Yunnan state-owned manufacturers roll out digital and intelligent upgrades across industrial chains

According to the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Yunnan Province, state-owned enterprises under its remit are expanding digital and intelligent transformation across manufacturing sectors, moving from isolated technical trials to system‑wide industrial empowerment. The statement was released on 2 November 2026.

Control rooms at Yuntianhua Group’s coal gasification facilities run real‑time monitoring of furnace temperature and slag layer thickness, with the Pangu large model independently forecasting and adjusting gasifier operating conditions. Manual intervention, once a constant requirement for on‑site operators, is now limited to occasional checks of optimised operating proposals.

Implementation of Yunnan Province’s Special Action Plan for “Artificial Intelligence Plus Manufacturing” began in July 2026. The province’s computing capacity has grown by 120 per cent since the start of the year. Sector‑specific large models have been deployed across non‑ferrous metals, rare precious metals, phosphorus chemicals and biomedicine, while 55 enterprises have secured accreditation as provincial advanced smart factories. A national advanced manufacturing conference held in Beijing on 16 and 17 September set out priorities for intelligent, green and integrated development, with next‑generation smart manufacturing and broader “AI plus manufacturing” initiatives named as core lines of work.

Workshops across the province have introduced automated and AI‑led operating frameworks. Yunnan Aluminium’s Yangzonghai aluminium electrolysis branch has fitted its compressed air network with a digital control backbone. The smart compressed air station cuts annual power use by 3.21 million kilowatt‑hours, while AI tuning lifts electrolysis current efficiency from 93 per cent to 94.06 per cent. This single improvement delivers an extra 2,100 tonnes of primary aluminium each year, generating around 50 million yuan in additional annual returns. Automatic guided vehicles move finished aluminium ingots, each tagged with a unique digital identifier that traces the whole production sequence from alumina feedstock to final product. The shift redirects staff away from repetitive manual tasks toward more skilled technical roles.

Yunnan Tin’s smelting division, listed as a provincial advanced smart factory for 2026, operates under a “1+1+1+N” digital factory structure, comprising one dedicated private operations network, one data centre platform, one central intelligent control hub and multiple tailored application modules. Integrated 5G, industrial internet and artificial intelligence systems give operators oversight of all production lines and unified control over plant‑wide operations. After the upgrade, overall operating costs have fallen by 18 per cent, management efficiency has risen by almost 20 per cent, labour input has dropped by roughly 40 per cent, tin ingot warehousing efficiency has improved by 80 per cent, and numerical control coverage for key processes stands at 97 per cent.

Sector‑specific large models are reshaping production systems beyond individual workshops. Yuntianhua Group, working with Huawei, has deployed the world’s first Pangu mechanism‑driven real‑time optimisation large model for coal gasification. Merging AI algorithms with advanced process controls, the platform simulates and predicts core gasifier variables, lifting the automation rate of coal gasification units to 96.88 per cent and cutting manual operating events by 95.58 per cent. Yuntianhua now runs 17 digital factories, with advanced process control and real‑time optimisation systems widely installed, supported by a unified “6+4+X” platform for business and management workflows.

Yunnan Yunjuneng New Materials Company has built a “1+3+N” intelligent neural network framework for new‑energy materials, drawing on local phosphate reserves and green electricity supplies. The architecture includes one shared data foundation and three coordinated business platforms. Key equipment automatic control rates exceed 95 per cent, overall equipment effectiveness has increased by 19.51 per cent, and comprehensive energy consumption per unit of output has fallen by 33.63 per cent, yielding multi‑million‑yuan annual gains.

Yunnan Baiyao has rolled out its proprietary Leigong large model for traditional Chinese medicine and built an AI‑driven industrial platform known as Digital Smart Chinese Medicine Cloud. The platform covers standardised crop cultivation, automated processing and traceable distribution. It operates across growing regions within the province, supporting more than 4 billion yuan in cumulative trading volume, covering 2.152 million mu of planting land and raising incomes for over 750,000 growers. Its smart factory breaks production workflows into 56 discrete functional units, shortening parameter adjustment cycles and reducing raw material defect rates by 40 per cent. The facility joined the World Economic Forum’s Global Lighthouse Network in September 2025, the first site of its kind within the global traditional Chinese health‑products sector.

The province’s state‑owned enterprises follow a structured roll‑out for “AI plus manufacturing”. Benchmark operators are nurtured at individual sites, whole industrial chains undergo coordinated retrofits, and shared public service platforms are established across the region. Practical on‑site applications drive iterative technical refinement and industrial upgrading, expanding smart manufacturing from flagship installations to a broader base of local manufacturers.

From single shop‑floor sensors and automated guided vehicles to cross‑chain industry large models, artificial intelligence is reshaping Yunnan’s manufacturing base. Provincial state‑owned enterprises continue to align with national guidance for deeper “AI plus manufacturing” deployment, leveraging ongoing investment in computing infrastructure, expanded large‑model deployment and institutional reform to accelerate integration between artificial intelligence and physical production.