As he stands in the workshop, gazing at the twin visualization hubs and the precision-operated smart production lines, Liu Hexin, a smart manufacturing engineer at Haier Group's global refrigeration supply chain, can't help but reflect: The transformation from outdated equipment to smart factories over the years is not only a technological leap, it is also a revolution concerning efficiency and responsibility.
When China launched the trade-in policy for consumer goods, many thought it was merely an upgrade in home appliance consumption. However, as practitioners on the business side, Liu and his colleagues understood the deeper implication of the policy—to promote a comprehensive renewal of the industrial chain.
Liu explained that in the past, factory management relied heavily on manual data collection due to the difficulty and low efficiency of data acquisition from old equipment. Now, Haier has intelligently updated and transformed the old equipment, uploading data on people, machines, materials, methods, and environment to the cloud, interconnecting data of all business processes. This has enabled the production lines to automatically respond and adjust, which not only enhances the precision and efficiency of the factory but also shortens the response time to customer orders.
The equipment upgrade is not just an upgrade in hardware but also a breakthrough in soft power.
"Previously, it took new employees a year to independently maintain the equipment. Now, using an intelligent expert system for equipment based on large language models, they can quickly get started," said Liu. In the past, workers would look for problems by touching the parts; now, they maintain the machines by looking at the data, he added.
The entry of energy-efficient refrigerators into households is reducing carbon emissions. Intelligent systems are feeding back into production, improving quality standards. The country's policies serve as a bond, closely linking user needs with enterprise upgrades. This "full-chain upgrade" creates synergy between economic benefits and social responsibilities.
Smart manufacturing is not just about replacing humans with machines, but about using technology to liberate people, allowing engineers to focus more on core innovations.
"In the future, we will continue to use the trade-in program as an anchor, not only to "breathe new life" into users' lives but also to forge new productive forces for the industry," Liu said, explaining that every trade-in is a solemn promise to the future.
