The digital transformation of Chinese businesses has reached a critical moment. China's digital economy has entered a new stage of growth, while the optimization of the digital industry chain is booming. From December 10th to 12th, 2020, China Digital Annual Conference 2020 with the theme of "2020 Digital Future" was held.

At this event, emlyon business school, as the exclusive academic sponsor, jointly organized the Global Business Intelligence Forum and released "2020 Rank of Top 100 Smart Manufacturers in China"and"Intelligent Manufacturing Industry in China: Development and Trends in 2020" White Paper ("China Intelligent Manufacturing White Paper”).

The ranking and white paper were jointly released by emlyon business school, Jinnang Expert, China Digital Annual Conference 2020 and Lanjing Caijing, researched by the collaboration of emlyon, Huazhong University of Science and Technology School of Management and “the Key International Cooperation Project” Team of the “National Natural Science Foundation”.

The ranking and white paper were authored by Dr. Gong Yeming, Professor at emlyon business school, Head of AIM Institute, and Director of Business Intelligence Center. Prof. Gong and Prof. Zhang Jinlong jointly led the research team of China Intelligent Manufacturing White Paper. Prof. Zhang is “Chief Scientist” of “Key Projects of the National Social Science Foundation”, Director of the “Modern Information Management Research Center” and Editor-in-Chief of Chinese Journal of Management. Dr. Wu Shan serves as Research Fellow and Data Analyst of the White Paper.
China Intelligent Manufacturing Ranking and White Paper are supported by the "Research on Strategic Path and Supporting System of Information and Network Technology-Driven Manufacturing Transformation" (Grant No. 16ZDA013), a major project of the National Social Science Foundation, as well as the key international cooperation project of the National Natural Science Foundation (Grant No. 71620107002).

The White Paper started with China’s Top 100 Smart Manufacturers. The list was determined by the research group of China Intelligent Manufacturing White Paper based on various methods, including quantitative analysis and qualitative research, through six-stage researching approach:

1. field study, company visits, and interviews to understand industry and rank;
2. preliminary selection based on reputation,
3. preliminary selection based on criteria of smart manufacturing,
4. evaluation by academics,
5. evaluation and ranking by executive managers;
6. in-depth interviews to understand results.

The research group has extensively investigated Chinese manufacturers and relevant databases, and selected 100 candidates from 15,200 candidates. Afterwards, executive managers from the intelligent manufacturing industry cast 12,790 votes on the candidates, which finalized the ranking. The list has been evaluated by both academia and industry during the process.

China’s Top 100 Intelligent Manufacturers

Please see China’s Top 25 Intelligent Manufactures and the analysis below. Refer to the White Paper for the full ranking.

Top 10

Manufacturer	Rank	Change	Listing
Foxconn Technology Group	1	Same	SSE: A601138 NYSE: FXCNY HKEX: 2038
Haier Group	1	Same	HKEX: 01169
Huawei Technology Co., Ltd	3	Down	_
Fuyao Glass Industry Group Co., Ltd.	4	Same	SSE: A 600660 HKEX: 03606
China Shipbuilding Industry Group	5	Up	SSE: A 600150
China National Automobile Co., Ltd.	6	Up	SSE: A 601766
China Commercial Aircraft Co., Ltd.	7	Up	_
China Baowu Iron and Steel Group Co., Ltd.	8	Up	SZSE: A 600019
Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable Joint Stock Limited   Company	9	Up	SSE: A 601869
Midea Group	10	Same	SZSE: A 000333

Top 25

Manufacturer	Rank	Change	Listing
Gree Electric Appliances Inc	11	Down	SZSE: A 000651
Alibaba Group (Aliyun IoT Intelligent Manufacturing Platform)	12	Down	NYSE: BABA
Baidu Inc.(Apollo, Baidu’s unmanned car)	13	Down	NYSE: BAIDU
Tengxun Cloud (Intelligent Manufacturing Solution)	14	Down	_
Beijing BOE Display Technology Co., Ltd. (BOE)	15	Down	_
DJI Technology Co., Ltd.	16	Down	NEEQ: 830792
Geely Holding Group	17	Down	HKEX: 00175
SMIC Group	18	New	HKEX: 00981 STAR: A688981
Shanghai NIO Automobile Co., Ltd.	18	Up	NYSE: NIO
China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation	20	Down	SZSE: A 000100
FiberHome Telecommunication Technologies Co., Ltd	21	Down	SSE: A 600498
Sichuan Changhong Electric Co., Ltd.	22	Down	SSE: A 600839
BYD Co., Ltd	23	Up	SZSE: A 002594
Chery Automobile Co., Ltd.	24	Up	_
Lixun Precision Industry Co., Ltd.	25	New	SZSE: A 002475

Top 25 covers the following categories:

• F2H2: Foxconn, Haier, Fuyao and Huawei.
• IT giants (BAT): Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent.
• Hardware giants (P5): BOE, DJI, YOFC, SMIC and FiberHome.
• Manufacturing giants starting with “China” (C5): CRRC, COMAC, CSSC, China Baowu and CASC.
• Manufacturers without “China” (M8): Midea, Gree, Geely, NIO, Changhong, BYD, Chery and Lixun Precision.

Rankings by Segment

China Intelligent Manufacturing White Paper further reveals a number of rankings by segment, including China's Top 8 Intelligent Manufacturing Unicorns as follows. As the number of China's intelligent manufacturing unicorns has declined, there are only 8 companies on the list, less than last year, which raises some concerns on the potentials of emerging intelligent manufacturers in 2020.

Manufacturer	Year of Inception	Base	Rank in Top 100	Rank in Top Unicorns
Shanghai NIO Automobile Co., Ltd.	2014	Shanghai	18	1
Xiaomi Technology Co., Ltd.	2010	Beijing	26	2
Beijing Kuangshi Technology Co., Ltd.	2011	Beijing	37	3
Beijing Shangtang Technology Development Co., Ltd.	2014	Beijing	42	4
Zhiche Youxing Technology Co., Ltd. (Singularity Motor)	2014	Beijing	41	5
Shenzhen Horizon Robotics Technology Co., Ltd.	2015	Shenzhen	70	6
Whaley Technology Co., Ltd.	2015	Shanghai	76	7
Beijing Car and Home Information Technology Co., Ltd.	2015	Beijing	100	8

China’s Top 15 Private Intelligent Manufacturers (CRE15) are as follows.

Manu-facturer	Base	Owener-ship Structure	Rank in Top 100	Rank in CRE 15
Fuyao Glass Industry Group Co., Ltd.	Fuzhou, Fujian	Joint stock limited company Legal Representative: Cao Dewang	4	1
Midea Group	Foshan, Guangdong	Joint stock limited company Chairman: Fang Hongbo	10	2
Shanghai NIO Automobile Co., Ltd.	Shanghai	Limited liability company Chairman: Li Bin	18	3
Zhejiang Geely Holding Group	Hangzhou, Zhejiang	Limited liability company Invested or held by natural person Chairman: Li Shufu	20	4
BYD Co., Ltd.	Shenzhen, Guang dong	Joint stock limited company Taiwan/Hong Kong/Macao and domestic joint venture and public listing Legal Representative: Wang Chuanfu	23	5
TCL Group Co., Ltd.	Huizhou, Guang dong	Joint stock limited company Chairman: Li Dongsheng	30	6
Cobos Robot Co., Ltd.	Suzhou, Jiangsu	Joint stock limited company Chairman: Qian Dongqi	33	7
Xiaomi Technology Co., Ltd.	Beijing	Limited liability company Chairman: Lei Jun	26	8
Sany Group Co., Ltd.	Changsha, Hunan	Limited liability company Chairman: Liang Wengen	36	9
Beijing Kuangshi Technology Co., Ltd.	Beijing	Limited liability company Legal Representative: Yin Qi	37	10
Beijing Shangtang Technology Development Co., Ltd.	Beijing	Limited liability company Wholly owned by Taiwan/Hong Kong/Macao legal person Chairman: Tang Xiaoou	42	11
Yuanda Residential Industry Co., Ltd.	Changsha, Hunan	Limited liability company Chairman: Zhang Jian	44	12
Hubei SanFeng Intelligent Equipment Co., Ltd.	Huangshi, Hubei	Joint stock limited company Public listing, Invested or held by natural person Legal Representative: Zhu Hanping	45	13
Guangdong Topstar Technology Co., Ltd	Dongguan, Guang dong	Joint stock limited company Public listing, Invested or held by natural person Legal Representative: Wu Fengli	46	14
Nanjing ESTUN Automation Co., Ltd.	Nanjing, Jiangsu	Joint stock limited company Public listing, Invested or held by natural person Chairman: Wu Bo	48	15

According to the "Statistics for the Division of Large, Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises (2017)" published by the National Bureau of Statistics, China’s Top 10 Intelligent Manufacturing SMEs (SME10) are concluded.

Manu-facturer	Year of Inception	Base	Rank in Top 100	Change
Singulato Motors Co., Ltd.	2014	Beijing	42	Same
Nobot Intelligent Equipment (Shandong) Co., Ltd.	2013	Shandong	50	Up
Dongguan Jinsheng Precision Technology Limited	2003	Guangdong	53	Same
Shenzhen Cambrian Intelligent Manufacturing Technology Co., Ltd.	2015	Guangdong	55	Down
Shanghai Turin Chi Robot Co., Ltd.	2007	Shanghai	64	Same
Pangolin Robot Corp., Ltd.	2006	Jiangsu	66	Down
Beijing HollySys Co., Ltd.	1996	Beijing	68	Same
Guangzhou Sinorobot Technology Co., Ltd.	2011	Guangdong	83	Same
Evert Intelligent Equipment Co., Ltd.	2007	Anhui	85	Down
Jiangsu Zhongneng Polysilicon Technology Development Co., Ltd.	2006	Jiangsu	96	Same

Analysis

The changes in the rankings in 2020 and 2019 are as below.

In 2020, the business environment of China's intelligent manufacturing industry has changed greatly. Compared with 2019, the ranking of Top 100 in 2020 witnessed visible changes, due to the following causes:

More state-owned enterprises have climbed up in the ranking, influenced by recent national policies;

The ranks of businesses related to international trade have declined, due to the new landscape of the global economy;

The ranks of IT-oriented smart manufacturers have declined, while those of manufacturing-dominated smart manufacturers have risen;

More chip manufacturers have entered Top 100. Chip manufacturing has become a hot spot this year.  However, we hope that it would be sustainable.

The decline in the ranks of 72 businesses is related to the downturn of the global economy and the COVID-19 outbreak on the one hand. On the other hand, the decline in the ranking does not necessarily mean that its performance has deteriorated. It is probably due to new entrants in chip manufacturing and other new intelligent manufacturing segments this year.

China Intelligent Manufacturing White Paper also presents the geographic distribution of intelligent manufacturing enterprises, which is similar to last year.

Moreover, the White Paper reveals the sector distribution of intelligent manufacturing enterprises, which is further concentrated in “the computer, communication and other electronic manufacturing” segments. It is mainly influenced by this year's policy environment for chip and other computer equipment manufacturing segments, which have affected the allocation of resources to other sectors.

The release of this White Paper is a periodic review of the evolution of China’s intelligent manufacturing in 2020. emlyon business school will further collaborate with the research group of the Key Projects of the National Social Science Foundation to understand global management practices and lead the academic and industrial innovation in the field of smart manufacturing.

emlyon business school has long been committed to training international executives through the integration of science and education and that of industry and education, by launching the Business Intelligence Center (BIC) and hosting Global Business Intelligence Forum. BIC is engaged in establishing a specialized system of cutting-edge disciplines, focusing on digital technology and business intelligence to connect with industrial chains, and continuously providing new knowledge and expertise for the digital transformation of enterprises.

Furthermore, it is committed to support "emlyon business school Confluences 2025 ", which emphasizes social responsibility, digitalization, globalization and hybridization.

About the Centre

The Business Intelligence Center (BIC) is a leading multidisciplinary institution in the field of human and machine intelligence for business, and is engaged in the delivery of cutting-edge research, impact and education.  In the era of the digital economy, we explore how to integrate exponential techniques such as artificial intelligence (AI), big data, edge computing, quantum computing, and the Internet of things (IoT) with management study to create new business and social values. Furthermore, we consider “converging paradigms for intelligence in brains, minds, and machines” and collaborative intelligence with humans and AI as joining forces to support “joint intelligence” in “The early makers 2023 strategic framework” for emlyon.

Based in Shanghai, the centre operates across emlyon business school’s campuses in Paris, Lyon, Saint Etienne, Bhubaneswar, and Casablanca. We have a particular expertise in Intelligence for Management, with capabilities to improve joint intelligence, digitalisation, performance, and globalisation.