Hubei province's industrial output value above designated size grew 8.9% year-on-year in the first half of the year, outperforming the national average. From optoelectronics to specialty steel, and from century-old factories to startups, how exactly is data changing every step of industrial production? And how is smart manufacturing activating the new productive forces within this industrial powerhouse? At the FiberHome Communications optical cable digital manufacturing industrial park in Wuhan, Hubei, a reporter observed finished products of various types of communication optical cables continuously rolling off the production line. Zhang Chenglong, General Manager of FiberHome Communications' Manufacturing Center, stated that traditional production relied entirely on manual material searching and involved heavy manual handling. Through digital and intelligent transformation, they have achieved data interoperability across the entire production supply chain. By building a "5G + Industrial Internet" platform, the company has equipped all processes—from optical preform manufacturing, fiber drawing, to cable forming—with "data eyes." Using operations research optimization algorithms, they have achieved intelligent allocation of material kits and flexible order scheduling, reducing the product delivery cycle by 30%. Alongside efficiency gains, smart manufacturing is also continuously penetrating core production processes. Not long ago, FiberHome successfully developed the world's largest optical fiber preform, once again setting a new industry record. Song Wenjin, a reporter from China Central Television, noted that this is currently the world's largest optical fiber preform, with a diameter of 0.3 meters and an effective length of 3.5 meters. A single preform of this size can draw 20,000 kilometers of optical fiber. The company's self-developed intelligent flame algorithm can monitor real-time changes in flame angle, distance from the base, and color temperature during preform production, automatically adjusting process parameters to eliminate potential production anomalies in advance, significantly improving product yield rates. Xie Kang, General Manager of FiberHome's Wuhan FiberHome Ruituo Technology Co., Ltd., explained that in the past, anomalies were only detected through manual patrols. AI identification now helps them quickly and early detect anomalies throughout the production process, enhancing both manufacturing efficiency and quality. Currently, the company has built a digital quality control platform covering the entire product lifecycle. The yield rates for optical fiber preforms and fibers remain at industry-leading levels, with orders on hand scheduled into next year. Simultaneously, the company is feeding the entire process data from R&D and production of optical fiber and cables into industry-specific large model training, consolidating it into high-quality industry datasets to provide replicable practical experience for emerging industries like optoelectronics. Wu Ping, General Manager of FiberHome Communications' Operations Management Department, mentioned that they possess the complete process from optical preform manufacturing to fiber drawing and cabling, and have accumulated over 20 years of manufacturing process data. They also have a dedicated big data company and underlying computing power, allowing them to integrate all three to become a smart manufacturing solution service provider for the optical fiber and cable industry.

AI Empowers the Old and New: Century-Old Steel Company Forges a New Track

In Huangshi, Hubei Province, Daye Special Steel has built the first full-process industrial internet platform in the global steel pipe industry. AI and digital technology are deeply embedded in its production lines, driving the continuous advancement of flexible manufacturing capabilities for specialty seamless steel pipes. In the Digital Intelligence Center of Daye Special Steel's 460 Steel Pipe Plant, tens of thousands of data points refresh in real-time on a large screen. A digital twin system controls the entire production line's operation with millisecond-level precision. Currently, the traditional model of large-scale, standardized production is gradually fading, giving way to customized production characterized by multiple varieties, small batches, and high precision. At the 460 Steel Pipe Plant, the production line completes a process switch approximately every 30 minutes to calibrate full production parameters for orders from around the world. Ma Jinhui, Head of the Quality Assurance Department at Daye Special Steel Co., Ltd.'s Research Institute, pointed to a contract list on the screen, showing the number of steel pipe pieces for pending orders. In traditional steel production, fulfilling orders with only a few pieces poses significant organizational challenges. To solve this, the company invested nearly 1 billion yuan in implementing a full-process digital and intelligent transformation, making the 460 Steel Pipe Plant one of the first national-level excellent smart factories in the domestic specialty steel industry. By relying on a self-built integrated industrial internet platform, the factory has converted the practical experience accumulated by several generations of steel rolling technicians into automatically executable data fed into an AI large model. Previously, a scheduler would take most of the day to compile a weekly production plan; now, the system generates the optimal plan in minutes, reducing waiting time for switching between steel grades and specifications by 70%. The digital intelligence transformation brings more than just efficiency gains. In the past, after steel pipes were produced, workers had to manually measure them with micrometers and conduct batch sampling inspections, which made it difficult to cover all potential defects. Now, from the moment a steel billet goes online to when the finished product enters the warehouse, over 20,000 production data points are recorded for each pipe, essentially creating a unique "digital growth diary" for every pipe. Each pipe also receives a unique digital "ID card" after production. Tang Ke, Director of the 460 Steel Pipe Plant at Daye Special Steel Co., Ltd., explained that they now monitor each individual steel pipe. The system automatically accumulates or collects optimal parameters and data to standardize the entire process operation, reducing deviations. In the first quarter of this year, the supply capacity of this steel company's high-end characteristic products continued to rise, with production of high-grade varieties increasing by 8.5% year-on-year and 370 new types of specialty steel developed. The company has shifted from homogeneous competition in ordinary steel to a new track of domestic substitution for high-end specialty steel.

Ecosystem Synergy and Full-Advancement: AI + Manufacturing Activates New Productive Forces

As the "AI +" action deepens, smart manufacturing is not only improving efficiency and quality for local manufacturing enterprises in Hubei but also spawning a new track: industrial intelligent services. In Wuhan, Hubei, the production scheduling center of an industrial intelligent solution service provider houses a high-speed vertical industry large model for the semiconductor sector. The screen displays real-time operational data from nearly a hundred cooperative manufacturing enterprises within and outside the province. Relying on full-chain digital diagnosis and intelligent transformation services, the company experienced rapid order growth in the first half of this year, with output value increasing by over 10% year-on-year. Liu Liang, R&D Director of EAS for the Semiconductor Division at Groze Dongzhi, noted that many factories previously had weak automation and intelligence capabilities. They are empowering these enterprises, providing a full closed-loop solution from consulting to implementation and delivery to help them enhance their industrial capabilities. In the first half of this year, the local government released the "Hubei Province AI + Manufacturing Special Action Implementation Plan." This plan establishes a full-chain policy support system covering computing power infrastructure construction, application scenario opening, and high-end talent cultivation. It supports joint research and development between local AI service providers and manufacturing enterprises, turning production workshops into "testing grounds" and "implementation sites" for AI technology, allowing technologies to iterate and mature by solving real production problems. Concurrently, to address the common dilemma of small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises being "unwilling or afraid to transform" due to its scale and complexity, Hubei is building a provincial-level public service platform. This platform integrates technical resources from universities, research institutes, and AI companies to offer lightweight, low-cost intelligent transformation solutions, continuously lowering the barrier for enterprise transformation. With the accelerated deployment of future industries like the low-altitude economy and humanoid robots, the province is also continuously opening up channels for connecting AI technology with emerging industrial scenarios. Zhou Xiao, Deputy Director of the Artificial Intelligence and Big Data Industry Division of the Hubei Provincial Department of Economy and Information Technology, stated that they are building a provincial-level computing power interconnection platform and a provincial-level intelligent agent public service platform. These platforms will provide comprehensive public services—from data, algorithms, and computing power to models and intelligent agents—for manufacturing enterprises across the province. This will provide strong momentum for the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, the growth and expansion of emerging industries, and the forward-looking layout of future industries. Looking towards the "Fifteenth Five-Year Plan" period, Hubei will continue its "AI Scenario Opening Action," releasing over 100 typical AI application demonstration projects annually to deeply integrate artificial intelligence technology into thousands of industries, injecting new momentum into the central industrial highland.