercial vehicle industry.

"After more than ten years of informatization construction, the IT infrastructure supporting platform of FAW Liberation has been relatively complete, and various complex business systems support the high-speed operation of the enterprise. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure that various business systems can achieve efficient and continuous operation, otherwise they will The core business has caused a great impact, and even brought about huge economic losses.Therefore, we have never relaxed and the IT operation and maintenance management system has also undergone several upgrades. The reason for the upgrading of the operation and maintenance platform seems very simple this time. Because the failure of the storage system can not be monitored, but its significance is far more than this.” Liu Gong of the IT department introduced the operation management of FAW Jiefang Network, and focused on the experience of upgrading the IT operation and maintenance platform.

So, after the failure of the storage system, why can it cause such a big wave?

Enthusiasts, with the "encounter" of Beita Software

“Traditional storage management is more about vendor setup management. It often requires the management of multiple vendors in a storage network. There is no contact between them, resulting in inefficient operation and maintenance, and even a black box for storage. 'Management model. In addition, IT operation and maintenance is a kind of overall service. If the incidents of the storage system failure are singled out, this will lose the meaning of the operation and maintenance itself." Liu Gong thought that this incident can not only be based on the present, but also show I learned the skills of "training in operation and maintenance".

According to reports, disk hardware failures occurred in the storage system at that time. However, because the third-party network management tools could not monitor the storage system, Liu Gong and colleagues received the role of “firefighters” once they received the repair report from the business department. This is what everyone does not want to see.

A complete business system will involve all aspects, including: hardware resources that can be visualized, such as network communications, power resources, and computer room environments; and servers, storages, network devices, security devices, operating systems, and databases that carry business services. Middleware, application and other soft indicators. Therefore, to ensure that the overall operation and maintenance of the service level has been maintained at a "high position," we must cover all monitoring objects in the business system as comprehensively as possible, leaving no "dead ends". At the time, there were few IT operation and maintenance systems that could implement global monitoring, and less monitoring of the storage system. From this perspective, the upgrading of the complex IT operation and maintenance platform has actually been simplified, and the answer is “can the people who live there”.

Through the screening of mainstream IT operation and maintenance management products, the storage management features of the BTI IT integrated management software of Beita Tower let the IT operation and maintenance department of FAW Liberation unveiled and eventually become a “focus point”. As one of the North Tower BTIM core components, storage management can expand the basic IT management, can be integrated with the North Tower BTIM system, and cover the advanced management methods of IP layer network management to virtualization and storage management.

It is understood that the North Tower BTIM can monitor different manufacturers of storage devices to achieve centralized, visual management, effectively improve the efficiency of storage management and maintenance, ensure the safe storage of business data. At the same time, storage monitoring can fully cover different device types in FC-SAN networks. The management objects include disk arrays, FC-switches, HBAs, and lines. This completely satisfies FAW's liberation needs for monitoring heterogeneous storage systems.

If the cooperation between FAW Jiefang and Beita Software is an “opportunity,” then after the test was launched, did the North Tower BTIM escort the storage system?

After the settlement, what did the North Tower BTIM do?

The complexity of the IT system does exist, which also determines the reality of "a system without any errors has not yet come out". Therefore, another system failure occurred, but the outcome was not the same as the last time.

“At that time, the EOL car assembly system of FAW Jiefang was just on the line, and the network equipment came to 'seek trouble'. However, this time we used the alarm function of the Beiti BTIM system to deal with the hidden troubles in the first time. Now may not know that failure.” Liu Gong recalled the EOL experience on the line, although still have some regret, but also slightly proud.

Although there is only one word difference between "active" and "passive", the management wisdom and service capability contained in it are thousands of miles away. Today, BTI North Tower is responsible for the four major tasks of FAW's liberation of the IT operation and maintenance department. This includes “monitoring, watching, analyzing, and checking”. The system can monitor key indicators 7×24 hours, and ensure that the IT staff can notify the attendant at the first time after a breakdown in the IT infrastructure. At the same time, the attendant can quickly see the real-time health status of the facility concerned. In order to avoid false positives of IT failures, Beita BTIM provided an intelligent inspection system to provide additional insurance for IT management and truly achieved accurate early warning and global control.