Economic Half Hour "special report: Lenovo's" Bright Plan "focuses on the Guangzhou Shenzhen Foshan Dongguan intelligent equipment industry cluster | MaaS intelligent manufacturing power
New industrialization is the path to a strong country, and advanced manufacturing is the foundation of a strong country. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized the need to promote China's industries to move towards the mid to high end of the global value chain and cultivate several world-class advanced manufacturing clusters. Recently, CCTV's "Economic Half Hour" program focused on reporting on the intelligent equipment industry clusters in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Foshan, and Dongguan. It particularly interviewed the intelligent manufacturing upgrade case of Lenovo's "Bright Plan" and its contracted client Sinsegye (a company invested by Lenovo Venture Capital), highlighting the new trend of chain owners working together with technology and intelligent manufacturing enterprises to overcome upgrade difficulties and move towards high-end manufacturing. This time, as reported by CCTV, Lenovo Ventures and its invested companies not only demonstrated the positive trend of accelerating the formation of new intelligent productivity, but also showcased the innovative vitality of China's science and technology intelligent manufacturing.
The "Bright Plan" was launched on May 6, 2023, jointly initiated by Lenovo Ventures and Lenovo Global Manufacturing and Engineering. With Lenovo's experience and capabilities in intelligent manufacturing of global factories, it empowers entrepreneurial enterprises and helps incubate advanced technology products. This plan, based on the concept of "Manufacturing as a Service" (MaaS), provides one-stop, multi-dimensional, and high-quality support, opening up new channels for the development of small and medium-sized enterprises in the intelligent manufacturing industry. [Extended reading: Understanding the 'Bright Plan' with a picture]
Lenovo Ventures was invested in Sinsegye, the first seed client of the "Bright Plan". This enterprise, incubated by the Institute of Computing Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is committed to industrial automation and industrial intelligence based on PC technology and software defined technology. However, due to the lack of standardized system processes for mass production and the harsh operating and usage environment of AI products, which require strict long-term quality requirements, there is currently no production and manufacturing plan in place. In the face of this challenge, the "Bright Plan" has created a complete system of standard production, manufacturing, and quality control for industrial intelligent machines, synchronously upgrading the digitalization of production processes, and providing comprehensive services of "labor and materials" to safeguard product quality and after-sales service. Nowadays, the Sinsegye SX2 series, SX5 series, and SP series of industrial intelligence machines are being introduced for mass production at Lenovo Group's Southern Intelligent Manufacturing Base.
With the deepening cooperation between the "Bright Plan" and Sinsegye, Sinsegye co-founder Liu Shengfu has become a frequent visitor to Lenovo Group's Southern Intelligent Manufacturing Base. He stated in an interview with CCTV that he plans to set up an office on the upper floor of the base this year, forming a "front store, back production" model, which will further improve production efficiency and collaborative work capabilities.
Wu Shengming, Director of Lenovo Global Manufacturing and Engineering Manufacturing as a Service at Lenovo Group, said in an interview with CCTV that Lenovo Group's Southern Intelligent Manufacturing Base will place each product in a flexible workshop according to its characteristics, and will also handle the issue of distinguishing permissions. Because many customers' new products are in the confidential stage before they are released, the base is equipped with confidential workshops, testing lines, etc. in the flexible workshop to fully consider customers' needs and achieve safe and efficient manufacturing for customers.
Lenovo Group's Southern Intelligent Manufacturing Base is a highly intelligent manufacturing factory of Lenovo Group, which can be regarded as the "mother factory" of Lenovo Group's global intelligent manufacturing. Under the lens of CCTV, a laptop is taken offline every 14 seconds at the base, and 268 robotic arms and automatic navigation cars collaborate efficiently on the production line. There are not only laptops on the production line, but also various products such as desktop computers, servers, and supercomputers being produced.
Even more rare is that 60% of the orders are super complex orders with less than 10 units. The intelligent manufacturing system and two-hour ecosystem of this base perfectly 'digest' this personalized and diversified order. According to Meng Fanyi, the head of Lenovo's Southern Intelligent Manufacturing Base, taking laptops as an example, each laptop consists of 1600 components, and Lenovo has 200 first tier suppliers, of which 50% are located in the Guangzhou Shenzhen Foshan Dongguan region. Lenovo Group's Southern Intelligent Manufacturing Base forms a rapid industrial chain with suppliers, including logistics and material supply, which can form a two-hour ecosystem: all materials can be delivered within 6 hours.
The two-hour ecosystem implies that Lenovo Group's Southern Intelligent Manufacturing Base has an efficient and complete supply chain, which is also the core foundation for the "Bright Plan" to serve enterprises like Sinsegye and solve their production problems in the field of artificial intelligence products.
Under the leadership of Lenovo Group's chain leader, the "Bright Plan" is helping more and more high-tech startups like Sinsegye solve problems such as product incubation, validation, and mass production. At present, several Lenovo venture capital companies such as Turing Quantum, Zero Gravity, and Benmo Technology have joined the "Bright Plan" to jointly explore new paths in high-end manufacturing.
Looking ahead to the future, with the advancement of the 'Bright Plan', more enterprises will benefit from advanced manufacturing technology and efficient supply chain management, jointly promoting China's manufacturing industry to move towards a higher level. Lenovo's "Bright Plan" will continue to provide support for more invested enterprises and startups, using advanced experience, capabilities, and innovative power to help early-stage technology manufacturing enterprises win key core industry battles, and work together to build a manufacturing industry cluster of advanced technology products.