Bakery giant embarks on intelligent development path

A worker uses an intelligent system at Huicheng Food Co. [Photo/WeChat account of Wudang district]

With new quality productive forces becoming the new focus of company development in 2024, Huicheng Food Co, a bakery giant in Wudang district in Guiyang, capital of Southwest China's Guizhou province, has been working toward intelligent transformation.

Established in 2006, Huicheng Food has built over 60,000 square meters of standardized factory space and operates six modern production lines. The company owns nearly 200 directly operated chain stores in the province and 15 in Chongqing, selling 2,000 metric tons of baked goods annually. In recent years, its annual output value has been as high as 700 million yuan ($96.67 million).

As the factory expanded, issues such as excessive manpower, high employee turnover, subpar management, and insufficient automation became increasingly apparent. Accelerating the intelligent and green upgrading of the factory has become crucial for the continuous development of the company.

In recent years, Huicheng Food has invested about 30 million yuan to build a research and development team of over 100 people and introduced technologies such as artificial intelligence and robotics, pushing food manufacturing towards more refined, standardized, and automated "intelligent manufacturing."

Yang Lan, person in charge of a Huicheng Food chain store, has worked in the store for several years in many positions. This February, her store introduced an electronic management system and the staff began wearing smart work chips. Whether they are out of the store, checking in, or working, Yang can monitor the store's status at any time through cloud data. Smart management has made her job much easier than before.

The headquarters' introduction of new systems like "Mobile Inventory," "AI Product Loss Report," and "AI Completion" has greatly saved on manpower and time. Yang said that previously, it took over an hour to conduct inventory after closing every day. Now, with one click of the refresh button, real-time stock levels are displayed.

In addition, staffing at Yang's store has been streamlined, with the number of on-site bakers reduced from five to four. Efficiency has improved, with over 100 product categories managed based on system-provided sales and product losses reported through big data analysis.

The next step for the company is to invest an additional 800 million yuan to establish the "Huicheng Wudang Industrial Ecological Park" integrating multiple sectors such as production, academia, research, culture, sports, and tourism.