"Guided by Chinese wisdom and linked by Pilot-class factories, we will build the 'gold standard' of smart factories and jointly march towards a new future of intelligent manufacturing!" On November 27, at the 2025 World Intelligent Manufacturing Conference, Zoomlion and 14 other leading enterprises jointly issued a united initiative for the Pilot Action Plan, outlining a new blueprint for industry development with a solemn pledge. As an enterprise selected for the first batch of the national "Pilot-class" smart factory cultivation list, Zoomlion has overcome the world-class challenge of "high-mix, low-volume" mixed-model production for heavy equipment. It has built a globally unique collaborative and shared smart factory cluster for construction machinery, creating a new paradigm for intelligent manufacturing in the industry and representing the highest level of Chinese intelligent manufacturing.
▲ The scene at the 2025 World Intelligent Manufacturing Conference
What Does "Pilot" Mean? The Highest Level!
Pilot-class smart factories represent the "tip of the pyramid" in the intelligent manufacturing tiered cultivation system led by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and five other departments; they are the highest-level smart factories selected for the first time. This tier focuses on digital transformation and intelligent reform, aiming to explore future manufacturing forms and create intelligent manufacturing benchmarks with globally leading standards. It represents the state's highest recognition of an enterprise's level of intelligent manufacturing. In this national selection, only 15 enterprises stood out, joining the top ranks of the intelligent manufacturing field and highlighting the highest level of exploration in intelligent manufacturing both domestically and globally.
▲ Zoomlion Excavator Shared Manufacturing Smart Factory
Zoomlion is among the first batch of enterprises selected for the national Pilot-class smart factory cultivation list and is the only enterprise in Hunan Province to receive this honor. It has overcome the world-class challenge of "high-mix, low-volume" production for heavy equipment in the industry, built a globally unique collaborative and shared smart factory cluster for construction machinery, and created a new paradigm for intelligent manufacturing in the sector. Being selected for the Pilot-class smart factory cultivation list is not only the highest national recognition of Zoomlion's leading level in intelligent manufacturing but also a high affirmation of Zoomlion's persistence in independent innovative development and its contribution to building China into a manufacturing powerhouse.
How to Lead? A New Paradigm of Intelligent Manufacturing!
"Sharing" is the most distinct feature of Zoomlion's Excavator Shared Manufacturing Smart Factory and serves as the core key to solving the world-class challenge of "high-mix, low-volume" heavy equipment production in the construction machinery industry. Located in the Zoomlion Smart Industrial City, this smart factory has achieved three global firsts in intelligent manufacturing results: the first implementation of full-process intelligent manufacturing across the six core manufacturing stages of excavators; the first realization of efficient shared mixed-model production for over 70 excavator models; and the first realization of cross-category collaborative sharing and linkage among excavators, cranes, pump trucks, and aerial work platforms, forming a new "one drives three" shared manufacturing paradigm for construction machinery.
▲ A view of the production line at Zoomlion Excavator Shared Manufacturing Smart Factory
With "sharing" as the core feature, Zoomlion has built a globally unique collaborative and shared smart factory cluster for construction machinery. Horizontally covering four major categories of construction machinery and vertically integrating hundreds of processes, three major common manufacturing centers enable process sharing across multiple factories. This has resulted in a steel material utilization rate exceeding 90% and a 15% reduction in smart factory construction costs. The full-process heavy-load automated logistics system, which uses transport to replace storage, solves the challenge of precise logistics delivery for different materials in shared mixed-model production, reducing the inventory of structural parts in process by 70%. A cross-regional collaborative shared R&D platform, a flexible mixed-line shared production mode, and a supply chain collaboration system shared across the industrial chain weave together an ecological network of "shared intelligent manufacturing."
Core Indicators Leading the Globe
The ultimate shared intelligent manufacturing model has generated globally leading manufacturing efficiency. At Zoomlion's Excavator Shared Manufacturing Smart Factory, the application rate of artificial intelligence technology scenarios exceeds 80%, enabling self-organization and self-optimization of production resources. With zero changeover time, it takes only 6.5 days from steel blanking to the final product rolling off the line. On average, one excavator rolls off the line every 6 minutes. The three core indicators—production takt time, changeover time, and manufacturing cycle—are all the shortest in the global construction machinery field. Furthermore, a business model transformation from "make-to-stock" to "make-to-order" has been realized. This allows for customized production based on individual customer needs, thoroughly resolving pain points such as the disconnect between production and sales and inventory overstock caused by traditional stocking production, thereby significantly reducing finished goods and work-in-process inventory.
▲ Products rolling off the line at Zoomlion Excavator Shared Manufacturing Smart Factory
Today, the intelligent manufacturing solutions from Zoomlion's Excavator Shared Manufacturing Smart Factory have been replicated and promoted to over 20 smart factories worldwide, leading collaborative innovation across the upstream and downstream of the enterprise's global industrial chain. It has empowered hundreds of enterprises across fields and regions—including agricultural machinery, emergency equipment, and energy equipment—transforming the advantages of a single factory into development momentum for the entire industry.
As a Pilot, Zoomlion will deeply integrate the new generation of artificial intelligence and robotics technology into the entire intelligent manufacturing process, exploring the practical application of intelligent robots in industrial scenarios. It will continue to carry out breakthroughs in common industry technologies, process innovation, and equipment upgrades to explore future manufacturing models. Zoomlion will constantly improve intelligent manufacturing solutions and continue to promote empowerment externally, bringing the Chinese solution that leads future manufacturing to the world.
