On September 16, the World Economic Forum (WEF) and McKinsey officially announced the latest list of “Lighthouse Factories,” with Lenovo Group’s Monterrey manufacturing base in Mexico successfully ，becoming the first “Lighthouse Factory” by a Chinese enterprise in the Americas.
This milestone demonstrates Lenovo’s continuously evolving strength in its global expansion, marks another leap in its smart manufacturing and global supply chain capabilities, and showcases the powerful capability of Chinese smart manufacturing to be rebuilt overseas, setting a model for Chinese enterprises in digital transformation and intelligent upgrading abroad.
Lenovo Group’s manufacturing base in Monterrey, Mexico, established in 2008, covers an area of about 40,000 square meters with two main workshops. It sources materials from more than 2,000 suppliers worldwide, producing over 52,000 product categories including desktops, laptops, and servers, which are exported to more than 80 markets globally. After nearly 20 years of operation, Lenovo’s continuous upgrading of smart manufacturing at this base has finally earned the authoritative recognition of the “Lighthouse Factory” award.
The World Economic Forum and McKinsey commented that to meet customers’ growing quality delivery demands and address Mexico’s labor cost challenges, Lenovo’s Chinese team, in collaboration with the local Mexican team, implemented over 60 digital solutions, more than half of which adopted artificial intelligence (especially generative AI) technologies. These initiatives significantly improved factory performance: delivery cycle shortened by 85%, logistics costs reduced by 42%, quality losses decreased by 56%, carbon emissions cut by 30%, and production efficiency increased by 58%. The Monterrey manufacturing base has now become Lenovo Group’s global digital demonstration factory.
Over 60 Digital Solutions: Lighting the “Lighthouse” of Chinese Smart Manufacturing with AI
AI is influencing the world with unprecedented depth and breadth, particularly in smart manufacturing. Against the backdrop of ultra-large-scale complex manufacturing, the Mexican factory has deeply applied cutting-edge technologies including AI, especially generative AI, throughout its manufacturing and supply chain processes, creating an efficient and agile smart manufacturing and supply chain “brain.”
End-to-End Intelligent Decision-Making
With raw materials coming from over 2,000 tier-1 suppliers, 20-30,000 tier-2 suppliers, and 70% of small orders for fewer than 10 units, the supply chain and manufacturing processes are extremely complex. The factory therefore introduced an AI-powered supply chain planning module that integrates order, delivery, and supply-demand data to achieve seamless collaboration with suppliers. Leveraging strategic allocation and dynamic multi-objective optimization algorithms, engineer decision-making time has been dramatically reduced from 2-3 days to less than 1 hour, enabling a 43% inventory reduction and significantly improving supply chain collaboration efficiency.
Logistics with an Intelligent Engine
Addressing the pain points of inefficient manual planning and underutilized data, the Mexican factory deployed an AI transportation engine based on metaheuristic and machine learning algorithms to efficiently handle massive shipping rules. An enhanced digital twin platform connects 228 global data points, combining AI large language models for risk prediction, ultimately reducing delivery time by 85%.
More “Intelligent” Production Lines
To connect the entire manufacturing process, the Mexican factory deployed a generative AI-enabled Manufacturing Control Tower (MCT). This system features a KPI library powered by generative AI that can track hourly production (UPH) losses in real-time.
Smart Manufacturing Talent Upgrade
During the smart manufacturing transformation and upgrade process, the Mexican factory has trained over 800 digital talents in the past three years, building a team with enhanced digital skills.
Combining ESG with the park’s digital system, the factory has installed advanced IoT devices to build an energy and water end-data collection network, which, combined with AI algorithms for real-time analysis and optimization, has formed a closed-loop management mechanism of calculation-monitoring-alarm-work order. This year, the factory’s electricity intensity, water usage intensity, and carbon emission intensity have all been reduced by 30%.
Deeply Rooted Locally for Nearly 20 Years: Establishing a New Model for Going Global
Since commencing operations in 2008, Lenovo Group’s manufacturing base in Mexico has been operating locally for nearly 20 years. This manufacturing base is not only an important part of Lenovo’s global smart manufacturing network but has also become a “lighthouse” for Chinese enterprises going global through its outstanding local operations and corporate social responsibility practices. It has created over 2,000 local jobs and injected vitality into the regional economy.
The factory has also established close cooperation with many universities in Nuevo León state, setting up joint laboratories and organizing open days to cultivate high-quality, high-skilled technology manufacturing talents locally.
Lenovo Group has built a mature system of global talent circulation and localization integration. Smart manufacturing talents from China, Hungary, Brazil, and other parts of the world regularly visit Mexico to support its digital transformation.
“Dual Lighthouses” Leading the “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 more than 30 manufacturing bases worldwide, these two “Lighthouse Factories” will continue to empower each other, constantly enhancing Lenovo’s smart manufacturing capabilities and strengthening the resilience and operational efficiency of its global supply chain.
Looking ahead, Lenovo Group will continue to promote the digital and intelligent transformation of global industries with its “Lighthouse Factories” as engines, leveraging its global manufacturing layout to strengthen supply chain advantages in the hybrid AI era, promoting AI to benefit everyone and every enterprise, and providing higher quality products and services to global customers. (Suky)
