Chinese SMEs ride digitalization wave

An increasing number of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in China have been riding the wave of digitalization.

Zhejiang XiaSha Precision Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (XiaSha), located in Zhenhai district, Ningbo city in east China's Zhejiang Province, has a 5G intelligent workshop for manufacturing transmission gears for new energy vehicles.

The intelligent workshop can continuously adjust parameters according to clients' needs, achieving optimization of various performance factors such as noise reduction, shock absorption, torque increase, and impact resistance.

File photo shows a robotic arm working in a 5G intelligent workshop of Zhejiang XiaSha Precision Manufacturing Co., Ltd. in Ningbo city, east China's Zhejiang Province. (Photo/People's Daily Overseas Edition)

It also serves as an "experimental base" for providing the relevant technologies, equipment data and experience for the entire manufacturing industry, according to Xia Ting, general manager of the company.

Xia realized that a large number of domestic SMEs in the manufacturing sector have an urgent need for digital transformation and intelligent equipment. As a result, XiaSha's digital business was spun off into Ningbo XIATO Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. (XIATO), which is dedicated to manufacturing intelligent equipment, integrating intelligent control systems and serving the digital transformation of other enterprises.

"Our self-developed gear production line has been recognized by many international power tool companies and auto firms. This has boosted our confidence and led us to simultaneously produce intelligent equipment," Xia said.

A technician works at a production line of Yichun Chitongda Technology Co., Ltd. in Yichun city, east China's Jiangxi Province. (Photo/Liu Jigang)

According to Xia, XIATO's team developed an automated gear production line that creatively integrates high-frequency quenching, automated inspection and other processes, improving production efficiency by 35 percent.

Previously, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a document on piloting the digital transformation of SMEs in cities in three batches from 2023 to 2025. In August 2023, Ningbo became one of the first pilot cities for the digital transformation of SMEs.

Thanks to its outstanding innovative capabilities, XIATO was recognized as a municipal-level service provider of digital transformation in Ningbo in August 2023.

Zhenhai district has actively guided locally cultivated intelligent manufacturing service providers, including XIATO, to help the intelligent transformation of SMEs in the district. Last year, XIATO offered services to over 80 SMEs.

In recent years, various regions across China have rolled out a series of measures to provide digital services for SMEs, cultivate leading digital transformation service providers, and promote typical digital transformation applications, resulting in the digital transformation of more and more SMEs.

At the same time, the digitalization of operation management is proving to be vital for the digital transformation of SMEs.

Located in Qingpu district, Shanghai, Linked Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. (LIT AUTO) is a domestic supplier of intelligent components in the automotive body domain and an innovative SME in the metropolis.

A worker operates a robotic arm in a power equipment company in the high-tech zone of Weixian county, Xingtai city, north China's Hebei Province. (Xinhua/Wang Xiao)

According to an executive of LIT AUTO, all employees of the company need encrypted management for important documents in production, R&D, quality inspection, finance, human resources and other scenarios. The use of WPS 365, a digital office software for business organizations launched by Chinese software company Kingsoft Office, has helped LIT AUTO boost efficiency and ensure security.

WPS 365 was included in the 2023 list of typical products and solutions for the digital transformation of SMEs recently released by the China Academy of Industrial Internet. The software's online collaboration function can reduce communication costs for team members, while its AI capabilities provide support for document editing, data analysis, and project management, among others.

Zhang Qingyuan, CEO of Kingsoft Office, said all sectors of society should actively empower the digital transformation of SMEs. Kingsoft Office will further enrich the application scenarios of large language model-based AI services to allow more enterprise users to use AI and collaboration services provided by WPS 365.

File photo shows members of the algorithm team of Guangdong Taili Technology Group Co., Ltd. analyzing marketing data. (Photo/People's Daily Overseas Edition)

Guangdong Taili Technology Group Co., Ltd. (Taili) in Zhongshan city, south China's Guangdong Province, is a technology enterprise specializing in the research, development and application of high-performance new materials.

Cai Wangyi, brand manager of Taili, said the company established a digital operation and algorithm department many years ago, which is responsible for collecting, analyzing and applying big data to drive digital transformation.

With regard to digital brand operations, when the company advertised its products through media channels in the past, it was very difficult to assess the marketing effect, leading to unclear conversion rates of ads and the revenue generated from them.

Nowadays, by leveraging e-commerce platforms' data and analysis from data service providers, the company can see how many users the ads have reached and how many users buy products because of the ads.

In terms of product development, digital tools enable the company's algorithm department to analyze users' feedback and suggestions on improving products and compare potential competitors' products, so that it can launch new products and adopt precise marketing methods.

"Digitalization not only enhances efficiency, but more importantly, it helps us make correct decisions, predict success rates, and ultimately provide implementable solutions," Cai said.

Cai noted that Taili has been actively promoting digital transformation, and has established its own digital platform to analyze operational data and empower production and marketing.