PR95243

WEF recognizes Midea Group as a pioneer in the 4th Industrial Revolution for the 3rd time, with 2 new Midea manufacturing sites joining the Global Lighthouse Network in 2022

SHUNDE, China, March 30, 2022 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --

Midea Group Co., Ltd. (000333CH) was honoured as a pioneer of Industry 4.0

technologies with two factories, Midea Heifei and Midea Jingzhou, included in

the Global Lighthouse Network of the World Economic Forum (WEF), showing the

Group's efforts in achieving both production efficiency and sustainability.

The Global Lighthouse Network is a community of production sites and value

chains which are world leaders in the adoption and integration of the

cutting-edge technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). In total,

Midea Group owns 4 WEF Lighthouse factories covering smart home appliances,

which account for a relatively high proportion of the Group's revenue.

"Our factory used to produce high-end and middle-end products at the same time,

and our production faced a very big challenge," commented Li Zhen, General

Manager of Midea Jingzhou factory. "It was very inefficient in the traditional

manufacturing way, and difficult to meet the needs of our consumers in time."

Through the implementation of the digital and intelligent transformation

measures, Midea Jingzhou lighthouse factory adopted flexible automation. loT

and artificial intelligence with more than 2,000 digital transformation

initiatives have increased labor productivity by 52%, and reduced production

lead time by 25%, the failure rate by 53%, and the utility consumption per unit

by 20%.

Midea washing machine factory in Hefei has also witnessed a similar revolution.

The number of product SKUs exceeds 1,100 and the annual production and sales

volume of Midea Hefei is also at the forefront. "Digitalization has driven the

transformation of our entire business process, model and increased efficiency,"

according to Zhang Zhimin, General Manager of the factory.

Targeting domestic high-end product segments and overseas market expansion,

Midea Hefei Advanced 4IR Lighthouse factory widely deploys artificial

intelligence and loT technologies across end-to-end value chains to form a

faster response and more efficient supply chain, resulting in lead time

reduction by 56%, customer report defect rate reduction by 36%, and labor

productivity improvement by 45%. Also, it also helps to meet the goal of

achieving carbon emissions peak in 2025 and net-zero in 2040.

"In the future, Midea Group will continue to increase investment in

digitalization, IoT, global breakthroughs and technological leadership and

invest in new cutting-edge technologies," said Simon Zhang, CIO of Midea Group.

About Midea Group Co., Ltd.

Midea Group, with the vision of "bringing great innovations to life", has

upheld the philosophy of creating a better life with technology for 54 years

since its establishment. Today, Midea has evolved into a sci-tech conglomerate,

specializing in Smart Home Business, Industrial Technologies, Building

Technologies, Robotics & Automation, and Digital Innovation Business. Over the

past five years, nearly 45 billion RMB has been invested in R&D, with 35 R&D

centers and 35 major production bases in the world. Our products and services

benefit about 500 million consumers in over 200 countries/regions.

Source: Midea Group

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