Ningbo in East China's Zhejiang province plans to construct 100 smart plants within three years, as the city looks to make intelligent manufacturing a major part of its economy. 

Currently, more than 7,000 enterprises are working toward greater reliance on intelligent technology, accounting for over 82 percent of the total industrial enterprises above the designated size in the city.

Some have already achieved this goal. Weishang Auto Parts Co Ltd is one such company. 

The company based in Yunlong town, Yinzhou district has invested nearly 100 million yuan to promote the digitalization of its production lines in recent years. 

As a result, it has been able to reduce its workforce from nearly 1,000 to 600 and slash the number of substandard products by 80 percent. 

According to an action plan recently released by local authorities, Ningbo aims to put 10,000-plus industrial robots into use by 2022. 

The city also aims to set up 10 digitalized industrial parks, 10 influential industrial internet platforms and 100 demonstration enterprises for the application of technologies such as 5G and industrial internet. 

The city expects to see a revenue of 50 billion yuan ($7.24 billion) from its industrial software, including embedded software, by 2022, while the output value of intelligent manufacturing equipment clusters is expected to reach 120 billion yuan. 

Each district and county administered by Ningbo will have its own focus in the city's drive to promote intelligent technology.

For example, Haisu district will primarily focus on textiles and clothing, while Yuyao city will mainly concentrate on small household appliances and rubber injection molding.