Global Times: Iconic 'lighthouse factories' shed lights on digital transformation of China's manufacturing industry

BEIJING, July 31, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- As China has been accelerating a nationwide industrial upgrade and cultivating new quality productive forces to support economic recovery, the country is prioritizing smart manufacturing and technology transformation to drive the automation and digitalization of traditional industries.

In recent visits to the "lighthouse factories" in East China's Zhejiang Province and Jiangsu Province, Global Times reporters spoke to several business leaders and industry insiders who explained why digitalization is crucial to improve the resilience and security of China's industrial and supply chains to ensure its position as the world's intelligent factory.

As two iconic production workshops selected as "lighthouse factories" announced by the World Economic Forum (WEF), Chinese manufacturers Hengtong Alpha and LONGi are at the forefront of digital, intelligent and green transformation, promoting the country to gradually move from a major manufacturing country in the world to a manufacturing powerhouse. Their innovation drive is focused on smart manufacturing with improved production efficiency and product quality.

Smart manufacturing

In 2023, the Suzhou-based factory of Hengtong Fiber Optic Technology Co, was selected as one of the 12 new lighthouse factories in China, and it is an optical fiber and electricity fiber manufacturer which is home to a complete value chain in optical communication, encompassing light rods, optical fibers, optical cables, and optical networks.

Arriving at Hengtong's intelligent manufacturing factory in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, one feels like stepping into a high-tech sci-fi movie setting. Futuristic and cutting-edge, the silent workshop is filled with towering cylindrical tanks, with gantry robots carrying 6-meter-length glass rods, and engineers in white dust-proof suits focusing on debugging equipment.

According to Liu Zhenhua, the company's general manager, these cylindrical "white tanks" are deposition equipment, while seemingly ordinary glass rods are preformed rods used for drawing optical fibers, known as "light rods," which are the core products of the factory and determine the key performance of optical fibers. In the deposition equipment, after meticulous crafting through hundreds of processes such as silica deposition, high-temperature sintering, and core rod stretching, a transparent light rod weighing hundreds of pounds can be drawn into a high-performance optical fiber with a diameter of only 125 microns, as thin as a strand of hair.

Evolving optical fiber technology and its lower cost has created revolutionary changes to the lives of our generation, making the internet more accessible to the public, Liu told the Global Times. Optical fiber is a crucial component in modern telecommunications infrastructure. It is like an ultra-thin "information super highway," making communication limitless.

Recalling his experience of the internet back in his childhood in the 1980s, Liu said that due to the poor broadband service and relatively high fees for the lack of advanced fiber-optic technology, high-speed internet service was considered a luxury for most people.

Prior to 2010, the US and Japan were the two dominant players in optical fiber technology, monopolizing the whole optical fiber industry. Faced with challenges, the company has invested heavily in research and development to improve the quality and performance of optical fiber and it has actively engaged in digital transformation and intelligent manufacturing so that it can adapt to evolving production trends.

"Overcoming technological barriers set by the West, we have successfully developed technologies for producing fiber preform with independent intellectual property rights. By adopting digital technologies and intelligent manufacturing, our production efficiency and product quality have been improved while costs have been lowered significantly," Liu said.

Empowered by a number of intelligent technologies, the plant, which produces independently developed high-performance light rods, has increased its labor productivity by 66 percent. At the same plant, it only takes one minute to produce a 3,000-meter length of fiber optic cable, the efficacy can be understood as "racing" at a speed of 180 kilometers per hour, Liu explained.

The plant has established an intelligent manufacturing system through the applications of advanced technologies such as automation, big data, 5G and AI. Many of our digital technologies, equipment, as well as the software and information platforms are independently patented, helping reduce unit manufacturing costs by 21 percent. Besides, the unit energy consumption is reduced to 33 percent and the defect rate is decreased by 52 percent, Liu explained proudly.

At the distance of approximately 60 kilometers, in Jiaxing city located in the neighboring Zhejiang Province, where the world's first and only solar module manufacturing base being recognized as a global lighthouse factory is located, same intelligent scene is also unfolding.

Led by China's solar energy giant LONGi Green Energy Technology Co, the manufacturing base has mastered the production and sale of solar wafers and modules.

Inside the manufacturing base, Global Times reporters saw several automated assembly lines operating in an efficient and streamlined manner. Here, a module comes off the production line every 16 seconds, Shui Mingmin, who is in charge of the Jiaxing production base, explained.

Each assembly line is equipped with robotic arms and conveyor belts, which work with a high degree of accuracy and speed completing each production process. Several digital screens acting as the factory's eyes, display real-time production data and monitoring screens, with all information available at a glance.

According to Shui, the base has leveraged digital technologies such as industrial Internet, big data, AI and digital twins, in a bid to promote intelligent manufacturing process. Meanwhile, the introduction of domestically-developed diamond-tipped wire saw cutting technology has boosted the advance of global photovoltaic (PV) industry and cost reduction, he said.

"Innovation is the core competitiveness of enterprises and the inexhaustible driving force for their sustainable development. In the photovoltaic industry, technological innovation ability is particularly important," according to Zhong Baoshen, chairman of LONGi. "It is necessary to speed up the digitization of the company, which are important for the transformation and upgrading of the photovoltaic manufacturing industry in general," Zhong said, as quoted by a company's statement released last December.

'Lighthouse factory' powerhouse

China has the most "lighthouse factories" in the world. As of December, 2023, 11 Chinese companies had been included in the 11th group of "lighthouse factories" list released by the WEF. Currently, China is home to 62 "lighthouse factories," accounting for 40 percent of the global numbers, ranking first in the world.

Industry analysts said the addition of more Chinese manufacturing sites to the Global Lighthouse Network underscores the steady progress of the Chinese intelligent manufacturing sector.

According to the WEF's standard, a lighthouse factory must excel in five operating indicators including operating costs, production efficiency, maintenance costs, overall costs, and total output. That means factories and value chains joining the network should outperform average industry indicators.

In Shui's view, being recognized as the world's first "lighthouse factory" in the photovoltaic industry is not easy. The stability and the digitization of China's industrial chains have laid a solid foundation for the emergence of China's lighthouse factories. Taking the Jiaxing base as an example, all the raw materials for light sticks, optical fibers, and optical cables are sourced from nearby suppliers, Shui noted.

"The expanding applications of smart manufacturing in the real economy offers ample development opportunities for enterprises, which enables companies to quickly learn from the successful experiences of our intelligent factories, facilitating the widespread adoption of intelligent techniques across the industry," Shui said.

Meanwhile, the Chinese government has emphasized the importance of the digitalization of the manufacturing sector as an important path for the development of new quality productive forces.

On May 12, a top-level meeting was held which adopted an action plan on the digital transformation of the manufacturing sector. Policymakers highlighted the need to advance the deep integration of digital technology and the manufacturing sector to strengthen the standing and international competitiveness of China's manufacturing sector and transform the country into a manufacturing power.

The digital transformation of the manufacturing sector is key to advancing new industrialization and the building of a modernized industrial system, the meeting pointed out, calling for effort to accelerate breakthroughs in core technologies and boost the application of technological achievements.

While Liu said thanks to the policy supports, many Chinese enterprises benefit from continuous sci-tech breakthroughs and innovation that drive industrial upgrading, aiming to improve production efficiency and achieve high-quality development.

Lighthouse factories represent the pinnacle of global excellence in smart manufacturing and digitization, Cong Yi, a professor at the Tianjin University of Finance and Economics, told the Global Times. To some extent, they also showcase advanced level of China's manufacturing industry and provide new ideas for the innovative development of the global manufacturing industry.

China's manufacturing sector continues to display great strength and resilience in accommodating to changes, resisting risks and adjusting production capacity, experts said.

In recent years, China has maintained sustainable growth in its manufacturing sector. In 2023, China's total value-added industrial production approached 40 trillion yuan ($5.57 trillion), accounting for 31.7 percent of its GDP. The scale of its manufacturing industry has ranked first globally for 14 consecutive years, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

The success of the 'lighthouse factory' proves that China's manufacturing industry has the ability to dominate the global market built on high quality production, efficiency, and sustainability, rather than relying on dumping practices, experts said.

Meanwhile, the rapid growth of China's new-energy products exports has made many countries take notice. Taking the PV industry as an example, in early April, the EU launched two probes into Chinese solar panel makers suspected of using government subsidies, according to media reports.

China's new-energy industry has gained advantages through innovation and robust market competition, rather than by relying on government subsidies, Cong said, noting that the high-quality production capacity that China's new-energy industry continues to provide will make important contributions to global green development.

"Looking ahead, it is a crucial moment for digital transformation of China's manufacturing industry," Cong noted, adding that amid a new wave of technological revolution and industrial transformation, China's manufacturing industry must keep up with the global trend of industrial transformation, accelerate its transformation and upgrading.

SOURCE Global Times