Home appliance maker embraces intelligent equipment

Gree, a major Chinese home appliance maker, is ramping up efforts in intelligent manufacturing by setting up unmanned factories and using industrial robots in a variety of production cycles, as part of its broader push to upgrade the country's manufacturing industry.

"We have eight manufacturing bases across the country, most of which are unmanned factories. China must master core technologies to grow into a manufacturing power," Dong Mingzhu, chairwoman and president of Gree, said on the sidelines of the annual sessions of the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

Dong, who is a deputy to the NPC, said Gree entered into the intelligent equipment industry in 2013. The industry covers numerical control machines, industrial robots, servo-manipulators, intelligent storage equipment and intelligent detecting systems.