-Interview with Dr. Gu Chunguang, Chairman of Galaxis Technology Group 

Today's, logistics automation is undergoing rapid and quality development, which is unstoppable. For Galaxis, the vision of building itself into a world-class company has never been clearer than it is today.

“30 times!” As a technology company, our performance has increased 30 times in the past seven years, and half of the orders come from smart manufacturing,” said Gu Chunguang, Chairman of Galaxis Technology Group, proudly. Among them included a manufacturing project of one of the largest communication companies in China, which covers an area of 300 acres and has more than 100,000 compartments with 12 production lines.” According to Gu Chunguang, logistics and smart manufacturing are entering a phase of in-depth integration, and the upgrade of logistics technology is of crucial importance to the development of smart manufacturing in China.

 Size up the current situation and keep pace with the times

Today, smart manufacturing continues to expand new boundaries, and logistics technology is being fully integrated into all areas of industrial construction with new concepts and models, bringing a wide and profound impact to both production and people’s life. Especially during the epidemic, digitalization flourished and " labor replaced with robots" was more active than ever. Logistics and smart manufacturing have never been more closely linked than they are today.

“Science and technology are at the core of logistics development, and the ability to innovation brought by technology can help companies spot new areas, including smart manufacturing,” Gu Chunguang said. He used an example to vividly express the inseparable relationship between logistics and manufacturing, that is, modern logistics can also be described as "material flow” in English, while the process of manufacturing a commodity is the process of “material flow”. In this process, what changes its physical properties is manufacturing, and what changes its spatial properties is access, handling and sorting that are achieved by logistics. This means that manufacturing and logistics are, to some extent, both unified and independent of each other. Smart logistics never changes the physical properties of matter, but its upgrade can promote the development of smart manufacturing. From the pharmaceutical and automotive industries to the semiconductor and new energy industries, logistics has become a new focus of industry development, and such trend will be more evident in the future.

China is the biggest economy in terms of global supply chain and manufacturing. Chinese enterprises are developing rapidly, accelerating the continuous innovation of logistics applications and forming a unique “China model”, showing a pattern where “flowers of every kind are in bloom”.

Scenarios orientated and technology-based, which are new highlights to achieve win-win

One thing that is also worth thinking in the field of smart robots and logistics equipment is: what kind of companies will be able to lead the market in the future? Gu Chunguang holds the view that the core of competition includes two points, one is the scenario, and the other is technology. "What customers need is a service system where the robot portfolio is directly aligned to the application scenario to solve problems and create value. This means that both robotics products and information software systems should be based on the overall scenario. For Galaxis, focusing on providing a logistics robotics product matrix that offers customers end-to-end solutions with high flexibility, reliability and cost effectiveness is what Galaxis is built on to create customer value.” What the role technology plays to an enterprise is just like the “moat” to a city, among which, software systems, hardware products and technical planning capabilities are indispensable. To this end, he put forward the value concept of “scenario-oriented and technology-based”.

Technology Positioning Market

"Galaxis was one of the first companies in the industry to set up an AI research institute," said Gu Chunguang proudly. "We have made great progress in AI. First, based on Galaxis’s solid software foundation, we use AI to provide algorithmic research on WMS, WCS and RCS robot scheduling systems to enhance efficiency and sensitivity, and we are now able to control mega libraries of up to one million compartments. Second, we use algorithmic instructions and 3D vision technology to dynamically allocate item boxes to improve goods-to-man efficiency. Computer-based digital twin systems makes forward-looking predictions a reality.” Galaxis passed the CMMI5 international authoritative software certification last year, which is uncommon in the industry and fully proves its comprehensive software strength. “Software is the command system in smart manufacturing and logistics, and we will also continue to invest in this area in the future, and increase the R&D staff and R&D strength of Galaxis AI Institute and software systems,” Gu Chunguang continued.

In addition, the ability to continue innovation is more reflected in the deep integration with the scene, and considering around access, handling and sorting in a comprehensive manner is the right path to realize healthy development of an enterprise. “One single flower doesn’t represent the arrival of spring while flowers of every kind in bloom bring true spring scenery on earth.” “The company will grow quickly in the initial stage if it engages in a single product only. However, such a company is like a castle in the air during its development towards a world-class enterprise since it cannot solve the comprehensive and complex problems related with scenario," further explained Gu Chunguang. Currently, Galaxis has its own developed products in links of access, handling and sorting of warehousing. For example, Galaxis released a new AMR product based on SLAM hybrid navigation technology this year, realizing more accuracy and more stability, adaptable to more environmental needs and more cost-effective.

After several years of unwavering investment in technology, Galaxis has the ability to release a new generation of shuttle and stacker products every year. “You can't follow the customer completely, but you have to bring your own advantages into full play and think more than the customer's understanding of the scenario to make a more comprehensive consideration,” Gu Chunguang pointed out. In the field of new energy, in the production process, it is necessary to meet the requirements of fire prevention, fire extinguishing, and dust prevention and introduces processes as eliminate metal friction and dust partition during transportation. In addition, high production stability and flexible maintenance on smart equipment are also required. To this end, Galaxis has done in-depth customization and development of key components of stacker cranes, roller conveyor lines and others. The developed fireproof box stacker is equipped with sensors with battery fireproof function, which improves product quality and reduce manufacturing cost while eliminating the hidden danger of battery production. It also achieves maintenance-free in the whole life cycle, significantly reduce the number of maintenance and realized other flexible improvements, and has been favored by many customers after entering the market.

Architecture determines height

So, how should we build the technical architecture for core product layout? “Establish a comprehensive system of access, handling and sorting.” The main role of a warehouse is to “access” rather than storage, which what most people assume. Laying out the future development of the business according to the three core scenarios of access, handling and sorting can be applied to all industries,” Gu Chunguang concluded, based on years of management experience.

“In the current hot semiconductor industry, the barriers to entry are very high and the technical content is also high,” Gu Chunguang said. For some segments with smaller tasks that do not require investment in fixed conveying lines, we have developed an overhead trolley that uses penetration technology to solve the problem of tote bin accessing and then realizes discrete handling and sorting by docking our AMR robots on the ground. Through the overhead trolley, tote-type vertical storage using four-way shuttle technology and AMR robots to achieve smart manufacturing in access, handling, and sorting of the entire scene application in the semiconductor industry. “

Being determined to realize their dreams, Gu Chunguang is leading Galaxis’ employees to navigate between different industries, including semiconductor, new energy, pharmaceutical, manufacturing, and book industries. When talking about the book industry, Gu Chunguang elaborates: “Book sector is an application scenario that is both fragmented and complex.” In most places, the amount of book borrowing is not large, but it requires intensive access. It involves a number of situations here. First, the case of packing books is within 50 kg, and the shuttle technology can be used to directly for accessing; second, for books that have not been used for a long time, it is necessary to use pallets and stackers for accessing; the third is to make an integrated system for all borrowing scenarios of the library; the fourth is the distribution system from the central library to the community libraries. Gu Chunguang further stated that China's library management system is still weak, with most libraries using foreign management systems. For this purpose, Galaxis has established a professional team responsible for scenarios of books and cultural education. Endorsed by powerful technology, they quickly cuts into this industry to solve customer pain points.

Become a world-class enterprise in pursuit of dreams

The river and the sea are inclusive because it admits hundreds of flows. Once a company's technology and products have developed to a certain level, one of the key challenges is talent management. "How's your strategic vision? How is your overall layout? How about your management plan? They are all important.” Gu Chunguang said frankly that in the process of continuous expansion of enterprises, in addition to seizing opportunities, they also have to deal with various challenges. “people” are the key when it comes to direction of enterprise development. To build a company with powerful technology capability and word of mouth, we need to bring together like-minded talents through a common belief. “Once the value is clear, the construction of the talent team plays a decisive role in the market.” According to Gu Chunguang, the achievement “from 0 to 1” is just the first step for an enterprise, and the true challenges come from the following process of "from 1 to 100 and from 100 to 1,000". Galaxis has been building its entire talent team by adhering to the intrinsic concept of “action and technology going first”, and the number of its team members is growing to reach 1,000. Becoming a global company will not only have an impact on the technology level of the company, but also drive its entire system including talent system, incentive system, supply chain system, R&D system and so on. “Experience is one of the strengths that enables me to lead Galaxis into a world-class company,” Gu Chunguang said confidently.

Set sail and make waves

Currently, in addition to the Wuxi and Shenzhen companies, Galaxis is building a 50,000-square-meter facility in Jiaxing, including R&D buildings and dormitories, scheduled for completion in 2022. In addition, Galaxis R&D centers are gaining momentum in overseas markets, where regions including Korea, Europe, the United States, Southeast Asia will be the key.

Today, Galaxis, already grown into a logistics technology company in China, is marching towards being a world-class logistics technological platform. Gu Chunguang hopes to define Galaxis as an international enterprise "based in china, global best". Through accumulations of technology and application scenarios in China after “hundreds of battles”, it will gain a competitive edge in international market, providing convenience for more domestic and foreign enterprises to leverage smart logistics and share the achievements of smart manufacturing.