BEIJING, June 23 (Xinhua) -- One laptop rolls off the production line every nine seconds, and one mainboard is produced every 10 seconds. Such a scene occurs at a Lenovo Tianjin Innovation Park manufacturing factory, where orderly-operating robots contribute to and witness the leap in efficiency driven by "smart manufacturing."
Leveraging its over 30 years of experience in the manufacturing sector, China's tech giant Lenovo has deeply integrated advanced technologies including 5G, big data, edge computing and artificial intelligence (AI) in this factory in north China's Tianjin, said Xie Xiaoke, deputy general manager of Lenovo (Tianjin) Co., Ltd., highlighting that processes such as material handling, quality inspection and packaging have all been automated.
At present, the smart notebook production line at this innovation industrial park has an automation rate of 60 percent, while the high-speed surface-mount technology (SMT) production line achieves 92 percent automation in its placement section.
The technical shift of a single enterprise serves as a microcosm of the city's industrial transformation and upgrading. From smart production lines and digital platforms to future factories and intelligent ports, smart manufacturing is flourishing across multiple fronts and gaining full momentum, injecting new dynamism into Tianjin, a longstanding industrial powerhouse.
Several dozen kilometers away, on the shores of the Bohai Sea, lies the Tianjin intelligent manufacturing base of Offshore Oil Engineering Co., Ltd. Inside the huge workshops, automated robotic arms swing nimbly, with welding sparks flying about, a vivid display of technological charm.
Offshore engineering equipment features large-scale components and high deadweight, while operating conditions at sea are complex. Traditional manual production has long been plagued by low efficiency, difficulties in precision control and high safety risks.
"By breaking down the manufacturing processes and collecting scenario-specific parameters, we have developed intelligent equipment and production lines tailored to our industry, successfully transferring the 'know-how' of veteran workers to robots," said Liu Chao, deputy manager of the prefabricated module workshop at the intelligent manufacturing base.
"A task that used to require seven to nine workers can now be handled by just two or three. This not only delivers a significant boost in efficiency but also makes our production lines safer and more intelligent," he added.
To date, the intelligent manufacturing base has put more than 700 sets of intelligent production equipment into large-scale operation. Overall production efficiency has increased by over 39 percent compared with traditional manual operations, while the product defect rate has dropped significantly and safety management capabilities have been comprehensively upgraded.
Such smart scenarios are also unfolding at the terminal of Tianjin Port, where dozens of AI-powered transport vehicles, under the unified dispatch of the control system, are moving containers from docked vessels to the storage yard in an orderly manner.
Cheng Weidong was once a skilled tractor-trailer driver at Tianjin Port and is now an AI trainer. Together with his team members, Cheng systematically distilled the operating procedures and driving skills accumulated over years of practice into core data for machine optimization and learning, with the help of programmers.
As the largest comprehensive port in northern China, Tianjin Port now operates more than 150 container shipping routes, with its network connecting over 500 ports in more than 180 countries and regions worldwide.
In recent years, Tianjin has issued a series of policies to support the development of new quality productive forces and build a modern industrial system.
The value-added output of Tianjin's high-tech manufacturing sector grew by 5.3 percent in 2025, outpacing the growth rate of industrial enterprises above designated size by 1.1 percentage points.
Data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology showed that China's manufacturing sector is making solid progress in its digital and intelligent transformation, having built over 35,000 entry-level, 8,200 advanced-level, 500 excellence-level, and 15 pioneering-level smart factories as of 2025. ■
