Four Building Materials 5G Factories Recognised in MIIT’s Latest Typical Applications List
According to reports from Xinhua News Agency, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has recently released the "2025 Typical Application Practices of 5G Factories", selecting 100 technologically advanced and benchmark-leading 5G factory cases covering multiple key industrial sectors. Among them, four 5G factories in the building materials industry have been included, a recognition of the sector’s digital transformation progress and a clear guide for accelerating the integration of "5G + Industrial Internet" into the entire production process.
One of the selected cases is the 5G Factory for Glass Fibre and Its Products of Nanjing Fiberglass Research & Design Institute (abbreviated as NFGRI). "During its development, NFGRI faced multiple bottlenecks, including delayed equipment data transmission in production links, low efficiency in manual inspection and fault diagnosis, and ineffective integration of data throughout the production process," stated Zhou Cheng, Deputy General Manager of NFGRI (Suqian) New Materials Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of NFGRI.
To address these issues, the company has built a 5G factory project, establishing 11 "5G + Industrial Internet" application scenarios such as production unit simulation, production energy efficiency management, and intelligent factory logistics. Through scenarios like 5G + Artificial Intelligence (AI) visual inspection and intelligent fault diagnosis, it has improved quality inspection accuracy and equipment operation efficiency; built a full-process data traceability system to ensure production compliance; and created an intelligent logistics and warehousing system to optimise resource scheduling, driving the transformation of production models towards intelligence.
"The overall production efficiency of the company has increased by more than 30%, kiln energy consumption has decreased by 15%, the capture rate of irregularities has reached 98%, and the environmental compliance rate is 100%," Zhou added, noting that 5G technology can significantly optimise enterprise production efficiency and drive the intelligent upgrading of the building materials industrial chain through industrial Internet platforms and multi-system integration.
In recent years, the building materials industry has accelerated its digital and intelligent transformation, with continuous improvements in the intelligent level of R&D, production and management. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, digital mines, digital workshops, intelligent factories and industrial Internet platforms have emerged rapidly in the sector, with the numerical control rate of key processes reaching 66.5%. Represented by advanced technological achievements such as Conch Group’s "AI + Cement" building materials large model, China National Building Materials Group’s "Xiaomiao" building materials industry large model, and Jidong Cement Tongchuan’s unmanned production line, "AI + Building Materials" has become a new direction for industry upgrading.
Yan Xiaofeng, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of the China Building Materials Federation, suggested that during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, the industry should further promote the full industrial chain empowerment of AI technology. "Building materials enterprises should build typical data sets covering the entire chain and links around key business links such as R&D and design, production control, logistics and warehousing, and procurement and sales," he said, emphasizing the need to accelerate digital and intelligent transformation and foster an ecological system supporting industrial intelligence.
It is understood that during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, the building materials industry will launch an initiative to build 100 "Six-Zero" factories. Relying on the improving evaluation standard system for "Six-Zero" factories, more demonstration benchmark factories will be cultivated, making intelligence, greenization and integration more tangible in the sector and providing reference for industrial enterprises and even the entire industrial field. Meanwhile, efforts will be made to promote the integrated development of "AI + Building Materials" and expand overseas layout to form a new development pattern.
