SAIC-GM-Wuling Named "Smart Manufacturing Benchmark Enterprise" – Leading Industry Transformation with its Smart Island Manufacturing System

Recently, a conference on smart manufacturing system solutions, themed "'Artificial Intelligence + Manufacturing' Solutions, Leading Manufacturing Model Transformation," was held in Beijing. Xin Guobin, Member of the Party Leadership Group and Vice Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, attended the conference. Academicians Zhou Ji and Li Peigen, two leading experts in the field of smart manufacturing, were invited to deliver keynote speeches, offering advice and suggestions for the development of smart manufacturing in China.

At the conference, SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile Co., Ltd. was awarded the title of "Smart Manufacturing Benchmark Enterprise" for its project centered on the "Highly Flexible Island-Based Smart Manufacturing Factory." It is the only vehicle manufacturer in the ninth batch of Smart Manufacturing Benchmark Enterprises and a model for innovative smart manufacturing practices in the automotive industry.

The selection process for "Smart Manufacturing Benchmark Enterprises" is guided by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and organized and implemented by the China Electronics Standardization Institute under the MIIT. Experts from the National Smart Manufacturing Expert Committee form the evaluation panel. The selection process aims to identify and showcase the outstanding practices of leading companies in intelligent manufacturing across various sectors of my country's manufacturing industry, help build and improve China's discourse system for intelligent manufacturing development, and provide benchmark experiences that can be referenced and replicated for industry development. SAIC-GM-Wuling emerged from dozens of candidates in this fiercely competitive selection process, ultimately becoming one of nine "Intelligent Manufacturing Benchmark Companies" (the ninth and tenth batches).

The selection process strictly adhered to the national standards, the "Intelligent Manufacturing Capability Maturity Model" and the "Intelligent Manufacturing Capability Maturity Assessment Method." A comprehensive assessment was conducted across nine capability domains and their 15 subdomains: organizational strategy, human skills, data, integration, information security, equipment, network, production, and logistics. Through rigorous, multi-stage processes, including self-diagnosis, compliance audits, on-site expert verification, Beijing expert review, and public announcement of the list, the companies' intelligent manufacturing capabilities across the entire business chain, including design, production, logistics, sales, and service, were thoroughly examined. During the Beijing expert review, SAIC-GM-Wuling's Smart Island Manufacturing System received high recognition and unanimous praise from the reviewers for its innovation, advancement, and practicality, laying a solid foundation for its successful recognition as a benchmark enterprise. SAIC-GM-Wuling continues to deepen its digital transformation and the application of artificial intelligence technology in factory construction, process, and equipment design, innovatively driving the transformation of the manufacturing industry model. During the capacity development phase, the Intelligent Manufacturing Department innovatively established a digital factory design and delivery platform to comprehensively promote digital factory design and construction, achieving digital factory delivery, effectively shortening the factory construction cycle, and improving construction efficiency and quality. Facing common industry challenges such as the difficulty of connecting information silos and integrated management and control in business scenarios such as new product process development, self-developed intelligent equipment, and operations management, the company continues to invest in the development of a digital twin system. Through real-time mapping and dynamic interaction between the physical and virtual worlds, it enables real-time monitoring, analysis, and optimization of factory operational data, driving increased production efficiency, reduced operating costs, and improved product quality, providing strong support for the implementation of intelligent manufacturing. As Academician Zhou Ji emphasized, focusing on intelligent manufacturing and empowering new industrialization with artificial intelligence is the primary technological path for the innovative development of China's manufacturing industry. SAIC-GM-Wuling will leverage this recognition as a "Smart Manufacturing Benchmark Enterprise" to further deepen its integrated innovation in "AI + Manufacturing," continuously optimize its highly flexible island-style intelligent manufacturing model, and leverage its exemplary and leading role as a benchmark enterprise to further contribute to the intelligent upgrade of China's automotive industry and the entire manufacturing industry.