Lenovo to prime supply chains, digital quotient to up efficiency

Lenovo Group Ltd, the world's largest personal computer maker by shipments, will enhance its supply chains and leverage digital technologies to make its manufacturing process more efficient and resilient, Chairman and Chief Executive Yang Yuanqing said on Wednesday.

The PC maker's factory in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, became operational earlier this month after an investment of 2 billion yuan ($285.8 million).

Lenovo has expanded and strengthened its global manufacturing footprint in the past three years, adding three manufacturing sites — in Tianjin, Shenzhen and Budapest, Yang said at the company's global suppliers conference in Tianjin.

"China is at a critical stage of moving from being a manufacturing powerhouse to a smart-manufacturing center, which will generate more opportunities," Yang said.

The company has established a stable relationship with 5,000 global suppliers and this sprawling supply chain network reflects the importance of international cooperation in manufacturing, he said.

According to Yang, Lenovo has turned the COVID-19 pandemic crisis into an opportunity for growth — its revenue grew from $50 billion three years ago to $70 billion in fiscal year 2022.

Lenovo's Shenzhen factory has an annual production capacity of over 16 million units, which include PCs, computer servers and smart wearable devices. This can drive upstream and downstream companies to create about 100,000 jobs, the company said. The factory is capable of manufacturing over 50 product categories with nearly 100,000 product configurations and these are shipped to over 180 countries and regions.

Lenovo's "intelligent manufacturing" plan dovetails with China's growing emphasis on advanced manufacturing, an area of intensified global competition among major economies.

China will scale up lending toward the manufacturing sector to ensure high-quality growth, said Meng Wei, a spokeswoman for the National Development and Reform Commission, at a news conference in Beijing on Wednesday.

In March, Minister of Industry and Information Technology Jin Zhuanglong said China will speed up efforts to transform and upgrade traditional industries that play a vital role in building a modern industrial system, and move the manufacturing sector toward higher-end, smarter and greener production.

China will continue to play a central role in the global supply chain, and its industrial chains have improved significantly as domestic and foreign companies invest heavily in modernizing their local production systems, said Denis Depoux, global managing director of consultancy Roland Berger, in a previous interview with China Daily.

Lenovo, for instance, has jumped seven places in a year to No 9 on its list of Global Supply Chain Top 25 for 2022, US market research company Gartner said.

Lenovo's factory in Hefei, Anhui province, has also been recognized as a lighthouse factory by the World Economic Forum. The Global Lighthouse Network is a community of production sites that are seen as world leaders in the adoption and integration of cutting-edge technologies.