In the workshop of the CEC Digital Technology Co., Ltd., smart retail devices rolled off the production line one after another, including medicine vending machine, milk vending machine, and smart stock picker.
 
These machines are produced in the Smart Retail Service Terminal R&D and Manufacturing Base of Blue Moon Valley Intelligent Home Appliances Industrial Park in Ningxiang Economic & Technological Development Zone, which is the first 5G Core Network Innovative Industrial Application Base in Hunan Province. After the appraisal of the expert group on June 5, the overall technology of this project created by CEC Industrial Internet and its subordinate enterprise CEC Digital Technology reaches the international advanced level.

At present, the new infrastructure of “5G plus industrial Internet” is fundamental to build digital factories and even intelligent factories. In this context, CEC Industrial Internet and CEC Digital Technology jointly built this advanced digital factory.

Zeng Wei, deputy general manager of CEC Digital Technology, said that with an investment of 250 million yuan, the Phase I project would build an advanced digital plant with an annual output of 200,000 intelligent retail service terminals. Together with China Unicom and China Mobile Companies, this project has built a 5G industrial Internet for enterprises to provide the test and application environment of “5G plus industrial Internet” for intelligent manufacturing platform. It's the first industrial innovation application of 5G Core Network in Hunan province, which provides a strong support for the communication security of “5G plus industrial Internet” digital factory.

This project has also built an intelligent manufacturing platform for intelligent service terminal manufacturing industry, and an open, standardized, flexible and multi-functional system structure, which can realize the multiple production of smart projects in small batch and different types.

In addition, due to the application of collaborative manufacturing cloud platform, this project realizes encryption and security authentication of external data access.

“Owing to this project, the production efficiency of the company has been increased by 30%, the operating cost has been reduced by 20%, and the product development cycle has been shortened by 20%, and the defective rate has been further reduced,” said Zeng Wei.

In the future, the experience mode and technical achievements of this “5G + industrial Internet” project will be actively promoted to relevant industries, driving the production transformation and upgrading of industrial enterprises, and improving the intelligent manufacturing level of the industry. Through 5G industrial promotion meetings and 5G industrial Internet laboratories, more Hunan manufacturing enterprises will be encouraged to build advanced digital plants based on 5G technology, so as to better boost the implementation of “Three Hubs and Four Missions” Strategy.

The smart retailing equipment produced in this base also has many advantages. Yuan Xia, general manager of CEC Digital Technology, said that for example, special counters for agricultural products can create an independent and controllable security protection network based on PKS system, integrate the advantages of important core basic software like high-end CPU chips of Feiteng series and Kirin operating system, and make efficient use of industry-leading AI, dynamic VR and efficient commodity modeling technologies. It can not only realize the rapid modeling of goods, reduce the learning cost of operators, effectively improve the speed of new products on the shelves, but also help operators build more accurate customer group database, and better promote sales.   

In addition to Blue Moon Valley Intelligent Home Appliance Industrial Park, the zone also focuses on building other industrial platforms like intelligent manufacturing industrial park and intelligent home appliance accessories industrial park. They will serve as a cluster for transformation and intelligent manufacturing, and constantly promote the benign interaction and joint development of industrial, innovation, supply and value chains.

According to the head of Ningxiang Economic & Technological Development Zone, in order to further implement the “Three Hubs and Four Missions” Strategy, the zone is making unremitting efforts to promote the intelligent upgrading and transformation of enterprises, enhance the industrial competitiveness, and ensure that more than 10 new intelligent manufacturing enterprises are added every year. By 2025, the zone will gather more than 150 intelligent manufacturing enterprises at or above the municipal level, including 8 at or above the national level and 15 at or above the provincial level.