Chinese machinery giant Sany Group plans to take advantage of intelligent manufacturing to reach 300 billion yuan ($46.56 billion) in sales revenue, recruit 3,000 more workers and hire 30,000 engineers by the end of the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25).

The company's pile machine factory in Beijing, namely Sany Beijing, was recently approved as a "Lighthouse Factory" by the World Economic Forum, becoming the first one approved in heavy industry in the world.

The "Lighthouse Factory" list was jointly issued by the WEF and global market research company McKinsey & Co. It was intended to select factories leading the way in the adoption and integration of frontier technologies around the world.

Lighthouse Factories represent the highest level of intelligent manufacturing and digitalization in the global manufacturing industry today.

The official website of WEF said the reason in approving Sany Beijing as a Lighthouse Factory was that "faced with growing demand and rising complexity in the multicategory and small-batch heavy machinery market, Sany Beijing deployed advanced human-machine collaboration automation, artificial intelligence and the internet of things technologies to boost labor productivity by 85 percent and reduce production lead time by 77 percent from 30 to seven days."

Industry experts said the approval of the Lighthouse Factory demonstrated Sany's remarkable achievements in advanced manufacturing and digital transformation, and helped the company gain an advantage in competition amid the latest industrial revolution.