Midea Group's Nansha factory enters Global Lighthouse Network

Midea Group's smart factory in Guangzhou's Nansha district was selected to join the Global Lighthouse Network, the World Economic Forum announced on Sept 14.

It joins nine other factories in entering the network, including the Hangzhou factory of Alibaba Group, the Hefei factory of Unilever, the Taichung factory of Micron Technology, and the Lexington factory of Schneider Electric.

The smart factory of Midea Group in Nansha has seen effective improvement in its overall competitiveness after applying Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies, with the labor efficiency increasing by 28 percent, the unit cost decreasing by 14 percent, and the order delivery time having been reduced by 56 percent.

Inclusion in the Global Lighthouse Network is one of the most influential selections in the global advanced manufacturing industry. Jointly held by the World Economic Forum and McKinsey & Company, the network aims to gather advanced manufacturing bases around the world that showcase leadership in using Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies.

To date, 54 manufacturing lighthouse factories have been identified from different industry sectors, of which 16 of them are from China, making it the country with the most manufacturing lighthouse factories around the world.