Shanghai issues a new-generation intelligent manufacturing action plan, aiming to bring 8,000 humanoid robots into factories by 2028

Main text

Shanghai has issued a new document on accelerating the development of next-generation intelligent manufacturing.

On October 27, the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization issued the "Shanghai Action Plan for Accelerating the Development of Next-Generation Intelligent Manufacturing" (hereinafter referred to as the "Action Plan"). It mentions cultivating single-point implementation service providers such as corpus services, digital twins, and AI Agents; supporting the deep integration of AI technology and equipment to upgrade intelligent manufacturing equipment into equipment agents; and supporting innovative breakthroughs in robots such as humanoid robots, collaborative robots, and high-precision heavy-duty robots.

The Action Plan states that by 2028, the city will achieve full coverage of smart factories among key manufacturing enterprises, promote full coverage of AI application in smart factories, cultivate 500 advanced-level smart factories, achieve more than 2,000 AI application scenarios in manufacturing, develop 10 advanced and applicable vertical large models, launch more than 300 high-level agents, build new infrastructure that meets the needs of next-generation intelligent manufacturing, reach an industrial robot density of 600 units per 10,000 people, promote the entry of 8,000 humanoid robots into factories, drive the scale of the AI-empowered new intelligent manufacturing equipment industry to exceed 200 billion yuan, and reach a scale of 100 billion yuan for the intelligent manufacturing system integration industry, completing the "54321" goals.

The Action Plan mentions supporting the deep integration of AI technology and equipment to upgrade intelligent manufacturing equipment into equipment agents. It calls for developing and promoting physical AI equipment, developing intelligent manufacturing equipment such as robots, industrial machine tools, and testing equipment with autonomous perception and decision-making capabilities, and using the demand for smart factory construction to drive equipment upgrading and large-scale application.

The Action Plan states support for innovative breakthroughs in robots such as humanoid robots, collaborative robots, and high-precision heavy-duty robots; accelerating the iterative upgrading of AI-empowered industrial machine tools such as ultra-precision grinders, large five-axis machine tools, and high-speed dual five-axis mirror milling machines; and promoting the establishment of independent capabilities in testing equipment such as X-ray photon spectrometers, residual gas mass spectrometers, and industrial CT.

In addition, the Action Plan mentions creating a new generation of intelligent manufacturing service providers. It strengthens the cultivation of next-generation intelligent manufacturing service providers through scenario opening. It promotes the intelligent upgrading of producer services such as R&D and design, quality testing, and supply chain services. It cultivates single-point implementation service providers such as corpus services, digital twins, and AI Agents; cultivates system integration service providers with full-chain capabilities spanning processes, equipment, and software and capable of cross-link innovation; strengthens original leadership in industrial AI, and cultivates intelligent leading service providers that understand processes, equipment, software, and AI. It supports manufacturing enterprises in enhancing their comprehensive "product + service + solution" capabilities and developing new models and new forms of service-oriented manufacturing.

Consolidating industrial networks and computing infrastructure

The Action Plan states support for manufacturing enterprises to carry out new industrial network transformation and promote the integrated evolution of control systems, industrial networks, and computing facilities. It advances pilot programs for industrial 5G/EUHT independent private networks and supports the deployment of high-quality networks such as 5G-A and 10-gigabit optical networks. It accelerates breakthroughs in high-performance AI chips. It accelerates the construction of a "hub-region-edge" computing facility system. It strengthens the coordinated scheduling of intelligent computing resources, accelerates the construction of national computing interconnection nodes, and promotes standardized access to and on-demand use of computing resources. It advances actions for inclusive supply of computing services and promotes the upgrading and efficiency improvement of industrial intelligent computing cloud platforms.

In terms of creating a new engine for industrial model empowerment, the Action Plan proposes building more than 10 vertical large models for industries such as high-end equipment, shipbuilding and marine engineering, and industrial software, and enhancing large models' understanding of physical laws, industrial drawings, time-series data, and code; launching more than 300 agents or specialized models for high-value scenarios such as aided design, adaptive production adjustment, and predictive maintenance; building a multi-level industrial model system and improving the collaboration efficiency of large and small models. It guides smart factories to take the lead in carrying out pilot applications of industrial models and promotes the application of models across the entire chain of R&D and design, pilot testing and validation, production and manufacturing, marketing services, and operations management.

Full text:

Shanghai Action Plan for Accelerating the Development of Next-Generation Intelligent Manufacturing

Next-generation intelligent manufacturing is an advanced production mode formed by the deep integration of artificial intelligence and manufacturing. To thoroughly implement the national strategic deployment for developing next-generation intelligent manufacturing and promote the intelligent transformation and upgrading of all factors, all links, and the entire process of manufacturing, this Action Plan is formulated.

I. Overall Goals

By 2028, achieve full coverage of smart factories among key manufacturing enterprises in the city, promote full coverage of AI application in smart factories, cultivate 500 advanced-level smart factories, achieve more than 2,000 AI application scenarios in manufacturing, develop 10 advanced and applicable vertical large models, launch more than 300 high-level agents, build new infrastructure that meets the needs of next-generation intelligent manufacturing, reach an industrial robot density of 600 units per 10,000 people, promote the entry of 8,000 humanoid robots into factories, drive the scale of the AI-empowered new intelligent manufacturing equipment industry to exceed 200 billion yuan, and reach a scale of 100 billion yuan for the intelligent manufacturing system integration industry, completing the "54321" goals.

II. Implement the Next-Generation Intelligent Manufacturing Supply Leadership Project

(1) Make breakthroughs in core technologies and basic components. Focusing on common areas in the key links of intelligent manufacturing—"perception-control-execution-interconnection"—work to overcome core technologies such as distributed sensing, multimodal fusion governance, high-dynamic motion planning and control, ultra-precision machining process improvement, industrial wireless real-time communication, and edge intelligence integration. Focus on breakthroughs in basic components such as high-end sensors, high-torque-density servo motors, high-precision heavy-duty joint modules, high-performance servo drives, and high-reliability reducers.

(2) Develop and promote new types of intelligent manufacturing equipment. Support deep integration of AI technology with equipment, and promote the upgrading of intelligent manufacturing equipment into equipment agents. Develop and promote physical AI equipment, and develop intelligent manufacturing equipment such as robots, industrial machine tools, and inspection equipment with autonomous perception and decision-making capabilities, using the needs of intelligent factory construction to drive equipment upgrading and large-scale application. Support innovative breakthroughs in robots such as humanoid robots, collaborative robots, and high-precision heavy-duty robots; accelerate the iterative upgrading of AI-empowered industrial machine tools such as ultra-precision grinders, large five-axis machine tools, and high-speed dual-five-axis mirror milling machines; and promote the establishment of independent capabilities in inspection equipment such as X-ray photon spectrometers, residual gas mass spectrometry, and industrial CT.

(3) Accelerate the creation of industrial intelligent control systems. Strengthen technical breakthroughs in high-performance fault-tolerant runtime engines, large-scale node concurrent processing, and other technologies, and improve supporting capabilities such as protocol stacks, data middleware, standardized interfaces, and dynamic tools. Accelerate the creation of high-level intelligent control products such as programmable logic controllers (PLCs), distributed control systems (DCSs), supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems, and safety instrumented systems (SISs). Focusing on key industries such as automobiles, high-end equipment, and new materials, guide enterprises to advance industrial control system upgrades in stages and create typical applications.

(4) Create a new generation of intelligent manufacturing service providers. Strengthen the cultivation of a new generation of intelligent manufacturing service providers through scenario opening. Promote the intelligent upgrading of producer services such as R&D and design, quality inspection, and supply chain services. Cultivate single-point implementation service providers such as corpus services, digital twins, and AI Agents; cultivate system integration service providers with full-domain connectivity capabilities across processes, equipment, and software that carry out cross-link innovation; strengthen original leadership in industrial AI, and cultivate intelligent leading service providers that understand processes, equipment, software, and AI. Support manufacturing enterprises in enhancing their comprehensive "product + service + solution" capabilities and developing new models and new forms of service-oriented manufacturing.

III. Implement the "AI + Manufacturing" Foundation-Building Innovation Project

(5) Consolidate industrial network and computing infrastructure. Support manufacturing enterprises in carrying out new-type industrial network transformation and promote the integrated evolution of control systems, industrial networks, and computing facilities. Advance pilot programs for industrial 5G/EUHT standalone private networks, and support the deployment of high-quality networks such as 5G-A and 10-gigabit optical networks. Accelerate breakthroughs in high-performance AI chips. Accelerate the construction of a "hub-region-edge" computing facility system. Strengthen the coordinated scheduling of intelligent computing resources, accelerate the construction of national computing interconnection nodes, and promote standardized access to and on-demand invocation of computing resources. Advance actions for inclusive provision of computing services, and promote the upgrading and efficiency enhancement of industrial intelligent computing cloud platforms.

(6) Create a new engine empowered by industrial models. Build more than 10 vertical-domain large models for industries such as high-end equipment, ship and marine engineering, and industrial software, and improve the large models' understanding of physical laws, industrial drawings, time-series data, code, and more; launch more than 300 agents or specialized models for high-value scenarios such as assisted design, adaptive production adjustment, and predictive maintenance; build a multi-level industrial model system and improve the collaboration efficiency of large and small models. Guide intelligent factories to take the lead in carrying out pilot applications of industrial models, and promote the application of models across the entire chain of R&D and design, pilot testing and validation, production and manufacturing, marketing services, and operations management.

(7) Create high-value industrial datasets and professional service platforms. Support manufacturing enterprises in collaborating with service providers, universities, and research institutes to transform process mechanisms and expert experience into industrial knowledge bases and knowledge graphs with unified heterogeneous process semantics. Strengthen technical breakthroughs in data synthesis, semantic alignment, multimodal fusion, and other technologies, and establish 10 municipal-level high-quality manufacturing data consortia focusing on high-end equipment, electronic information, nuclear power, and other fields. Create high-quality industrial datasets with complete structure, accurate annotation, and model adaptability, and, focusing on experience-intensive scenarios such as design review, defect determination, and equipment diagnosis, accumulate 10 categories of "master craftsman" experience datasets. Promote the construction of a general-purpose and specialized integrated industrial corpus service platform.

(8) Promote integrated innovation of artificial intelligence and industrial software. Promote the evolution of traditional industrial software into software agents, and promote the deep application of software agents in the core links of production and manufacturing. Support manufacturing enterprises in opening scenarios, encourage AI and software enterprises to collaborate with universities and research institutes, and create chain-style application scenarios around R&D and design, production control, equipment operation and maintenance, and quality inspection. Implement the "Hundred Enterprises, Hundred Projects" initiative for AI + industrial software, focus on directions such as AI-native industrial software development and AI-empowered intelligent upgrading of industrial software, and carry out collaborative technical and product breakthroughs.

(9) Strengthen industrial cybersecurity protection capabilities. Carry out cybersecurity attack-defense drills and emergency response drills, and enhance the ability to respond to cybersecurity incidents. Promote the implementation of AI security products such as security large models and security agents in manufacturing, create 10 benchmark scenarios such as intelligent penetration testing and AI security operations centers, launch 20 cybersecurity products that deeply apply large models, and build a new protection paradigm of "using models to govern models." Promote more than 10% of high-quality industrial enterprises to achieve classified and graded management of industrial internet security. Strengthen classified and graded data management and security protection, and promote more than 50 high-quality enterprises to carry out work such as identification of important data, graded protection, and risk assessment.

IV. Implement the Intelligent Factory Tiered Cultivation Project

(10) Build basic-level intelligent factories with broad coverage. Guide manufacturing enterprises to reasonably deploy necessary intelligent manufacturing equipment, software, and systems, and achieve real-time collection of core data, automation of key production processes, and informatization of production and operations management. Each district shall promote manufacturing enterprises in its region to carry out "self-assessment and self-construction" work for basic-level intelligent factories. By 2028, the cumulative number of basic-level intelligent factories shall reach 1,600.

(11) Systematically build advanced-level intelligent factories. Promote the widespread deployment of intelligent manufacturing equipment, software, and systems in basic-level intelligent factories, achieve interconnected and shared production and operation data, precise control of key production processes, and coordinated management and control of production and operations, aim at typical scenarios to accelerate AI application, form regional demonstrations, and accelerate upgrading to advanced-level intelligent factories. Each district shall establish a "potential pool" of advanced-level intelligent factories. By 2028, the cumulative number of advanced-level intelligent factories shall reach 500.

(12) Build excellent-level intelligent factories through integrated optimization. Promote advanced-level intelligent factories to carry out comprehensive optimization across the entire product life cycle and all links of the supply chain, promote multi-scenario system-level applications, achieve integrated and connected design, production, and operation data, intelligent management and control of manufacturing equipment, and online optimization of production processes, deepen multi-scenario collaborative application of AI, and steadily leap toward excellent-level intelligent factories. By 2028, the cumulative number of excellent-level intelligent factories shall reach 50.

(13) Build leading-level intelligent factories as benchmarks. Promote excellent-level intelligent factories to accelerate the deep integrated application of vertical domain models and industrial agents, explore future manufacturing models, drive changes in industrial models and enterprise forms, and strive to advance toward leading-level intelligent factories. Guide leading-level intelligent factories to export new technologies, new processes, new equipment, and new models externally, and lead changes in R&D paradigms, production methods, service systems, and organizational structures. By 2028, cultivate a cumulative total of 5 leading-level intelligent factories.

(14) Expand the scale of innovative scenario applications. Focus on all links including R&D and design, production and manufacturing, operation and maintenance services, marketing services, and supply chain management, and according to "single-scenario pilot, multi-scenario integration, factory-level reconstruction," promote the AI penetration rate of basic-level intelligent factories to 100%, and the proportion of AI application scenarios in advanced-level, excellent-level, and leading-level intelligent factories to reach 10%, 30%, and 70% respectively, with intelligent factory AI application scenarios exceeding 2,000, promoting effective improvement of enterprise production efficiency and steady shortening of R&D cycles.

(15) Create "AI + Manufacturing" model enterprises. Build 10 "AI + Manufacturing" model enterprises characterized by high-density distribution of agents and multi-scenario integration, launch landmark intelligent production lines and landmark intelligent products, promote the entry of humanoid robots into factories, explore paths to change the underlying logic of manufacturing and achieve a leap in quality and efficiency, and form full-process digital and intelligent transformation demonstrations that can be replicated and promoted within the industry.

V. Implement the New-Generation Intelligent Manufacturing Ecosystem Construction Project

(16) Promote collaborative transformation of large, medium, and small enterprises. Support chain-leading enterprises in driving upstream and downstream enterprises to carry out "chain-style" transformation. Facing the transformation needs of small and medium-sized enterprises, develop and promote specialized "small, fast, light, and precise" solutions to lower the threshold for transformation. Support enterprises in different industries and with different forms of ownership to accelerate the formation of intelligent transformation paths with their own characteristics based on existing foundations.

(17) Build a highland for intelligent manufacturing standards innovation. Improve the construction of the intelligent manufacturing standards system, and prioritize the development and revision of standards focusing on industrial agents, digital and intelligent upgrading of equipment, and the integration of intelligent scenarios with new technologies. Deepen international cooperation, promote the transformation of advanced international standards and the going-global of local standards.

(18) Build a new-generation intelligent manufacturing public platform. Build an intelligent manufacturing supply-demand matching platform, integrate the city's scenario construction needs and service providers' product capabilities, and establish a closed-loop ecosystem of "technical breakthrough—scenario implementation—model replication." Build an intelligent manufacturing going-global empowerment platform to accelerate the going-global of high-quality products and high-level solutions of intelligent manufacturing service providers. Support high-quality enterprises in jointly building intelligent manufacturing pilot-testing platforms with upstream and downstream partners in the industrial chain, and carry out pilot-testing services such as data simulation, process improvement, sample trial production, testing and verification, and demonstration applications.

(19) Jointly create intelligent manufacturing leading areas. Deepen city-district coordination, and support each district in formulating "one district, one policy" plans for new-generation intelligent manufacturing focusing on leading industries. Support the construction of a batch of intelligent manufacturing leading areas, strengthen precise docking with high-quality enterprises and projects, promote the accelerated agglomeration of advantageous industries, guide each district to lead and demonstrate in production organization paradigms, new manufacturing models, and industrial chain coordination, and form a new-generation intelligent manufacturing development pattern with distinctive features, multi-point support, and citywide linkage.

VI. Safeguard Measures

Strengthen talent cultivation. Build a tiered cultivation system for compound talents in intelligent manufacturing, and implement cultivation plans for intelligent manufacturing frontier deployment engineers and intelligent factory continuous operation engineers. Deepen industry-education integration, improve the training course system covering multi-level talents in intelligent manufacturing, and increase training for industrial workers and skilled talents. Strengthen overall coordination. Strengthen departmental coordination, establish special task force mechanisms among the city, districts, and high-quality enterprises, establish a work system with clear responsibilities, orderly coordination, and strong supervision, strengthen task coordination, and carry out dynamic assessment. Strengthen policy support. Accelerate the planning of major projects, actively undertake major national special projects such as the "Two Major" initiatives, and make coordinated use of policies such as those promoting high-quality industrial development. Encourage each district to provide policy support according to actual conditions.

(Source: Securities Times) Middle of the main text Embedded advertisement