KUNMING, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- Yunnan Baiyao Group said that it completed Wednesday a smart factory that is able to churn out 500 million tubes of toothpaste a year.
The factory, constructed to Industry 4.0 standards with an investment of 1.16 billion yuan (about 160 million U.S. dollars), produced its first tube of toothpaste in a trial run on the same day.
The smart factory will significantly improve the production process through intelligent management at every step from raw material weighing to final product storage, said Xia Feng, general manager of Yunnan Baiyao's engineering system center.
"Manual intervention will be reduced in the smart factory to achieve increased production efficiency and accuracy," Xia said.
The factory now has nine toothpaste production lines, with a designed annual capacity of 500 million tubes, and is expected to be put into operation by the end of this year.
Established in 1902, Yunnan Baiyao is a time-honored brand based in southwest China's Yunnan Province, famous for producing baiyao, or white powder that is used to stop bleeding and relieve pain.
The firm has become the leading toothpaste seller in the domestic market, according to Xia.
A single purchase
