The wave of artificial intelligence is rushing forward and is profoundly reshaping the development pattern of traditional manufacturing.
In the scrap steel working area of Shiheng Special Steel, between the rise and fall of the mechanical suction cup, an intelligent system is completing “intelligent classification” at high speed: automatic capture of high-definition lenses, instantaneous analysis by AI algorithms, and accurate identification of dirt, oil, and foreign matter mixed in scrap steel.
“In the past, we relied on masters to estimate materials with the naked eye and make judgments based on experience, which was inefficient, highly subjective, and prone to disputes. Now the system leaves traces throughout the entire process, is open and transparent, is fair and just, and saves a lot of labor.” Relevant staff said that this smart scene originated from the “Special Steel Qingtian Industrial Intelligence” created by the company. Since 2020, the company has implemented 280 artificial intelligence application scenarios such as one-click steelmaking and smart sintering, systematically solving management and control problems in key production links.
The transformation of a steel company is a true reflection of Tai’an’s manufacturing industry embracing artificial intelligence and achieving iterative upgrades.
Since the National Two Sessions first proposed “creating a new form of smart economy”, artificial intelligence has upgraded from “tool empowerment” to a systematic reshaping of the entire industry chain.
Seizing the trend of industrial transformation, Tai’an City has previously formulated and implemented an “artificial intelligence + manufacturing” action plan, taking “artificial intelligence + manufacturing” as a key variable for enterprises to enhance their core competitiveness, and coordinating the promotion of the in-depth integration and large-scale application of artificial intelligence in key manufacturing industries and key enterprises.
Not long ago, Tai’an City became one of the province’s first batch of “artificial intelligence + manufacturing” pioneer application cities to be included in the database, polishing the brand-new business card of “Taian Intelligent Manufacturing”.
Walking into Praite Machinery Workshop in Taishan District, the country’s first large model dedicated to the welding seam quality inspection industry is running smoothly.
The brewing equipment produced by the company has to be shipped to all parts of the country for on-site welding and assembly. In the past, quality inspectors were traveling all year round, which made travel costs high and labor standards difficult to standardize.
“Now workers can take pictures with their mobile phones and upload them to the cloud, and large models can process hundreds of weld pictures in 10 minutes. The accuracy is higher than manual work, and it can also replace 70% of off-site geological inspections.” said the relevant person in charge of the company.
Not only equipment manufacturing, but also traditional pillar industries such as steel and chemicals have all changed their appearance with the help of artificial intelligence.
At Hengxin Hi-Tech in Ningyang County, the company relies on the trinity architecture of “industrial Internet, digital twin, and industrial intelligence” to build the country’s first smart chemical digital twin factory – replicating the actual scene of the entire factory in the virtual world and mapping the entire production process in real time.
The company has built a large model of the coal-based fine chemical industry and implemented AI scenarios such as security inspections, equipment prediction, and alarm optimization. The comprehensive production cost has been reduced by 8%, the equipment failure rate has been reduced by 15%, and the product quality qualification rate has increased by 5%.
In Yarong Chemical, the company is deploying three-dimensional digital twin pipe corridors, using AI drones and AR systems to replace manual entry into high-risk areas, eliminating more than 90% of visual blind spots, and significantly reducing inspection risks and costs.
The “multi-point blooming” of intelligent manufacturing scenarios is the solid foundation of Taian’s two-wheel drive of industrial digitization and digital industrialization.
Currently, the strong transformation needs of manufacturing companies in Tai’an City have attracted the accelerated gathering of digital companies.
Feicheng Huakun Zhenyu’s northern base achieved “Taian speed” of being completed and put into operation in 97 days. It has an annual output of 70,000 domestic AI all-in-one machines, filling the gap in the mass production of high-end computing power equipment in the north and providing solid computing power support for small and medium-sized enterprises.
In the past two years, Tai’an has added more than ten domestic software and information technology service companies, and local digital forces have also emerged strongly: local technology companies that are deeply involved in cutting-edge fields such as large models and digital twins have conquered more than 50 core technologies and created 69 industry intelligence agents to fully empower industry and urban governance; there are also leading data service providers with an intelligent annotation platform with 95% accuracy and more than 120 AI intellectual property rights to provide enterprises with full-chain services from data management to model implementation.
In order to solve the problem of enterprises that “cannot change even if they want to change, but dare not change even if they want to change”, and focus on the key scenarios of enterprise digital transformation, Tai’an City implements the “unveiling the list” to promote the replication and promotion of common scenarios, and releases 30 task lists including artificial intelligence +, industrial Internet +, industrial robots +, key industry corpora, and industry large models to collect mature and feasible digital solutions for replication and promotion.
A total of 149 municipal-level unveiling projects have been implemented and 20 have been selected as provincial-level projects. Enterprises no longer work alone, trial and error costs are significantly reduced, and transformation efficiency is significantly improved.
With continuous research, Tai’an has taken the lead in the new track of industrial large models and is at the forefront: multiple large industrial models have been registered through the national algorithm, 4 projects have been shortlisted for the provincial industry large model “unveiling the list” research projects, multiple large intelligent service models have won provincial “model coupons” awards, and multiple AI application projects have been selected as national typical cases of artificial intelligence empowering new industrialization, and national advanced computing empowering new productivity typical application cases.
The outstanding transformation results are not accidental, but stem from Tai’an’s precise layout and continuous cultivation of the system over the years: as early as 2023, Tai’an took the lead in promoting the digital transformation of the manufacturing industry in the province; in 2024, it promoted digital-green collaboration; in 2025, it deepened the leap in digital intelligence, forming a clear path of “leading step by step and advancing step by step”.
As of now, the digital transformation coverage rate of the city’s industrial enterprises above designated size reaches 95.1%.
The policy support is real money and real money. The local government has introduced eight measures to support the digital transformation of the manufacturing industry and its implementation details, providing support from multiple dimensions such as project construction, platform cultivation, service provider introduction, and benchmarking demonstrations. A total of 200 million yuan in fiscal funds at all levels have been cashed in.
The city has cultivated a total of 6 “digital pilot” companies, ranking first among cities in the country in terms of the number of awards received; a total of 134 municipal-level basic-level smart factories have been certified, 42 provincial-level advanced smart factories have been cultivated, and 2 companies have been successfully selected as national-level outstanding smart factories; a total of 414 provincial-level morning star factories and 7 industrial brains have been cultivated, and a tiered transformation pattern has been fully formed.
In today’s Tai’an, artificial intelligence is deeply integrated into the manufacturing industry, continuing to activate new productivity, promoting traditional industries to become high-end, intelligent, and green, and injecting a steady stream of digital intelligence power into the construction of a new industrialized city.
