Amidst rapid global economic and technological changes, industrial manufacturing, as a cornerstone of national economies, is confronted with unprecedented challenges and opportunities. Leading economies and emerging market countries are actively deploying reindustrialization strategies, with smart manufacturing emerging as the focal theme. Recently, Huawei hosted the "Huawei China Government and Enterprise Business Smart Manufacturing Media Briefing" in Chongqing and toured the digital and intelligent factory it collaborated on with Changan Automobile. The event garnered widespread attention from domestic media and industry experts, not only showcasing an innovative benchmark for the digital and intelligent transformation of manufacturing but also injecting robust momentum into ushering in a new era of global smart manufacturing.

Exploring the Digital and Intelligent Factory: The Future of Manufacturing Integrating Cutting-Edge Technology

The Changan Automobile digital and intelligent factory in Chongqing stands as a globally pioneering "dark factory" for smart manufacturing, extensively utilizing over 40 cutting-edge technologies such as 5G, AI, and digital twins, embodying "intelligence, low carbon, and high efficiency." Huawei played a pivotal role in the construction of this factory, leveraging its extensive experience and expertise in digital transformation to guide Changan's digital and intelligent evolution. Additionally, Changan Automobile adopted Huawei's innovative smart factory solution architecture, "One Cloud, One Network, One Platform," to establish a robust digital and intelligent foundation, propelling the industry towards intelligence.

Smart Manufacturing Rooted in Huawei's Manufacturing Expertise

Yang Ping, General Manager of Huawei China Government and Enterprise Smart Manufacturing Business, detailed Huawei's strategic layout and practical applications in digital and intelligent transformation and smart manufacturing. As a company deeply entrenched in technological innovation, Huawei embarked on information construction in the 1990s, initiated digital transformation in 2014, and launched a comprehensive AI strategy in 2018. Relying on its robust technological prowess, Huawei has achieved full-process intelligence across various domains.

In AI application, Huawei extensively integrates it into software development, manufacturing, logistics, supply chain, and other critical links. In supply chain management, Huawei constructs flexible logistics solutions and intelligent optimization systems, optimizing logistics routes, inventory management, container loading, and other aspects through large models, enhancing supply chain efficiency in over 170 countries and regions worldwide.

Huawei's digital and intelligent transformation capabilities extend beyond vehicle equipment companies like Changan and GAC to encompass semiconductor design and manufacturing firms, home appliance and electronics companies, new energy enterprises, biomedical firms, the tobacco industry, the textile industry, the robotics industry, and more. In the biomedical sector, Huawei offers the Pangu drug molecule large model to pharmaceutical companies grappling with challenges in drug discovery, clinical trials, genetic analysis, and other areas. This model, trained on 1.7 billion drug molecule data points, aids pharmaceutical companies in saving labor and time, reducing costs, and increasing competitiveness. In the robotics industry, drawing from its own R&D transformation experience, Huawei assists leading robotics companies in establishing an IPD management system, reshaping structured R&D processes to achieve coordinated R&D and production quality management, thereby saving R&D and manufacturing costs.

Huawei's Approach to Fostering Smart Manufacturing

Yang Ping emphasizes that digital and intelligent transformation is an ongoing process, necessitating adherence to the principles of strategy as the foundation, data as the cornerstone, and intelligence as the direction. Huawei actively explores the application of digital and intelligent technologies across diverse enterprise aspects and scenarios, fostering ecosystems, and collaboratively innovating with various enterprises in R&D, production, supply, sales, services, and other domains, serving over 7,500 manufacturing customers.

Huawei collaborates with the automotive, pharmaceutical, robotics, and other industries. At Changan Automobile's digital and intelligent factory, Huawei facilitates the integration of the automotive manufacturing industry's three core business flows - engineering data flow, production process flow, and commercial information flow - empowering the digital and intelligent factory to develop new smart manufacturing capabilities. Looking ahead, Huawei will continue to deepen its ecosystem, focus on complex hardware and software infrastructure, collaborate with partners to construct holistic solutions, and actively promote the cultivation of digital and intelligent talents to bolster the talent pool for the manufacturing industry's digital and intelligent transformation.

Yang Ping underscores that behind Huawei China Government and Enterprise Business's slogan "Deeply Rooted in Manufacturing, Making Smart Manufacturing Take Root" lies a profound sense of responsibility and mission. As a globally leading provider of ICT infrastructure and smart terminals, Huawei itself is a manufacturing enterprise with strong R&D attributes. Its business scope encompasses toB ventures such as 5G, cloud services, computing, and storage, as well as toC endeavors like terminals and vehicle BU. This vast industrial chain necessitates the proactive integration of novel technologies and tools. Since the 1990s, Huawei has spearheaded business management reforms centered on information construction, establishing information systems like IPD R&D process management and ISC supply chain management.

Huawei's genuine digital transformation commenced in 2014 upon entering the computing realm and setting two "ten billion" goals. To avert the "entropy increase" issue stemming from business expansion, the need for comprehensive digital transformation arose. Huawei established a comprehensive, full-factor connection, and real-time feedback system, initiated data governance, established a top-tier data governance architecture, constructed a comprehensive security system, and created the first "T," encompassing data governance and data platform capabilities. With the development and breakthrough of AI technology, Huawei embarked on a group-wide AI upgrade strategy in 2018, fostering Huawei's second "T," comprising AI model and platform services, as well as AI governance and security capabilities. While undergoing its own iteration and evolution, Huawei aspires to contribute its experience and technology accumulation to China's transition from a manufacturing powerhouse to a smart manufacturing leader.

Bringing Thousands of Industries to the Digital and Intelligent World at Your Fingertips

Regarding the "digital and intelligent gap" encountered during industry transformation and upgrading, Qiu Heng, CMO of Huawei China Government and Enterprise Business, stated that Huawei China Government and Enterprise Business aims to "leave complexity to ourselves and bring simplicity to customers," assisting China's SMEs in effortlessly achieving digital and intelligent transformation through the "Partner + Huawei" system. Huawei not only offers advanced technical support but also widely disseminates successful experiences through extensive industry digital and intelligent practical expertise, meticulous services, and a local team, enabling more industry customers to "reach the digital and intelligent world at their fingertips." Qiu Heng emphasized that Huawei has successfully aided over 7,500 manufacturing enterprises in accelerating their digital and intelligent transformation through in-depth partner collaboration.

On how Huawei achieves "capability spillover," Qiu Heng noted that Huawei's capability spillover is underpinned by robust technological innovation and accumulation. Huawei boasts technological prowess in computing power, storage capacity, and transportation capacity, particularly in core technologies like Ascend, Kunpeng, and Euler. Additionally, Huawei has led Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Primary Storage for eight consecutive years. The introduced OceanStor A800 storage product significantly enhances the availability and performance of AI clusters. Furthermore, Huawei's innovation in network technology, especially in Wi-Fi 7 and F5G full-optical network technology, aids manufacturing enterprises in enhancing production efficiency and network security through high-performance network solutions.

Promoting a New Era of Global Smart Manufacturing

With the advent of the intelligence and digital and intelligent transformation wave, the successful experience of the Huawei & Changan smart factory global model has set a new industry benchmark. Moving forward, Huawei will continue to deepen collaborations with manufacturing enterprises and promote the widespread adoption of digital and intelligent technologies. Through the integrated innovation of cloud computing, 5G, big data, AI, and other technologies, Huawei will provide solutions for the digital and intelligent transformation of more enterprises, aiding various industries in achieving efficient and sustainable development. As smart factories continue to proliferate, more enterprises will undergo qualitative manufacturing transformations through digital and intelligent evolution. As a promoter of technological innovation and a practitioner of industry digitalization, Huawei will play an increasingly pivotal role in this process, driving the entire industry towards higher quality and more intelligent development.

Digital and intelligent technology empowers the transformation and upgrading of traditional manufacturing industries. Smart manufacturing will effectively foster deep integration between industries and resource elements, drive the formation of new productive forces led by science and technology, and robustly support China's new industrialization's high-quality development. It will propel the deep integration of the digital economy and the real economy, as well as the real economy and resource elements, continually strengthening the real economy's foundation and supporting and leading the construction of China's modern industrial system.