The power of smart manufacturing in seconds! 6.5 seconds to produce an air conditioner compressor; 51 seconds to roll out a complete vehicle

Henan Daily

Zhengzhou: On June 28, the reporter visited Zhengzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone, the only “Five-Star Advanced Manufacturing Development Zone” in the province, and witnessed the power of smart manufacturing in seconds.

6.5 seconds to produce an air conditioner compressor – a feat achieved by Zhengzhou Highly Electric Appliance Co., Ltd.

Since 2012, the Haier Zhengzhou Innovation Industrial Park has been located in Zhengzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone for 13 years. It consists of an air conditioner assembly plant with an annual capacity of 4 million sets, the world’s only “Lighthouse Factory” for water heaters with an annual capacity of 6.5 million units – Zhengzhou Haier Water Heater Interconnected Factory, a compressor production base with an annual capacity of 6 million units, and the RRS Logistics Distribution Center. It has become a smart manufacturing base with remarkable “supply depth” in the industry.

The compressor is the “heart” of an air conditioner. In the production workshop of Zhengzhou Highly, mechanical arms move swiftly on each production line. With the application of advanced technologies such as online AI visual inspection, industrial internet of things (IIoT), big data, and artificial intelligence, the automation rate exceeds 75%, and the processing precision is controlled within one-thousandth of a millimeter, making it a veritable digital and intelligent interconnected factory.

095afd94b0a5409693e179027c826520.jpgOn the pump body production line, Liu Mengyun, a post-95 girl from Xinxiang, checks the eccentricity of crankshaft pistons every day. “The workshop is highly modernized, and robots are my little partners.” she said with a smile.

Zhengzhou Highly Electric Appliance Co., Ltd. was established through joint investment by Highly Group and Haier Air Conditioning to construct an air conditioner compressor factory. The entire compressor project started construction in April 2023. Relying on Highly Group’s deep technical accumulation and rich smart manufacturing experience, the project achieved production within one year of commencement.

7ad399afd3d74f5ba40402f5bfadb598.jpg”This year, we expect to a mass-production of 5 million compressors, mainly supporting the Zhengzhou Haier Innovation Industrial Park.” said Yang Xiaolin, General Manager of Zhengzhou Highly. “We will deepen technological innovation and smart manufacturing, continuously enhance the core competitiveness of the enterprise, boost the construction of Henan as a manufacturing and digital intelligence strong province, and actively integrate into and serve the national unified big market.”

51 seconds to roll out a complete vehicle – the speed set by SAIC Passenger Vehicle Zhengzhou Base.

ef34b639fb8241abab775eea60d9de78.jpgSince its settlement in 2017, SAIC has “heavily invested” in Henan, with cumulative investments exceeding 20 billion yuan, driving dozens of upstream and downstream projects of the entire industrial chain for the layout of Zhengzhou. At present, the SAIC Passenger Vehicle Zhengzhou Base has cumulatively produced over 2.4 million vehicles, with an output value exceeding 180 billion yuan. It is SAIC Group’s largest passenger vehicle production base, data base, and export base of the whole country.

Recently, two new models have been launched at the Second Vehicle Factory of SAIC Passenger Vehicle Zhengzhou Base. In the 134,500-square-meter general assembly workshop, AGV material trucks shuttle busily, and workers “dance” with mechanical arms. Through a series of processes, vehicles roll off the production line in an orderly manner.

“Currently, the general assembly workshop of Plant II produces 14 vehicle models on the same production line, with an average of one vehicle rolling off the production line every 51 seconds.” said Liu Yabin, Leader of Chassis Section 1, with pride.

Ding Bo, General Manager of SAIC Power Technology (Zhengzhou) Co., Ltd., Secretary of the Party Committee, and General Manager of Zhengzhou Base, stated frankly, “The annual output of the entire base is expected to increase to 500,000 vehicles this year, driving the output value of surrounding supporting enterprises to a new level and promoting the further growth of Henan’s new energy vehicle industry.”

Manufacturing is the foundation of the real economy. The Ninth Plenary Session of the 11thHenan Provincial Party Committee proposed to focuse on industrial transformation and upgrade the local development of new productive forces, striving to build Henan into a manufacturing and digital intelligence strong province. In the concentrated commencement activity of major projects in the second quarter of 2025, the Intelligent Electrical Equipment Industrial Park project with a planned total investment of 9.968 billion yuan also ushered in the “commencement moment”, empowering Zhengzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone to build a high-quality manufacturing development demonstration zone.

Every second counts in the race of strength. Henan is reshaping its “industrial coordinates” by harnessing the power of every moment to develop advanced manufacturing.