Zoomlion's Intelligent Manufacturing Breakthrough Redefines Heavy Equipment Production Standards

On November 27, 2025, Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science & Technology Co., Ltd. (1157.HK) achieved a landmark recognition as one of the top-tier smart factories globally at the 2025 World Intelligent Manufacturing Conference. The achievement reflects a significant industry shift toward intelligent, flexible production systems that are reshaping how heavy equipment manufacturers compete in the high-stakes trading landscape.

The Challenge: Mass Customization in Heavy Equipment

Traditional heavy equipment production has long struggled with a fundamental contradiction—the need to produce multiple models in low volumes while maintaining economies of scale. For years, manufacturers accepted this trade-off as unavoidable. Zoomlion’s latest accomplishment directly addresses this challenge, demonstrating that shared mixed-flow production lines can efficiently handle over 100 different excavator models simultaneously without sacrificing efficiency or quality.

Three World-First Milestones in Smart Manufacturing

At Zoomlion’s Smart Industrial City, the company built a revolutionary shared smart excavator factory that established three unprecedented achievements:

Full-process intelligent manufacturing across six core stages - The facility now operates end-to-end automated production from steel plate processing through final assembly, representing the first implementation of comprehensive intelligent manufacturing in the construction equipment sector.

Mixed-flow production at unprecedented scale - Running more than 100 equipment models on a single shared production line eliminates the traditional need for model-specific factories, fundamentally changing the economics of customized heavy equipment.

Multi-category collaborative production integration - The facility seamlessly coordinates the production of multiple equipment types within one ecosystem, creating a truly modular manufacturing platform.

Efficiency Metrics That Reshape the Industry

The numbers tell a compelling story about what top-tier intelligent manufacturing can achieve:

• Production cycle compressed to 6.5 days from steel to finished excavator, with one unit completing every six minutes
• AI-driven processes cover over 80% of manufacturing operations, enabling self-organizing production with zero changeover time
• Steel plate utilization exceeds 90%, reducing raw material waste significantly
• Construction costs cut by 15% through optimized production efficiency
• Inventory reduction of 70% via real-time automated logistics replacing traditional warehousing
• Industry’s shortest takt time, supporting customized, sales-driven production models

The Ecosystem Advantage

Zoomlion’s approach extends beyond a single factory. Three interconnected shared manufacturing centers enable multi-plant integration, creating a collaborative ecosystem that supports agricultural machinery, energy equipment, and emergency response vehicles. This distributed-yet-integrated model demonstrates how intelligent manufacturing can serve as a competitive advantage in top tier trading markets where operational agility matters most.

The company has already deployed its intelligent production system across more than 20 factories worldwide, signaling rapid global scalability and the universality of the technology framework.

Strategic Vision: AI, Robotics, and Beyond

Looking forward, Zoomlion plans to deepen integration of AI and robotics technology, accelerate next-generation process innovation, and expand the shared manufacturing model to global partners across diverse industries. The company’s trajectory suggests that intelligent manufacturing will increasingly become a prerequisite for competing at the highest levels of the industrial equipment market.

This recognition at the 2025 World Intelligent Manufacturing Conference underscores a broader industry transformation: companies that master flexible, data-driven production systems will define the competitive landscape for decades to come.