Denmark-based Danfoss said that its compressor factory in Wuqing, China, features on the World Economic Forum's list of 16 world's smartest factories.

The Wuqing factory features automatically-guided vehicles which drive up and down the aisles and supply workers with components, said a company statement.

The same workers use intelligent bluetooth connected tools that automatically tell if an assembly process is incorrectly performed. They also have access to step-by-step electronic work descriptions – no matter where in the factory they work on a given day, it said.

The forum identifies a smart factory as one which is not only good at adopting smart technologies, but also at turning the investment into operational and financial benefits. The forum selected from a group of more than 1,000 factories.

The factory has invested in a long list of smart technologies over the last few years. Compared to two years ago, employee productivity has gone up by 30 per cent, scrap costs down by 20 per cent, and customer complaints down by 57.

Ruixing Zhang, senior director of operations, Danfoss in Wuqing, said: “Representatives from the forum recently audited our site during a full day. We are very proud of the result – that we made it onto this final shortlist.”

“It's a clear testament to the fact that our digitalisation effort has also paid off in terms of productivity, quality improvements, and customer satisfaction. We will continue adding new technology, so we constantly improve in these areas,” Zhang added.

The World Economic Forum published the list of the 16 smart factories on January 10 up to its 2019 Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland. The current list is an update of a previous list published in September last year containing an initial nine companies.

Kim Fausing, president and CEO, Danfoss, said: “At our company we work with digitalisation on all levels in the organisation. And we invest heavily in this area, to secure that we are ahead of the curve, and that we meet the expectations and demands from our customers. So, we are very proud, to get recognised for this.”

Helena Leurent, head of the shaping the future of production system initiative, World Economic Forum, said: “The 16 selected factories are leaders in the technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. They create value and resilience through the supply chain, and agility and responsiveness for customers.” – TradeArabia News Service