China's manufacturing goes intelligent with modern factories

Departing from downtown Shanghai and driving over the magnificent Donghai Bridge, people can witness the busy Yangshan Port. Evolving from a barren island to a wharf with automated operation, the port illustrates China's intelligent industrialization progress.

As a smart container terminal, Yangshan Port covers a total automated storage area of 945,000 square meters, with automated cargoes shuttling back and forth. The 5G network realizes the transmission of HD video and the precise delivery of control commands.

Facilitated by 5G communication technology, the port currently has six bridge cranes that can achieve remote control and carry out the remote pick-up from 100 km away, according to Jin Jian, an official with Shanghai International Port (Group) Co., Ltd.

High operational efficiency cuts the number of personnel at the fourth phase of the port by 70 percent compared with traditional terminals of the same scale.

In recent years, Shanghai has witnessed a rapid development in intelligent manufacturing. The industry scale of intelligent manufacturing equipment exceeded 100 billion yuan (about $13.98 billion).

In the city's smart factories, production efficiency increased by 50 percent and operating costs went down by 30 percent on average. Shanghai plans to build another 70 city-level smart factories within 2024.

Intelligent transformation of manufacturing

The new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation is driving the development of 5G, cloud computing, digital twin and artificial intelligence (AI) and reshaping the way of production and manufacturing.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has supported the selection of 421 national demonstration factories and promoted the construction of over 10,000 local digital workshops and smart factories.

"China has been the world's largest intelligent manufacturing application market," said Xin Guobin, vice minister of industry and information technology.

In 2022 alone, the total value of supporting industries such as intelligent manufacturing equipment, industrial software and system solutions in China exceeded 4 trillion yuan, Xin noted.

Intelligent manufacturing is the deep integration of a new generation of information technology, digital technology and manufacturing, said Shan Zhongde, an academician with the Chinese Academy of Engineering, adding that it leads the general direction of the high-quality development of manufacturing.

Sci-tech innovation is acting as a propeller to promote the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries.

Inside the intelligent factories of Zhejiang Feijian Industry and Trade Company in east China, robotic arms are running in automatic operation to produce, polish and color titanium cups. A screen of the data control center shows the information for both production and orders.

For the company specializing in making cups, digitalization means higher efficiency, stable quality control and flexible order processing, as well as making innovation easier.

The deep integration of the digital and real economies and the extension of the modern industrial chain boosted the competitiveness of innovation. In 2023, the company introduced more than 60 types of new products, said Xu Liang, assistant chairman of the company.

Zhejiang Province seized the opportunities brought by the new round of sci-tech revolution and industrial change, promoted the construction of digital infrastructure, and coordinated the development of digitalization and industrialization.

Future factories cultivating modern manufacturing

"Future factory" refers to the modern ones that extensively apply technologies such as digital twin, Internet of Things, big data, AI and industrial internet to achieve digital design, intelligent production and management, green manufacturing, security control, and social and economic benefits.

Xio Lift in Zhejiang Province has applied digital twin technology to its manufacturing. More than 50 digital production lines are switched with remote control, which can monitor the manufacturing equipment operation in real time and realize the quality traceability of the whole process.

The "digital twin factory" realizes the improvement of both manufacturing efficiency and product quality, said Feng Tieying, vice president of operations of Xio Lift, which received more than 100,000 sets of annual order volume.

In 2021, the company was selected for the list of "future factories" in Zhejiang Province.

The province has authorized 52 "future factories" at the provincial level by the end of 2022 and expects to construct 120 more by 2027.

Data shows that China has built nearly 10,000 digital workshops and intelligent factories, with the number of cross-industry and cross-field industrial internet platforms reaching 50.

Up until now, China has established 45 national advanced manufacturing clusters in the fields of next-generation information technology, high-end equipment, and new materials and energy.