At a cavernous 100,000 sq m factory in the southern Chinese city of Changsha, dozens of automated guided vehicles whisk heavy loads between an array of giant robotic welding arms, machine tool beds and a small smattering of human workers, churning out a new concrete pump truck every 45 minutes.
In the factory’s space-age centre, manager Peng Yonghui can oversee each machine’s efficiency and state of repair from a giant screen flanked by blue-tiled fountains and palm trees. With a few clicks on a touchscreen, he can monitor machines and manufacturing sites across China.
Sany’s No.18 factory, opened in 2012, is one of the planet’s largest “lighthouse factories”, a World Economic Forum designation given to particularly smart manufacturing bases. With recent improvements in AI, the factory has continued to innovate, says Peng: “it makes us much more efficient”.