Today, the World Economic Forum (WEF) and McKinsey & Company officially announced the latest batch of "Lighthouse Factory" designations, with LENOVO GROUP's (00992) Monterrey manufacturing facility in Mexico successfully selected, becoming the first Chinese enterprise to illuminate a "Lighthouse Factory" in the Americas. This milestone demonstrates Lenovo's continuously evolving capabilities in its global expansion journey, marking another leap forward in the company's intelligent manufacturing and global supply chain capabilities, while showcasing the powerful strength of Chinese smart manufacturing's overseas expansion and establishing a benchmark for Chinese enterprises in overseas digital transformation and intelligent upgrades.
LENOVO GROUP's Mexican manufacturing facility is located in Monterrey, completed in 2008, featuring two main factory buildings covering approximately 40,000 square meters. The facility sources materials from over 2,000 global suppliers, producing more than 52,000 product categories including desktops, laptops, and servers, with products distributed to over 80 markets worldwide. Having been rooted locally for nearly 20 years, LENOVO GROUP has continuously upgraded its intelligent manufacturing capabilities, with achievements ultimately receiving authoritative recognition in the "Lighthouse Factory" selection.
The World Economic Forum and McKinsey evaluated LENOVO GROUP's Mexican manufacturing facility as follows: To address growing customer quality delivery demands and challenges of rising labor costs in Mexico, Lenovo's Chinese team collaborated with the local Mexican team to implement over 60 digital solutions, more than half utilizing artificial intelligence (particularly generative AI) technologies. These initiatives significantly enhanced factory performance: delivery cycles reduced by 85%, logistics costs decreased by 42%, quality losses reduced by 56%, carbon emissions cut by 30%, and production efficiency improved by 58%.
Currently, the Monterrey manufacturing facility has become LENOVO GROUP's global digital demonstration factory.
**Over 60 Digital Solutions Using AI to Illuminate Chinese Smart Manufacturing "Lighthouse"**
Artificial intelligence impacts the world with unprecedented depth and breadth, particularly in intelligent manufacturing. Against the backdrop of ultra-large-scale complex manufacturing, the Mexican factory deeply applies cutting-edge technologies including artificial intelligence, especially generative AI, in manufacturing and supply chain processes, creating an efficient and agile intelligent manufacturing and supply chain "brain."
**End-to-End Intelligent Decision-Making**: The Mexican factory sources raw materials from over 2,000 tier-one suppliers and 20,000-30,000 tier-two suppliers, with 70% of small orders containing fewer than 10 units, making supply chain and manufacturing processes highly complex. The factory introduced AI-powered supply chain planning modules that integrate order, delivery, and supply-demand data to achieve seamless collaboration with suppliers. Through strategic allocation and dynamic multi-objective optimization algorithms, engineering decision-making time was dramatically reduced from 2-3 days to less than one hour, achieving 43% inventory reduction and effectively improving supply chain collaboration efficiency.
The Mexican factory also constructed an end-to-end digital twin supply chain control tower utilizing generative AI for real-time root cause analysis (RCA), effectively supporting predictive disruption prevention and immediate action recommendations.
**Intelligent Logistics Engine**: Addressing inefficient manual planning and insufficient data utilization, the Mexican factory deployed an AI transportation engine based on metaheuristic and machine learning algorithms to efficiently process massive shipping rules. An enhanced digital twin platform connects 228 global data points, combined with AI large language models for risk prediction, ultimately achieving 85% reduction in delivery time. Benefits from optimized routing and container planning, plus deployment of AGV automated equipment, effectively reduced logistics costs and further established supply chain resilience.
**More "Intuitive" Production Lines**: To streamline the entire manufacturing process, the Mexican factory deployed a generative AI-powered Manufacturing Control Tower (MCT). The system features a built-in KPI library powered by generative AI that can track hourly output (UPH) losses in real-time and allows frontline employees to interact directly with the system through natural language (including locally-used Spanish), obtaining expert-level solutions with one click and dramatically reducing problem resolution time. Process flow digital twin technology achieved dynamic production line balancing, effectively solving challenges of long manual planning cycles, frequent configuration errors, and lengthy learning curves, enabling employees to easily manage production lines. Through the combination of generative AI and automated analysis, the factory achieved 58% labor productivity improvement.
**Comprehensive Smart Manufacturing Talent Upgrade**: During the intelligent manufacturing transformation and upgrade process, the Mexican factory trained over 800 digital talent personnel over three years, creating a smart manufacturing talent pipeline with enhanced digital skills. Lenovo also launched low-code development platform construction at the group level, providing powerful digital tools for factory operations. Non-professional IT personnel can easily create digital twin tools, helping more factory personnel transition to smart manufacturing talent and making them core drivers of digital transformation.
**Significantly Enhanced Sustainability**: By deploying comprehensive ESG and campus digitization systems based on big data and intelligent energy optimization, installing advanced IoT devices to build energy and water resource endpoint data collection networks, combined with AI algorithms for real-time analysis and optimization, the Mexican factory formed a closed-loop management mechanism of computation-monitoring-alerting-work orders. This year, the factory's energy intensity, water intensity, and carbon intensity all decreased by 30%.
Through implementing digital intelligence practices at the Mexican factory, LENOVO GROUP not only significantly improved manufacturing efficiency and supply chain resilience but also brought hybrid AI-powered manufacturing Chinese solutions to the global stage. The dual breakthrough in technical capabilities and operational effectiveness fully validates LENOVO GROUP's innovation leadership in overseas markets.
The successful upgrade of the Mexican factory represents the efficient collaboration of multiple departments within LENOVO GROUP, including global supply chain, research institutes, digital transformation, and IT. Employees from various Lenovo facilities, including the Hefei "Lighthouse Factory" and Shenzhen "mother factory," provided on-site support in Mexico. Meanwhile, the vast majority of supply chain and manufacturing digital intelligence system upgrades were developed in China and validated and implemented in Mexico. Through close collaboration between Chinese and Mexican teams, Chinese intelligent manufacturing methodologies and solutions successfully expanded overseas, helping secure "Lighthouse Factory" certification in the Americas.
**Nearly 20 Years of Local Development Establishes New Overseas Expansion Paradigm**
LENOVO GROUP's Mexican manufacturing facility has operated locally for nearly 20 years since beginning production in 2008. This manufacturing base serves not only as an important component of Lenovo's global intelligent manufacturing landscape but also as a "lighthouse" for Chinese enterprise overseas expansion through excellent localized operations and corporate social responsibility practices. It has created over 2,000 local jobs, injecting vitality into regional economic development.
Enterprise overseas expansion often faces challenges such as cultural barriers, talent shortages, and high turnover rates. LENOVO GROUP, leveraging mature international experience, has charted a unique localization path. The Mexican manufacturing facility's management and operations teams fully mobilize local manufacturing advantages and employee initiative and sense of belonging, fully respecting local culture and trusting local employees, adopting a "teaching how to fish" approach in talent management.
The factory has established close cooperation with numerous universities in Nuevo León state where Monterrey is located, setting up joint laboratories and hosting open days to cultivate high-quality, high-skilled technology manufacturing talent locally. LENOVO GROUP has built a mature global talent circulation and local integration system. Intelligent manufacturing talent from China, Hungary, Brazil, and other global locations regularly travel to Mexico to support digital intelligence transformation, while Mexican factory managers visit Shenzhen, Hefei, Wuhan, Tianjin, and other domestic Lenovo manufacturing bases to understand the latest global intelligent manufacturing trends.
"Mexico is an important component of Chinese enterprises' global landscape," says supply chain expert Lin Xueping, who has long observed Chinese enterprise overseas expansion. LENOVO GROUP leverages its mature globalization experience to front-load risk assessment, extensively employ local managers, and closely collaborate with local governments, universities, and communities, constructing an effective local implementation system that can quickly resolve various challenges including infrastructure, electricity, and talent issues.
LENOVO GROUP's successful practice in Mexico also provides a replicable and scalable "overseas expansion template" for more Chinese enterprises. Shenzhen-based Guangda Tongchuang has maintained a cooperation history of over 20 years with Lenovo. Based on this deep cooperation foundation, Guangda Tongchuang pioneered following Lenovo to Monterrey in 2016, establishing a manufacturing base locally.
The cooperation between the two parties extends beyond business levels to close coordination when facing challenges. When Guangda Tongchuang encountered issues such as incomplete local supply chain support and difficulty meeting product quality standards, Lenovo expert teams worked with Guangda Tongchuang technical personnel deep in the factory, holding multiple coordination meetings and spending half a year completing protective material product quality upgrades, establishing new manufacturing benchmarks.
This symbiotic win-win cooperation relationship extends to cultural integration and other fields. Guangda Tongchuang borrowed Lenovo's "visual management system" and "most beautiful smile" employee care activities, greatly enhancing local employees' sense of belonging and work enthusiasm. Today, besides Lenovo, Guangda Tongchuang has expanded to multiple new customers in Mexico.
The story of LENOVO GROUP and Guangda Tongchuang has many parallels in Mexico and globally, with Chinese enterprises overseas demonstrating tremendous potential in building open ecosystems and promoting industry win-win outcomes.
**Rooted in China, Globally Beneficial "Dual Lighthouses" Leading "China+N" Strategic Layout**
Before the Mexican factory's selection, LENOVO GROUP's Hefei industrial base became a "Lighthouse Factory" in 2023. As important components of LENOVO GROUP's over 30 global manufacturing bases, these two "Lighthouse Factories" will continue to mutually empower each other, continuously enhancing Lenovo's intelligent manufacturing capabilities and strengthening global supply chain resilience and operational efficiency.
Lenovo has built an end-to-end integrated global operations system over many years, forming a unique "autonomous manufacturing + outsourced production (ODM+)" model and "China+N" strategic layout, constructing a "global resources, local delivery" operational model. This layout centers on multiple domestic manufacturing bases in Hefei, Shenzhen, Wuhan, Tianjin, and others, while overseas manufacturing bases in Mexico, Hungary, Brazil, and elsewhere stay close to local markets for efficient delivery.
This globalized manufacturing network provides LENOVO GROUP with tremendous flexibility and resilience, enabling rapid response to uncertainties from global political and economic changes while capturing opportunities in rapidly developing markets like Latin America and the Middle East.
Hefei industrial base was selected as a "Lighthouse Factory" in 2023, becoming the world's largest intelligent computing equipment research and development and manufacturing "Lighthouse Factory." Through deep cultivation of overseas markets, Lenovo can more effectively integrate global resources to benefit domestic markets. Currently, approximately 80% of LENOVO GROUP's production and manufacturing, 70% of R&D personnel, and 60% of employees are domestic, while 75% of revenue comes from overseas, truly representing deep roots in China with global mutual benefit.
LENOVO GROUP has also been listed 11 times on the authoritative global supply chain Gartner Top 25, with the latest ranking of eighth globally, maintaining top ten status for four consecutive years, retaining the Asia-Pacific supply chain champion title, and remaining the only Asia-Pacific high-tech manufacturing enterprise on the list.
The Mexican manufacturing facility's inclusion as a "Lighthouse Factory" further strengthens coordination capabilities across Lenovo's global manufacturing network. Through data interconnection and coordination with multiple manufacturing networks including the other "Lighthouse Factory" Hefei industrial base, Lenovo has constructed a cross-regional, cross-platform global intelligent manufacturing network that will drive more flexible market demand response, feed advanced global intelligent manufacturing practices back to the entire manufacturing network, achieve knowledge and experience sharing, and provide reference for Chinese enterprises' overseas "Chinese Smart Manufacturing" reconstruction.
In the future, LENOVO GROUP will use "Lighthouse Factories" as engines to continuously drive global industry digital intelligence transformation, using globalized manufacturing layout to consolidate supply chain advantages. In the era of hybrid artificial intelligence, the company will promote AI benefits for every person and every enterprise, providing higher quality products and services for global customers.