From the Bohai coast to the foothills of Mount Tai, Shandong, a manufacturing powerhouse with a deep industrial foundation, is responding to the demands of the times with a comprehensive leap toward intelligent manufacturing. In recent years, the province has elevated industrial development as its top priority, focused on strengthening its ten major industries, pushed traditional industries toward innovation and greener growth, and enabled emerging industries to take on a larger leading role. This is not only a journey from being a major manufacturing province to becoming a powerful intelligent manufacturing province, but also a vivid practice driven by innovation and hard-core capability.

Through systematic planning, a new blueprint for intelligent transformation has become increasingly clear. Shandong's path toward intelligent manufacturing is rooted in clear and firm top-level design. The provincial Party committee and government have successively issued guiding documents such as the Action Plan for Building a Strong Advanced Manufacturing Province 2022-2025, forming a policy framework with clear goals and rigorous implementation paths. Under coordinated planning at the provincial level, cities across the province are working together to create a fully connected and jointly promoted development pattern. Guided by policy, Shandong has clearly proposed the new "3830" cluster development pattern, aiming to cultivate 3. world-class clusters, 8. national-level clusters, and 30 provincial-level clusters. From the strategic layout of the ten major industries to the careful design of the "3830" blueprint, Shandong's intelligent manufacturing development shows both long-term vision and a solid foundation for implementation.

With step-by-step cultivation, a new business ecosystem is taking shape at speed. The vitality of Shandong's intelligent manufacturing comes from its innovative gradient cultivation mechanism. By organically combining points, lines, and broader industrial coverage, the province has built a tiered smart factory cultivation system based on scenario applications and guided enterprises to upgrade in an orderly and steady way. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, Shandong identified 962 provincial-level excellent intelligent manufacturing scenarios and cultivated more than 1,500 smart factories at different levels, including 49 top-tier outstanding factories. Leading enterprises such as Weichai Power and Haier Group not only maintain strong competitiveness themselves, but also actively build a healthy industrial ecosystem led by top companies and supported by coordinated enterprise tiers. The province has also carried out extensive cooperative initiatives, helping more than 100,000 small and medium-sized enterprises accurately embed themselves into industrial chains and encouraging large enterprises to accelerate the incubation and growth of technology-based SMEs through targeted empowerment and technology sharing.

Driven by innovation, Shandong continues to strengthen its core technological capabilities. The province's confidence in intelligent manufacturing comes from its relentless pursuit of technological innovation. Each year, it cultivates about 30 major first-set technical equipment projects and key core components, around 10 system solution providers, and more than 20 first-edition high-end software products. A new group of forces representing Shandong intelligent manufacturing is rising. Inspur Intelligent has built smart blast furnace control systems, JIERI Digital has specialized in digital twin factory solutions, and Huatian Software has continued to make breakthroughs in domestic industrial software. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, Shandong cultivated 11 national-level benchmark-winning units for intelligent manufacturing system solutions and 155 provincial-level suppliers, completed 85,000 orders, and generated more than RMB 90 billion in revenue. In standard development, the province led the compilation of the country's first local standard system in the field of intelligent manufacturing, regulating the creation and cultivation of smart factories, digital workshops, and solution providers. With standards setting direction and innovation driving growth, Shandong is shifting from a follower in technology application to a rule maker for the industry.

Powered by both digitalization and green transformation, sustainable development momentum is growing strongly. In Shandong's intelligent manufacturing landscape, digital and green transformation are deeply integrated and mutually reinforcing. In Xintai, Tai'an, Shandong Runtong Gear Group used a digital power consumption forecasting model to significantly reduce energy costs and save more than RMB 1. million each year. In Heze, Buchang Pharmaceutical has turned traditional Chinese medicine residue into biomass fuel, saving more than RMB 10 million annually. In Ningyang County, the Yunlian Steel Ball platform has integrated more than 320 steel ball enterprises to create an industrial online marketplace, reducing procurement costs by nearly 10 percent on average. At present, the province has built more than 100 digital economy parks and continues to optimize its industrial ecosystem by cultivating industrial brains. Data shows that the output value of high-tech industries already accounts for more than half of the industrial output value of enterprises above designated size in Shandong, while energy intensity per unit of industrial added value continues to decline and multiple digital development indicators rank among the top in the country. Empowered by digitalization and guided by green development, Shandong manufacturing is winning the future through the resonance of intelligence and sustainability.

Looking ahead, Shandong has made clear that it will further deepen intelligent upgrading and digital transformation in manufacturing, strive to exceed 100 outstanding-level factories, cultivate 50 core system solution providers, and form a batch of benchmark solutions that can be replicated and promoted. These goals show the province's firm determination to move manufacturing toward the high end of the value chain. Shandong will continue along three major paths - gradient cultivation, supply-demand matching, and coordinated optimization - to build a new intelligent manufacturing ecosystem with active technological innovation, efficient industrial collaboration, and strong talent concentration. In talent support, the province plans to add about 2,300 leading professionals in intelligent manufacturing and attract more than 1.4. million young talents, providing strong human resources support for this ambitious undertaking.

The road ahead is already built on a solid foundation. Across the land of Qilu, a magnificent picture of intelligent manufacturing is unfolding, with the seeds of innovation breaking through the soil and the fruits of intelligence filling every branch. Shandong is climbing higher and advancing toward the new. On this vibrant land, the grand symphony of intelligent manufacturing is sounding in full force, and the province is moving steadily and powerfully toward the grand vision of becoming a strong province in intelligent manufacturing.

Source: Lightning News