"Led by Chinese wisdom, linked by lighthouse factories, let us forge a golden signature for intelligent factories and advance together toward a new future of intelligent manufacturing!" On November 27, at the 2025 World Intelligent Manufacturing Conference, Zoomlion and 14 other lighthouse enterprises jointly issued the Lighthouse Action Plan Joint Initiative, outlining a new blueprint for industry development with resounding pledges. As one of the first enterprises selected for the national initial batch of Lighthouse-Level Intelligent Factory cultivation list, Zoomlion has overcome the world-class challenge of mixed-model production of heavy equipment characterized by "multiple varieties and small batches," built the world's unique collaborative and shared intelligent factory cluster for construction machinery, and created a new paradigm of intelligent manufacturing for construction machinery, representing the highest level of China's intelligent manufacturing.

▲Scene of the 2025 World Intelligent Manufacturing Conference

What does lighthouse mean? The highest level!

The Lighthouse-Level Intelligent Factory is the "pinnacle" of the intelligent manufacturing tiered cultivation system led by six departments including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and is also the highest-level intelligent factory selected for the first time. This level focuses on digital transformation and intelligent upgrading, aiming to explore future manufacturing forms, build intelligent manufacturing benchmarks with globally leading standards, and represents the highest national recognition of an enterprise's intelligent manufacturing level. In this national selection, only 15 enterprises stood out and joined the top ranks of the intelligent manufacturing field, demonstrating the highest level of exploration in intelligent manufacturing domestically and even globally.

▲Zoomlion Excavator Shared Manufacturing Intelligent Factory

Zoomlion is one of the first enterprises selected for the national initial batch of Lighthouse-Level Intelligent Factory cultivation list, and the only enterprise in Hunan Province to receive this honor. It has overcome the world-class challenge of heavy equipment production characterized by "multiple varieties and small batches," built the world's unique collaborative and shared intelligent factory cluster for construction machinery, and created a new paradigm of intelligent manufacturing for construction machinery. Being selected for the Lighthouse-Level Intelligent Factory cultivation list this time is not only the highest national recognition of Zoomlion's leading level in intelligent manufacturing, but also high affirmation of Zoomlion's commitment to independent innovation and development and its contribution to building China into a manufacturing powerhouse.

How does it lead? A new paradigm of intelligent manufacturing!

"Sharing" is the most distinctive feature of Zoomlion's Excavator Shared Manufacturing Intelligent Factory, and also its core key to solving the world-class challenge of heavy equipment production in the construction machinery industry characterized by "multiple varieties and small batches." This intelligent factory, located in the Zoomlion Smart Industrial City, has achieved three globally pioneering intelligent manufacturing outcomes: for the first time realizing full-process intelligent manufacturing across the six major core manufacturing stages of excavators; for the first time achieving efficient shared mixed-model production of more than 70 models of excavators; and for the first time realizing cross-category collaborative shared linkage among excavators, cranes, concrete pump trucks, and aerial work platforms, forming a construction machinery shared manufacturing new paradigm of "one driving three."

▲A view of a production line at Zoomlion Excavator Shared Manufacturing Intelligent Factory

With "sharing" as its core feature, Zoomlion has built the world's unique collaborative and shared intelligent factory cluster for construction machinery. Horizontally, it covers four major categories of construction machinery; vertically, it runs through hundreds of processes; three major common manufacturing centers enable multi-factory process sharing, with steel plate material utilization exceeding 90% and intelligent factory construction costs reduced by 15%; the full-process heavy-duty automated stereoscopic logistics that replaces storage with transport solves the challenge of precise logistics distribution of different materials in shared mixed-model production, reducing work-in-process inventory of structural parts by 70%; the cross-regional collaborative shared R&D platform, flexible mixed-line shared production model, and industry-chain shared supply chain collaboration system weave layer by layer a "shared intelligent manufacturing" ecosystem network.

Core indicators lead the world

The ultimate shared intelligent manufacturing model has given rise to globally leading manufacturing efficiency. At Zoomlion's Excavator Shared Manufacturing Intelligent Factory, the application rate of artificial intelligence technology scenarios exceeds 80%, enabling self-organization and self-optimization of production resources and zero-switch changeover. From steel plate blanking to complete machine roll-off takes only 6.5 days, with one excavator rolling off the line every 6 minutes on average. The three core indicators of production takt time, changeover time, and manufacturing cycle are all the shortest in the global construction machinery field. In addition, it has achieved a business model transformation from "production-driven sales" to "sales-driven production," enabling customized production according to customers' individualized needs, thoroughly solving the pain points of disconnection between production and sales and inventory buildup caused by traditional stock-based production, and greatly reducing finished goods inventory and work-in-process inventory.

▲Products rolling off the line at Zoomlion Excavator Shared Manufacturing Intelligent Factory

Today, the intelligent manufacturing solutions of Zoomlion's Excavator Shared Manufacturing Intelligent Factory have been replicated and promoted to more than 20 intelligent factories worldwide, leading collaborative innovation across the upstream and downstream of the enterprise's global industrial chain; empowering hundreds of enterprises across fields and regions in agricultural machinery, emergency equipment, energy equipment, and other sectors, transforming the advantages of a single factory into development momentum for the entire industry.

As a lighthouse leader, Zoomlion will deeply integrate the new generation of artificial intelligence and robotics technologies into the entire intelligent manufacturing process and explore the implementation of intelligent robots in industrial scenarios; continue to carry out breakthroughs in common industry technologies, process innovation, and equipment upgrading, and explore future manufacturing models; and continuously improve intelligent manufacturing solutions and continue to promote and empower externally, bringing China's solution that leads future manufacturing to the world.