Foton Shandong Multifunction Plant in the Weifang Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone is promoting smart technologies in production processes and is strengthening its quality management approach in order to support its long-term growth.

Smart technologies have been used in processes such as painting, welding and gluing at Foton Motor's Weifang plant over the past two years, according to the company.

These smart technologies have helped Foton to reduce production costs by 41.83 million yuan ($6.14 million) in 2015 and 2016. The number of employees on Foton's production lines dropped from 2,433 in 2015 to 2,281 in 2016.

The employees who left their positions were retrained and acquired new skills to support the company's growth in other job positions, according to the company.

Li Yongjun, an employee who once worked in Foton's assembly workshop, said that smart technologies can accurately sort and assemble vehicle parts and effectively reduce the risk of human error."We can make production plans more efficient and allocate manpower more accurately with smart systems," said Qu Junqi, a department manager of Foton's Weifang plant. "The overall interruption time has been reduced by 80 percent."

Xie Xianjun, a division head in the painting department, said that the smart systems help Foton to improve production efficiency and reduce overtime work.

Foton produces more than 200 vehicles per day. In previous years, Xie and his team had to work overtime everyday to complete daily tasks.

Foton installed painting robots in 2015. The robots have not only helped to significantly reduce the rate of occupational hazards, but also helped the company to increase average net profits per capita by 10 percent.

"We can finish our work on time with the new technologies," said Xie.