Sany's Indonesia lighthouse factory creates a major milestone for industry

Date:2022-09-14 Author:Rosy Source:www.chinaspv.com

Through the establishment of an overseas "lighthouse factory", Chinese machinery giant Sany Group is exporting Chinese mechanical wisdom to the world.

On Aug 15, the first excavator produced by Sany's lighthouse factory in Indonesia was put into operation, marking the first overseas footprint of such a plant for China's machinery industry.

"Lighthouse factories" are the most advanced factories, which are leading the way in the adoption and integration of frontier technologies around the world. The World Economic Forum and global market research firm McKinsey & Co jointly issued a lighthouse factory list, which selects such factories.

Sany began the lighthouse factory transformation on 20 plants in 2019. It has so far spent over 10 billion yuan ($1.45 billion) and established over 40 lighthouse factories in China, realizing a real-time interconnection of nearly 10,000 sets of equipment and more than 100,000 types of materials. The lighthouse factory in Indonesia was the group's first of its kind overseas.

Xu Ming, senior vice-president of Sany Heavy Industry Co Ltd and president of Sany International Operation Headquarters, said: "The establishment of the lighthouse factory in Indonesia brings advanced manufacturing technology to the country, shares professional technical knowledge, accelerates the cultivation and reserve of local talent and creates employment opportunities. More importantly, by cooperating with local component makers and developing new products, we will further improve our supply capacity of spare parts and offer customers a more complete one-stop experience.

"Having the first overseas lighthouse factory established in Indonesia will help us expand our business in the rest of the ASEAN, as well as countries including Australia and New Zealand. The lighthouse factory is expected to promote the high-quality development of Indonesia's machinery industry, and contribute to the construction of the Belt and Road Initiative," Xu said.

The company's lighthouse factory is located in the KIM Industrial Park in Indonesia, which is 70 kilometers from the capital city of Jakarta. With a total investment of 200 million yuan, the expected annual capacity of the first phase of the factory is 3,000 excavators.

In July, the first batch of equipment produced by the lighthouse factory in Indonesia was approved by local authorities. Within 30 days, the first excavator made in Indonesia was put into operation.

Currently, the factory has realized the whole network connection and unmanned production of 12 main procedures, including assembly, logistics and commissioning, creating a precedent for Chinese enterprises' overseas manufacturing.

"This lighthouse factory combines the core achievements of Sany's over 40 domestic lighthouse factories, and is the first overseas manufacturing base established totally based on the Industry 4.0 standard of China's machinery industry," said Ding Shifeng, assistant vice-president of the Indonesia project department of Sany Heavy Industry.

Ding said there are over 500 robots of various types in the factory, with only around 100 workers. The expected annual output value per capita is 11 million yuan, making the factory one of the most intelligent factories with the highest output value per capita overseas.

Compared with Sany's overseas bases in the United States, Germany, India and Brazil, the lighthouse factory in Indonesia, for the first time, relies on 100 percent of its independent intellectual property.

"This is the first overseas systematic output of intelligent manufacturing of China's machinery industry," Ding said.

Of the 50 Smartest Companies listed by international tech media MIT Technology Review, Sany Heavy Industry became the only Chinese machinery enterprise listed to make the cut.

The company said that the little step taken by the lighthouse factory in Indonesia was a great step forward for Sany's overseas manufacturing.

The company said that in the future, it will use the lighthouse factory in Indonesia as a template to quickly promote and replicate within the company and build 10 more such factories overseas in the coming years.