Smart washing machine plant heralds new era for Haier
Haier's Shanghai washing machine smart plant in Songjiang District has been put into full operation and will be able to produce 2 million machines and hit an output value of 5 billion yuan (US$736 million) annually.
This is an ambitious move for the China-grown household appliance giant to get a good lead in the race to build its intelligent factory in the coming metaverse era.
The project in Shihudang Town, with an investment of 1 billion yuan and spread over 110,000 square meters, is designed with four intelligent assembly lines, four smart module processing areas and two sets of intelligent logistics systems. Based on 5G technology, industrial Internet, blockchain and other advanced manufacturing technologies, the factory can restore every work scenario from product design, production scheduling to diagnosis.
"This project is built for Haier's high-end Casarte washing machine and clothes dryer line. Compared with the traditional workshop, this Internet-driven plant can improve production efficiency by 20 percent, and is expected to manufacture about 2 million machines every year," said Han Ruixian, the project leader.
The smart plant is seen as a big strategic transformation for the Haier Group. As a leader in the home appliance industry, Haier's washing machine has more than 40 percent domestic market share, ranking first in China. In the global washing machine territory, Haier also tops in Australia, Russia, Pakistan and Vietnam, and is second in the United Kingdom, Italy and North America.
Casarte, Haier's high-end washing machine brand, accounts for almost 74 percent of the offline market share in China in the 10,000-plus yuan price range group.
With this newest smart plant, Haier has carved its global washing machine domain of 12 domestic and 13 overseas production bases.
