The 2026 Lean Digital Innovation Conference and Lean Digital Transformation Innovation Ecosystem Expo, hosted by the China Enterprise Reform and Development Research Association, concluded successfully from September 5-7 at the National Convention Center in Tianjin. Under the theme "AI-Driven, Lean Foundation," the event featured three major components: the Lean Digital Innovation Competition Finals, high-level forums, and the Lean Digital Transformation Innovation Ecosystem Expo. Numerous central state-owned manufacturing enterprises, industry leaders, and cutting-edge technology companies gathered as partners, showcasing innovations spanning smart factories, industrial software, AI applications, and green manufacturing. This created a platform integrating government, industry, academia, research, and application sectors, propelling manufacturing toward greater sophistication, intelligence, and sustainability.

Since its inception in 2023, the Lean Digital Innovation Conference has hosted 23 sessions, establishing itself as an international professional platform linking global manufacturing with advanced management thinking—often dubbed the "Davos of Manufacturing." Each year, over a thousand participants attend, including representatives from outstanding domestic and international enterprises, academia, research institutions, and government agencies. A key evolution at this year's event was the formation of a three-in-one structure—conference, competition, and exhibition—for the first time in over two decades, with each segment serving functions of practical discovery, methodology refinement, and outcome commercialization.

Where to Begin Your Journey

As a significant ecosystem partner, Yuantu deeply engaged in the conference's core segments, sharing forward-looking insights and implementation outcomes in AI infrastructure. The company joined industry, academic, and research leaders to explore practical applications of AI in driving intelligent and lean transformations within manufacturing enterprises.

Uniting Top-Tier Forces Across Sectors to Unlock AI's Value in Manufacturing

On the afternoon of September 6, the opening ceremony and main forum commenced. Serving as the intellectual heart of the conference, the forum brought together senior officials from the National People's Congress and the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, academicians from the Chinese Academy of Engineering and the German National Academy of Science and Engineering, alongside executives from manufacturing giants including Chalco, CATL, and Unitree Robotics. These leaders collectively examined trends and pathways for digital and intelligent transformation in manufacturing.

Yuantu's CEO, Deng Zhiguo, was invited as an enterprise representative from the AI computing infrastructure sector, delivering a keynote titled "AI and Manufacturing: From Technological Competition to Value Realization." Addressing the shift from AI pilot projects to large-scale implementation in manufacturing, Deng emphasized his core viewpoint: "The true AI revolution unfolds half in the digital world, and the other half must take root in the factory." He analyzed three major opportunities AI presents—efficiency gains, business model restructuring, and industry chain positioning—and introduced a "Five Adherences" methodology based on Yuantu's practices, offering a clear blueprint for others.

These principles include: maintaining an "Industry + AI" approach for AI-native core business processes; driving initiatives from the top with a focus on high-ROI pain points tied to customer and commercial value; building the "data foundation and enterprise ontology" first, progressing from small to large value-stream loops; adopting a hybrid "self-development + ecosystem" route; and restructuring talent and organizations toward "human-machine collaboration."

Debuting the AI Industry Chain Innovation Forum

A noteworthy addition was the first-ever parallel forum on AI industry chain innovation practices, creating a deep dialogue platform between technology providers and manufacturing demand. Themed "Full-Stack AI-Driven, Smart Manufacturing Value Realization," the forum featured distinguished speakers including Li Peigen, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, alongside executives and technical experts from companies like IRM (Iborui Group), Sugon (Shuguang) Intelligent Computing, Moore Threads, Yuhu Technology, Beijing Rimao Robotics, Tianjin Tianhe Digital Industry, and Tianjin Huizhi Xingyuan. Discussions dissected pathways translating AI technical prowess into industrial value, directly answering common questions seen during manufacturing's AI exploration phase. Yuantu's Vice President, Ding Yu, presented "Intelligent Computing Evolution: Reconstructing Token Productivity in the AI Era," sharing insights from Yuantu's full-stack AI infrastructure expertise and industrial implementations, highlighting computing system upgrades as crucial support for boosting manufacturing AI productivity.

Elevated Competition Scale with Esteemed Jury

Simultaneously, the 2026 Lean Digital Innovation Competition concluded, marking its fourth consecutive year. This national event, broad in regional coverage and industry scope, attracted deep participation from enterprises across value chains. This year's scale reached new heights with 725 participating organizations and 2,234 teams—a rise of over five times in teams and 4.5 times in organizations compared to the inaugural edition, vividly reflecting the vibrant momentum of digital innovation in Chinese manufacturing. Notably, a new "AI + Management Innovation" track was introduced, offering insights into AI's integration into enterprise operations. The jury comprised senior executives from leading firms, renowned academics, and industry association experts, with notaries supervising throughout to ensure professionalism, authority, and fairness. Yuantu's CIO, Xie Xiupeng, served as a judge for the "AI + Management Innovation" track, helping identify high-value AI cases with potential for industrial promotion. Following intense competition, the event recognized two outstanding Gold Star works, along with 113 five-star, 167 four-star, and 272 three-star works, plus 21 best organizing units and 27 audience favorite awards.

Bridging the Gap: Ecosystem Expo Facilitates Connections

The concurrently held Lean Digital Transformation Innovation Ecosystem Expo made its debut as a large-scale achievement exhibition and ecosystem connection platform, signifying the conference's expansion from idea exchange and case evaluation to enabling supply-demand links and industrial collaboration. The expo placed application scenarios, technological products, and solutions into a single space, turning abstract technological concepts into tangible, observable, comparable, and discussable formats, thereby enhancing interactions between manufacturing firms and technology service providers. At the expo, Yuantu participated as a full-stack computing solutions provider for the AI agent era, exhibiting core products like super nodes, AI inference servers, and general-purpose computing servers. Demonstrations showcased full-stack computing technologies applied to industrial digitalization and lean management scenarios, underscoring Yuantu's technical depth and service capabilities in AI infrastructure.

Paving the Path Forward

This deep involvement in the 2026 Lean Digital Innovation Conference marks a significant milestone for Yuantu in charting AI implementation routes for manufacturing. Leveraging its delivered computing platform and manufacturing expertise, Yuantu aims to offer clients an upper-layer application support platform. The company looks forward to collaborating with robotics, model, and application enterprises to build a robust ecosystem, accelerating the large-scale adoption of AI across manufacturing.