China unveiled its first batch of pioneering smart factories at the 2025 World Intelligent Manufacturing Conference on Thursday in east China's Nanjing City, marking another push to advance smart manufacturing.

A total of 15 factories made the inaugural list, covering key sectors including equipment manufacturing, raw materials, electronic information, and consumer goods.

According to officials from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, these factories integrate next-generation information technology, advanced manufacturing technology, and lean management concepts, representing the highest benchmark for intelligent manufacturing in China.

"The 15 pioneering smart factories, leveraging their respective strengths, have explored future manufacturing models of research and development, production, management, and services, developing new models and business forms such as shared manufacturing, extreme manufacturing, and island manufacturing," said Ao Li, chief engineer with the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology.

So far, China has built over 7,000 advanced smart factories. With intelligent upgrading completed, hundreds of factories have seen average product development cycle shortened by 29 percent, production efficiency increased by nearly 22 percent, and carbon emissions reduced by around 20 percent.

"In the future, persistently advancing the cultivation and development of smart factories will remain a key priority for a considerable period ahead, driving the intelligent and digital transformation of the entire manufacturing sector," said Su Bo, chair of the National Expert Committee on Intelligent Manufacturing.