What will happen with the new problems caused by modern equipment?

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The advent of modern equipment has brought many benefits to enterprises and society; it improves product quality, increases production volume and variety, reduces raw material consumption, makes full use of production resources, and lessens the workload on workers. As a result, it generates substantial wealth and yields good economic and social benefits. On the other hand, it also brings a series of new problems to businesses and society, such as: 1. Significant investment is required for purchasing equipment. Due to the advanced technology, high performance, complex structure, and high design and manufacturing costs of modern equipment, the amount invested in equipment is enormous. Today, the price of large, sophisticated equipment is usually in the hundreds of thousands of yuan; imported advanced and high-end equipment is even more expensive, with some costing millions of dollars. Therefore, the investment required to build a modern factory is quite substantial. For example, the first phase of construction at the Baoshan Iron and Steel Plant in Shanghai aims to produce 3 million tons of iron and 3.2 million tons of steel per year, requiring an investment of 16 billion yuan. In modern enterprises, equipment investment typically accounts for 60% to 70% of the total fixed assets, making it the main item of expenditure in corporate capital investment. 2. Maintaining the proper operation of equipment also requires significant investment. After purchasing the equipment, continuous financial investment is needed over its long-term use in order to ensure it operates properly and delivers optimal performance. Firstly, modern equipment consumes a large amount of energy and resources, resulting in high energy costs. Secondly, carrying out necessary equipment maintenance, inspection, and repairs also requires a considerable amount of expense. According to statistics, the total cost of maintenance in the British manufacturing sector for the entire year of 1968 was 1.1 billion pounds, while the figure for the whole of Britain was 11 billion pounds, accounting for about 8% of the UK’s gross national product. It is more than twice the total amount of new investment in British manufacturing during the same year. The maintenance costs for Japanese steel companies account for about 12% of their production costs, while those for German steel companies account for around 10% of their production costs ； In China, maintenance costs for metallurgical enterprises generally account for 8% to 10% of production costs, with the total annual maintenance expenses for large and medium-sized metallurgical enterprises across the country amounting to several billion yuan. Many large enterprises in our country (such as Second Automobile Works and Lanzhou Refinery, etc.) spend over tens of millions of yuan each year on equipment maintenance. 3. Downtime due to failures results in huge economic losses. Given that modern equipment has a high capacity, high production efficiency, and continuous operation, any downtime caused by failures that leads to interruptions in production results in substantial economic losses. For example, Ansteel’s semi-continuous hot-rolling mill loses 1 million yuan in profits per day of shutdown ； At Wuhan Iron and Steel Corporation’s hot continuous rolling plant, a one-day shutdown results in a loss of 10,000 tons of sheet metal in production, amounting to a loss in output value of 20 million yuan ； The tetraene equipment at Beijing Yanshan Petrochemical Company was shut down for a day, resulting in losses of over 4 million yuan. 4. In the event of an accident, serious consequences will arise. Modern equipment often operates at high speeds, under high loads, as well as in conditions of high temperature and pressure; this results in significant stress on the equipment, thereby increasing its wear and corrosion. In the event of an accident, it can easily lead to equipment damage, casualties, and environmental pollution, resulting in catastrophic consequences. For example, in 1984 at Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh in India, the Union Carbide India company experienced a leak of the highly toxic chemical methyl isocyanate due to a faulty valve; this incident resulted in 3,000 deaths, 50,000 people losing their eyesight, and 200,000 people suffering health problems. A serious malfunction occurred in Reactor No. 2 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the Soviet Union in 1986, resulting in significant economic losses of 8 billion rubles, severe environmental pollution, and a social disaster. 5. The degree of socialization of equipment is increasing. As modern equipment incorporates more and more scientific and technological achievements and involves a wider range of scientific knowledge, the knowledge from a single discipline alone is insufficient to address the major technical challenges associated with such equipment. Furthermore, due to the advanced technology and complex structure of such equipment, as well as the large variety and quantity of components involved, every stage of the equipment’s life cycle – from research and design, manufacturing and installation and commissioning, to use, maintenance, modification, and disposal – often involves many organizations and enterprises from different industries. In other words, modern equipment is becoming increasingly socialized. Improving equipment performance, enhancing quality, optimizing equipment efficiency, and realizing the benefits of equipment investment require not only the joint efforts of relevant departments within the enterprise but also the cooperation of related industries and enterprises in society. Equipment engineering has become a social systems engineering. Do people think it’s a good thing that this phenomenon has emerged? Is it still not good? Only for the chemical industry! ! ! ! ! ! !