200 digital workshops

China now owns over 200 intelligent manufacturing plants and the market value of intelligent manufacturing (IM) is expected to surpass 220 billion yuan ($31.8 billion) by late 2020, according to research released by consultancy Deloitte.

Millions of Chinese firms are modernizing using AI technology, aiming to produce goods more flexibly and efficiently. Its massive use of IM systems is a profitable boon to companies and China is becoming the world’s biggest industrial-robot consumer, according to the researcg on China’s IM development in 2018.

Cloud manufacturing, another new trend in IM, attracting some interest among makers, but 53 percent of those surveyed by Deloitte have no plan for the new technology. The report reckons nearly two-thirds of firms are considering ways to put more consumer data into IM process.

Over the past few years China has cultivated four IM hubs, respectively surrounding Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Xi’an.