The Global Manufacturing and Industrialisation Summit (GMIS) today held a virtual edition of its roadshow programme – GMIS Connect– to highlight best practices from China’s “Lighthouse” factories and showcase the importance of digital transformation for the advancement of sustainable industrial development across the world.

 

The roadshow was held in collaboration with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the China Federation of Industrial Economics (CFIE).

 

China’s Lighthouse facilities account for one-third of the Global Lighthouse Network of advanced manufacturers using Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies to transform factories, value chains, and business models to realise compelling financial and operational benefits. The GMIS Connect China roadshow gathered key experts who have constructed and operated lighthouse factories on a panel titled “Lessons from the Lighthouses: How is China’s digital revolution impacting industrial development? 

 

Some key insights from the discussion with industry leaders from SAIC Maxus, ROOTCLOUD TECHNOLOGY, and Siemens highlighted that a customer-centric and data-driven approach is the inevitable course for the manufacturing industry to enhance competitiveness and sustainability simultaneously. Discussions also formed around how digital transformation must go beyond the factory floor, expanding to the production ecosystem and across the value chain to advance sustainable industrial development. Speakers also touched on how advanced technology and digital platforms enable traditional manufacturers to transform into next-generation technology enterprises to support growth for SMEs’ and the resilience of the value chain. 

 

The roadshow kicked off with keynote speeches delivered by Bernardo Calzadilla-Sarmiento, Director of the Division of Fair Production, Sustainability Standards and Trade at UNIDO, Xiong Meng, Executive Vice President and Secretary General of China Federation of Industrial Economics, and Namir Hourani, Managing Director of the GMIS Organising Committee. 

 

Bernardo Calzadilla-Sarmiento, Director of the Division of Fair Production, Sustainability Standards and Trade at UNIDO, said: “China has immense potential to achieve inclusive and sustainable industrialisation as per goal 9 of the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. The country strongly advocates people-centered and innovation-driven development. UNIDO commits to continue working with the country and with all member states in order to ensure that the digital transformation leads to a sustainable and prosperous future.”

 

Xiong Meng, Executive Vice President and Secretary General of China Federation of Industrial Economics, said: “We are very pleased to co-host a series of China-themed webinars in collaboration with UNIDO under the GMIS framework to bring the practices, innovation as well as experiences and achievements of China's manufacturing sector in digital, green and intelligent transformation to a big global audience. We hope to make our share of contribution on behalf of China to help achieve inclusive and sustainable industrial development on a global scale.” 

 

Namir Hourani, Managing Director of the GMIS Organising Committee, added: “Lighthouses in China are a leading example demonstrating how deploying advanced technologies is impacting the future of manufacturing and environmental sustainability. Today’s insightful discussion highlights the factors that have enabled the accelerated growth of China’s digital economy, the opportunities that China’s digital ecosystem offers the rest of the world, and the impact of the digital ecosystem on China’s manufacturing industry.”

 

Moderator Xiaolei Zhao, Head of UNIDO Investment and Technology Promotion Office in Shanghai, invited panellists to share their perspectives on how Lighthouse factories boost international competitiveness, achieve digitalisation at a low cost and high efficiency, and turn carbon reductions into business growth drivers.  

 

SAIC Maxus’ Nanjing plant is the first Chinese vehicle manufacturer in the global Lighthouse factory network. Dr. Hao Jingxian, General Manager of SAIC Maxus Automobile Co., Ltd and Vice Chief Engineer of SAIC Group, discussed how the Nanjing plant transformed into an end-to-end Lighthouse factory by implementing a Consumer-to-Business (C2B) model and integrating large-scale intelligent customisation across its product range. Dr. Jingxian said: “As customers in different regions have different requirements, we massively benefit from the flexible, digital, and customised production capacity of the Nanjing plant to customise our multi-purpose vehicles (MPVs), pickup trucks, wide-body light passenger vehicles, new energy vehicles, as well as Recreational vehicles (RVs)”; allowing for increased international competitiveness.

 

China’s leading Industrial IoT platform provider, ROOTCLOUD TECHNOLOGY, transformed SANY Group’s drilling machines factory into the world’s first heavy industries Lighthouse facility. Huang Luchuan, Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of ROOTCLOUD TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD, stressed that a step-by-step implementation approach that first digitalises high ROI processes is vital to advancing digital transformation at a low cost and high efficiency. Furthermore, introducing AI technologies to analyse large amounts of data generated through digitalisation is also necessary. He said: “The per capita output value of SANY’s drilling machinery factory is now over 10 million RMB. And the per capita output value of the entire SANY Group also increased by nearly 10 times with an increase of almost 6 million RMB over the past decade.” 

 

Siemens is a pioneer of Lighthouse Factories, operating its Chengdu-based Lighthouse facility and constructing a new digital factory in Nanjing using a digital twin design method with significant improvements in production capacity. Dr. Zhu Xiaoxun, Executive Vice President of Siemens Ltd., China and General Manager of Siemens Advanta China, noted that industry leaders are increasingly building their industrial internet platforms to serve the needs of peripheral small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by incorporating SMEs’ production capacity into their own production systems. 

 

Touching on the “Smiling Curve” concept, Dr. Xiaoxun stressed the importance of taking a holistic approach when advancing digitalisation or low-carbon sustainable development, focusing on the whole value chain beyond the factory floor. For example, when looking at an enterprise’s carbon reduction goals, he said: “The real problem arises from the industrial chain where 80% of the emissions aren’t created by your own factory, but by your upstream and downstream”. Furthermore, he highlighted that the carbon footprint generated during the production of a product only accounts for around 20% of the total product life emissions, while the 80% is caused by indirect emissions from the purchase of raw materials, the transportation costs in product delivery, the final usage and the recycling of the product. 

 

The virtual panel discussion was the first of a three-part series of the GMIS Connect China Roadshow held by the Global Manufacturing and Industrialisation Summit in collaboration with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the China Federation of Industrial Economics (CFIE). 

 

Previous international editions of the Global Manufacturing and Industrialisation Summit were held in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, in March 2017, Yekaterinburg, Russia, in July 2019, Hannover, Germany (Virtual), in 2020, and Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in November 2021, with each edition welcoming over 3,000 high-level delegates from over 40 countries.--TradeArabia News Service