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The smart factory is the core engine driving the manufacturing industry towards digitalization, networking and intelligence. In recent years, Nanjing has taken the lead in Jiangsu Province in introducing a three-year action plan for the “intelligent transformation, digital transition and networking” of the manufacturing industry, focusing on promoting the deep integration of digital technology and manufacturing, and has cultivated a number of typical benchmark enterprises of intelligent manufacturing with local characteristics and well-known in the industry.
The 2025 World Intelligent Manufacturing Conference is now in the countdown stage. Recently, reporters visited top students in intelligent manufacturing such as Jinling Petrochemical, Tianjia Environment, Nanjing Iron and Steel Group, and Siemens Numerical Control (Nanjing) Co., Ltd. to explore how they are transforming production processes and reshaping industrial forms with the core technologies of intelligent manufacturing, and helping the overall level of the manufacturing industry achieve a greater leap.
The inspection robot equipped with high-definition cameras and multiple types of sensors is moving autonomously along the pipeline to accurately capture equipment leakage and abnormal temperatures, building an industrial data “highway” for precise daily benefit prediction. On the giant screen in the control center, the intelligent manufacturing system based on industrial large models analyzes the data of the entire process in real time. It not only dynamically optimizes production parameters but also accurately predicts the enterprise’s daily benefits…
As the only enterprise in Nanjing with an annual industrial output value exceeding 100 billion yuan, Jinling Petrochemical has achieved remarkable results in meticulous management, production optimization, and green and low-carbon development by building a smart refinery system. It has been successfully awarded the title of “National Outstanding Intelligent Factory”, setting a benchmark for the intelligent manufacturing transformation and upgrading of traditional manufacturing enterprises.
We have built a 5G customized private network covering the entire factory, connecting over 8,000 intelligent terminals, and constructed a highly reliable and low-latency industrial data “highway”, which has greatly enhanced the enterprise’s overall digital perception capabilities. Xu Hong, the Party Secretary and Executive Director of Jinling Petrochemical Company, introduced.
Meanwhile, the company has deployed intelligent robots with functions such as leakage monitoring and equipment inspection, effectively reducing the intensity of frontline operations and safety risks. At present, customized robot research and development are being carried out in response to the special scenario demands of the refining and chemical industry, continuously enhancing the level of production automation.
Artificial intelligence has been deeply integrated into all aspects of enterprise production and operation. Based on Sinopec’s “Great Wall Large Model” platform, Jinling Petrochemical has built over 200 professional knowledge bases covering areas such as processes, equipment, and safety, and developed more than 40 intelligent agent applications. “Our intelligent vision system, combined with predictive maintenance technology, can identify on-site safety hazards in real time, truly achieving the transformation from ‘human defense’ to ‘technological defense’, and effectively ensuring safe production.” ” Xu Hong said.
At present, Jinling Petrochemical has completed the collection and governance of important data throughout the entire production process. The intelligent manufacturing system driven by industrial large models, through real-time analysis of data, can accurately predict the daily benefits of the enterprise and achieve dynamic optimization of the production process.
In the operation of the device, deep reinforcement learning algorithms for optimizing process parameters can increase production capacity by more than 5%. Xu Hong introduced that since the “14th Five-Year Plan”, the company has processed a total of 84.7 million tons of crude oil and achieved a revenue of 511.2 billion yuan. The quality improvement and efficiency enhancement brought about by intelligent transformation are continuously empowering.
The “Steel Brain” drives the amplification of the digital radiation demonstration effect. On the 42-meter-long and 6-meter-high giant screen, data flows continuously, and the entire process from blast furnace molten iron to steel rolling and finished products is clearly visible. The smart operation center built by Nanjing Iron & Steel Co., Ltd. has transformed into a “steel brain”, with over a million data collection points gathering in real time to form a “data river”. Digital twin technology has condensed the ten-thousand-ton steel production line into an interactive three-dimensional model.
As a leading enterprise in the steel industry of Nanjing City, Nanjing Iron and Steel has implemented a three-year plan of “Artificial Intelligence 100 Scenes and 1,000 Models”, accelerating the in-depth integration of AI technology and steel production processes. Based on a unified AI development platform, we have developed intelligent algorithms covering scenarios such as visual inspection, process optimization, quality prediction, and equipment operation and maintenance, and created a series of industry-leading applications including quality and performance prediction, intelligent scrap steel grading, and intelligent metallographic inspection, significantly enhancing the level of production intelligence. Xu Xiaochun, executive vice president of Nanjing Iron and Steel Corporation, introduced. In June this year, Nanjing Iron and Steel Corporation released the “Yuan Ye · Steel Large Model”, innovatively constructing a cluster of dual-brain-driven swarm intelligence models with probability calculation as the “right brain” and precise solution as the “left brain”, breaking through the limitations of traditional single models.
Intelligent manufacturing is no longer an “optional question”, but a “compulsory course” concerning future survival. In recent years, Nanjing Iron and Steel has carried out innovative practices of “all business digitalization and all digital business transformation”, and has built a technical architecture driven by three engines: “industrial Internet + data governance + artificial intelligence”. From customer orders to production planning and scheduling, and then to ironmaking, steelmaking, continuous casting, steel rolling, inspection, warehousing and delivery, the entire process has been integrated and digitalized.
By promoting intelligent manufacturing, Nanjing Iron and Steel has significantly enhanced its production efficiency, cost control and customer satisfaction, laying a solid foundation for its comprehensive intelligent transformation in the future. Xu Xiaochun said.
While continuously promoting the implementation of internal scenarios, Nangang actively promotes the socialized services of smart industries. Relying on a number of industrial Internet technology enterprises with unicorn potential such as Jinheng Technology, Xinzhilian, and Jinyu Intelligent, it systematically outputs digital capabilities and has formed a strategic emerging industry cluster covering new materials, intelligent manufacturing, energy and environmental protection, industrial Internet and other directions. Xu Xiaochun introduced.
At present, Nangang has accumulated over 200 products and solutions, serving more than 100 enterprises, and its demonstration effect and driving role have been continuously enhanced.
The three major bases have been renovated and upgraded to connect the entire “intelligent manufacturing” chain from end to end
7,000 second-class and third-class hospitals, 5,000 pharmaceutical factories that meet the Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) standards, 3,000 microelectronics enterprises and over 1,000 new energy enterprises have chosen…
The core product of Tianjia, the air handling unit, has ranked first in the national market share for 15 consecutive years. Wang Dongdong, senior director of manufacturing at Nanjing Tianjia Environmental Technology Co., LTD., said that the achievements could not have been made without the empowerment of intelligent manufacturing.
In the production and manufacturing process of air handling units, the degree of non-standard customization exceeds 80%, and the manufacturing difficulty lies in the high reliance on manual labor. Therefore, when the company was building the factory, it carried out an automation upgrade for the processing of core components such as foaming, sheet metal, and hot glue, as well as the logistics links. Wang Dongdong told the reporter.
Entering the Tianjia Clean Base that started production in May this year, one can see the highly automated production lines where mechanical arms are tirelessly “dancing”, carefully completing their tasks. The high-speed operation of machinery and equipment is replacing manual labor for efficient production processes.
At present, the clean base has five assembly lines, producing core components such as foam board machines and heat exchangers. Through a digital management system, it integrates the entire chain from front-end market demand, internal capacity investigation, capacity matching to final delivery, covering the entire life cycle of product use, operation and maintenance, and problem repair. Wang Dongdong introduced.
It is reported that Tianjia has established an “end-to-end” full-process digital operation system from customer demand to final delivery, integrating 9 systems and eliminating 25 redundant links, which has improved the overall efficiency of the “intelligent manufacturing” system. The operational efficiency has increased by more than 30%, and the delivery cycle has been shortened from the original 25 days to 20 days. It has been awarded the title of “National Outstanding Intelligent Factory”.
Renewal doesn’t end here. Since the beginning of this year, Tianjia Environment Base, as the intelligent manufacturing base for smart residential products, and Energy Base, as the demonstration park for the “zero-carbon factory” of hydrogen energy equipment manufacturing, have both achieved brand-new upgrades, demonstrating the company’s dual exploration in green manufacturing and energy conservation and carbon reduction.
Tianjia is full of anticipation for the upcoming World Intelligent Manufacturing Conference. Tianjia has participated in the conference for many consecutive years and shared its achievements and experiences in the field of intelligent manufacturing. We look forward to this conference continuing to play a leading role globally and exchanging and making progress together with more outstanding enterprises. Wang Dongdong said.
Native digital factories lead the continuous improvement of efficiency driven by flexible production lines in intelligent manufacturing
We endow production and manufacturing with digital genes from the very beginning. Here, efficiency, collaboration, safety and greenness run through the entire life cycle. Zhou Yurong, the general manager of Siemens Numerical Control (Nanjing) Co., LTD. (SNC), said that at SNC, a native digital factory built with its own technologies such as digital twins throughout the entire process from design, planning to operation is continuously demonstrating the system capabilities of intelligent manufacturing.
In recent years, SNC has achieved a deep integration of information technology systems (IT) and operation technology systems (OT) by deeply applying a series of technologies such as digital twins, industrial 5G, and intelligent operation and maintenance systems. As a result, its production efficiency has increased by double digits each year, delivery times have been significantly shortened, and operation and maintenance costs have steadily declined. It has become a benchmark enterprise in East China. And it has been awarded titles such as “National Outstanding Intelligent Factory”.
As the largest R&D and production base of Siemens in the field of motion control outside Germany, SNC has deeply integrated digitalization, lean management, flexibility and sustainable development, laying a leading position in the field of “intelligent transformation and digital transition”.
In terms of building flexible production capacity, SNC pioneered the “Lego Automation” production line model, which is also one of the important practices in creating an intelligent manufacturing system. Zhou Yurong introduced: “Through the combination of standardized and modular software and hardware, we enable the production line to be reorganized as quickly as building Lego.” When the market fluctuates, it can be flexibly disassembled and reassembled to quickly respond to changes in customer demands.
Looking to the future, SNC will continue to serve as a vanguard for the large-scale application of artificial intelligence technology, deepening the integration of IT and OT systems, and advancing towards the industrial metaverse. Zhou Yurong stated that the World Conference on Intelligent Manufacturing, as an authoritative platform that gathers global wisdom, provides significant support for technological exchanges and innovative development in the industry. Siemens looks forward to showcasing its achievements in the field of intelligent manufacturing through this platform and jointly promoting industrial upgrading and high-quality development. Led by national-level intelligent factories and taking the World Intelligent Manufacturing Conference as a platform, Nanjing is gathering new forces in intelligent manufacturing. It is not only achieving breakthroughs in technology but also demonstrating its responsibility as a highland of intelligent manufacturing in ecological construction and international cooperation, accelerating the formation of a new picture of intelligent manufacturing.
