International. The World Economic Forum identifies 16 of the world's most advanced smart factories, the so-called production sites of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The Danfoss factory in Wuqing, China, is one of them.
At Danfoss' compressor factory in Wuqing, China, guided vehicles automatically roam aisles and supply components to workers. The same workers use Bluetooth-connected smart tools that automatically tell you if an assembly process is done incorrectly. They also have access to step-by-step electronic job descriptions, no matter where they work in the factory on a given day.
The list of smart technologies, in which the factory has invested in recent years, is very long. In addition, the investment has paid off. Compared to two years ago, employee productivity increased by 30 percent, scrap costs decreased by 20 percent and customer complaints by 57 percent.
And now, Danfoss in Wuqing has entered the World Economic Forum's list of the 16 smartest factories in the world. The Forum identifies a smart factory as one that is not only good at adopting smart technologies, but also at turning investment into operational and financial benefits.
Making the list, the Forum has selected from a pool of more than 1,000 factories.
"Representatives of the World Economic Forum recently audited our site for a full day. We are very proud of the result, of having achieved it in this final list. It is a clear testament to the fact that our digitization effort has also paid off in terms of productivity, quality improvements, and customer satisfaction. We will continue to add new technology, so we are constantly improving in these areas," says Senior Director of Operations Ruixing Zhang, Danfoss in Wuqing.
The World Economic Forum released the list of the 16 smart factories on Jan. 10 until its 2019 annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. The current list is an update of a previous list published in September last year that contains nine start-up companies.
With the initiative, the World Economic Forum has created a network where industrial companies can share experiences on the technology of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and learn from each other.
At Danfoss we work with digitalization at all levels of the organization, and we invest heavily in this area, to make sure we're ahead of the curve and meet our customers' expectations and demands. That's why we are very proud to be recognized for this," says Kim Fausing, President and CEO of Danfoss.
Helena Leurent, Director of the Shaping the Future of Production System Initiative, World Economic Forum: "The 16 selected factories are leaders in the technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. "They create value and resilience across the supply chain, and agility and responsiveness for customers."
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The Wuqing factory has 600 employees and is one of several Danfoss factories that systematically invest in and use smart technology. Visit our factories and see other examples of our smart solutions in this digital story. In addition to Danfoss, the group of 16 factories includes companies such as BMW, Procter & Gamble, Siemens Industrial Automation Products and Schneider Electric.
