the first native digital factory
, has been named a Global Lighthouse Factory by the World Economic Forum (WEF).
The award highlights improvements in asset utilization, worker training, and resource management. The Siemens plant in Nanjing is the company's fifth manufacturing site to be named a Lighthouse Factory by the WEF, following Amberg, Erlangen, and Fürth in Germany, and Chengdu in China.
“We refer to our Nanjing facility as a ‘digital-native factory.’ It was designed, tested, and optimized entirely in the virtual world before a single brick was laid. This approach not only enabled us to build the factory faster and with outstanding cost efficiency, but also to do so under the most challenging conditions of the pandemic. By combining our global manufacturing expertise with local knowledge and a digital-first mindset, we continuously optimize every aspect of the operation, making it one of the most efficient and flexible factories in the world,” said Cedrik Neike, Member of the Board of Management of Siemens AG and CEO of Digital Industries.
The FEM jury was impressed by the ongoing digital transformation of the production site and the cutting-edge implementation of AI applications. The factory overhauled its production processes in response to increasing operational pressure. The production site faced increasingly diverse customer orders, requiring reconfiguration of production lines every four weeks, and lead times were reduced from 45 to 10 days, while market demand fluctuated.
To meet these challenges in high-variety, low-volume manufacturing operations, Siemens implemented a digital excellence strategy, deploying end-to-end digital twins, modular automation, manufacturing operations management systems, and more than 50 artificial intelligence applications. Compared to 2022, the initiative reduced lead times by 78%, time to market by 33%, while productivity increased by 14% by 2024. Field failures decreased by 46%, and the factory reduced its direct and energy emissions by 28%.
The Nanjing site is Siemens' largest research and production center outside Germany for high-performance machine tool controls (CNC systems), drives, and electric motors, setting standards in digitalization and sustainability. For Siemens, the 73,000-square-meter factory in Nanjing is a flagship project on many levels. The Digital Native Factory Nanjing, including its production processes, was planned and simulated entirely digitally, allowing for optimizations in the virtual world before construction began.
Launched in 2018, the World Economic Forum's Global Lighthouse Network brings together and celebrates the success of the world's leading industrial sites that have achieved exceptional performance in productivity, supply chain resilience, customer focus, sustainability, and talent.
