Recently, the Department of Economy and Information Technology of Zhejiang Province announced the list of the new batch of demonstration enterprises for big data applications in Zhejiang Province, and Wanxiang Qianchao Co., Ltd. was selected.

PART01

As a new-generation information technology, cloud computing and big data serve as crucial supporting technologies for realizing the digital economy. Popularizing and deepening enterprises’ adoption of cloud computing can effectively boost their new growth drivers and competitiveness under the “new normal,” thereby promoting the development of the province’s digital economy and facilitating its economic transformation and upgrading. To further implement the “Zhejiang Province Plan for Promoting Big Data Development” and advance innovation in big data technologies, applications, and industries, the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Economy and Information Technology has reviewed enterprises recommended by various cities and organized expert panels to conduct evaluations. After public announcement, the list of selected enterprises will be finalized based on merit. Enterprises selected must first have a solid foundation in information infrastructure and stable data sources, as well as the capability to perform big data analysis, mining, and application services. Second, they must have successfully implemented big data applications in their production, operations, and management processes, generating proven success stories in this area. Moreover, these enterprises should demonstrate strong exemplary and leading roles in areas such as enterprise data resource management, data analytics services, business model innovation, enhancing operational and management efficiency, and driving the wider adoption of big data within their respective industries—possessing significant value that can be replicated and scaled up.

To keep pace with the automotive industry’s trends toward intelligence, informationization, and digitalization, Wanxiang Qianchao proactively prepared itself by establishing an informationization management department as early as 2003. After years of dedicated efforts, in 2015, Wanxiang Qianchao formulated a strategic plan for its digital transformation and development—grounded in next-generation digital upgrades, the industrial internet, smart manufacturing, and other big data “Internet+” technologies—aiming at achieving “digitalization, integration, lean operations, interconnectivity, and intelligence.” Leveraging information technology, automation technology, and intelligent technologies, Wanxiang Qianchao is realizing the modernization and upgrading of its traditional manufacturing plants in terms of digitalization and smart manufacturing.

PART02

The path toward “digitalization, integration, lean practices, interconnectedness, and intelligence” is a gradual, iterative upgrade process. Among these:
“Digitalization” is the foundation of digital transformation and intelligent manufacturing. It involves recording and evaluating all production factors in the form of digital information, thereby establishing a brand-new digital operations and management system that encompasses digital R&D, digital production, digital supply chains, digital management, and more. This enables comprehensive digitalization both vertically—from external to internal processes—and horizontally—spanning design, manufacturing, delivery, and other stages.

“Integration” refers to the deep application of information technology in manufacturing based on digitalization. By establishing a five-layer architectural framework—comprising the device layer, control layer, execution layer, management layer, and decision-making layer—it enables seamless, bottom-up integration and real-time feedback of equipment data, achieves visualization and rapid response in production management, and ultimately enhances production efficiency.

“Lean management” is an important approach to “monetizing” digital production factors. In promoting a lean management system, vague production conditions are precisely expressed in digital form, enabling refined management that more efficiently and accurately reduces waste in both production and management, optimizes production and logistics layouts, thereby lowering production costs and enhancing product competitiveness.

“Interconnectivity” refers to further achieving seamless integration of information both within and outside the company. By leveraging “Internet Plus” technology, we’ll establish “internet channels” among customers, internal departments, and suppliers, enabling close collaboration between the company and external customers and suppliers, as well as seamless cooperation among the company’s various departments.

“Intelligentization” represents the highest stage of digital transformation, fully realizing seamless integration between virtual networks and physical systems. Real production lines and logistics systems are modeled through digital twin technology, and their data is analyzed using next-generation information technologies such as cloud computing and big data. The resulting insights are fed back in digital form to guide adjustments and optimizations of production and operational systems.

PART03

To ensure that the overall strategy can be advanced more quickly and effectively across all its subsidiaries, Wanxiang Qianchao first carried out foundational digitalization work. In 2016, it adopted virtualization and hyper-convergence technologies to build a private enterprise cloud based on the IaaS layer—this serves as the underlying infrastructure platform for Wanxiang Qianchao’s digital transformation. Integrated systems have been implemented, including Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Manufacturing Execution System (MES), Business Process Management (BPM), a unified procurement platform (SRM), an energy consumption management system, and a Quality Data System (QDS). Driven by data, the company has leveraged edge computing, internal and external factory networks, a trusted IaaS layer, an industrial PaaS layer, and an industrial SaaS layer to construct a comprehensive industrial internet platform, enabling new models such as intelligent manufacturing, full-element collaboration within industrial networks, and service-oriented transformation. The lean and interconnected approach is exemplified by Wanxiang Jinggong; its smart production line for wheel hub units and workshop construction, through the digitization of intelligent equipment on the production floor and optimization of software systems, now enables high-quality, rapid responses to diverse customer needs. This not only significantly boosts production efficiency but also achieves seamless connectivity between production information and customers, allowing Wanxiang to keep abreast of customers’ dynamic inventory levels and enabling customers to access real-time production data and quality status of products on the production line online. These efforts have laid a solid foundation for realizing the factory of the future. In 2021, Wanxiang also initiated the deployment of 5G network applications, further deepening the implementation of its digitalization projects.

In recent years, Wanxiang Qianchao has been steadily advancing toward its goal of achieving agile, collaborative, flexible, and large-scale production, manufacturing, and sales services by building an industrial internet platform that seamlessly connects suppliers, factories, customers, personnel, materials, equipment, and production lines across the entire industry chain. In the future, Wanxiang Qianchao will continue to leverage the upgrade of the industrial internet, shifting its focus to optimized analysis of production operations and supply chains. This will enable the company to establish a digital operational system that aligns Wanxiang Qianchao with international automotive OEMs, enhance the core competitiveness of its products, facilitate connections with key strategic customers, and integrate with global platforms. By adopting a “single network coverage” approach, Wanxiang Qianchao will create a new-generation performance management model that enables data online, processes online, and decision-making online, thus leading the automotive parts industry chain toward digital and intelligent manufacturing transformation, accelerating industrial upgrading and replacement, and seizing the commanding heights in the next round of manufacturing competition.