At the 2026 Lean Digitalization Innovation Conference held at the National Exhibition and Convention Center in Tianjin from September 5 to 7, Weng Jieming, a member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and Deputy Director of the Financial and Economic Affairs Committee, delivered a keynote speech outlining new approaches to digital transformation in manufacturing through lean principles.
Weng addressed the audience from three key perspectives—reading the broader landscape, defining the strategic path, and building the industrial ecosystem—to explain how manufacturers can navigate their digital evolution.
He noted that as China enters the first year of its 15th Five-Year Plan, the manufacturing sector stands at a critical crossroads. On the policy front, the government continues to intensify digital development efforts, rolling out comprehensive AI-plus initiatives to embed artificial intelligence deeply into the real economy. Across the industry, AI has already woven itself into every stage of manufacturing—from R&D and production to quality inspection and maintenance—with a distinctly Chinese model of smart manufacturing rapidly taking shape. Given the intensifying global competition in AI ecosystems, China's vast and complete manufacturing base must seize this strategic window to claim a leading position in AI-empowered industrial development.
A central theme of his address was that lean management has not lost relevance in the age of AI—it has grown more vital than ever. He emphasized that "AI serves as an amplifier and accelerator for lean practices, not a replacement." Lean management, with its foundational logic of eliminating waste, creating value, and pursuing continuous improvement, remains the bedrock of high-quality manufacturing. Without lean processes and management systems, AI applications would lack a solid foundation, easily fracturing into fragmented, isolated implementations. Conversely, AI can refine management granularity, accelerate decision-making, and precisely identify hidden operational issues, elevating traditional lean practices into an intelligent, upgraded framework.
Weng stressed that the integration of AI and lean must extend far beyond the production line itself, requiring systemic transformation across the entire value chain and full lifecycle. Companies should leverage industrial large models to optimize R&D and design, employ intelligent scheduling and vision-based quality inspection to boost production efficiency while cutting costs, and dismantle data silos to strengthen supply chain and operational control.
Looking to the 15th Five-Year Plan period, he observed that digital transformation in manufacturing will enter deeper waters, demanding a fundamental shift from isolated pilot projects to comprehensive, enterprise-wide advancement—and from piecemeal cost reductions to systematic efficiency gains.
Turning to ecosystem development, Weng highlighted the conference's integrated platform combining forums, competitions, and exhibitions as a high-quality vehicle for linking national strategy with industrial markets, enabling the efficient conversion of policies, technologies, use cases, and outcomes. He noted that years of industry engagement have yielded group standards for lean digitalization assessment and talent capability requirements, effectively addressing the common corporate dilemmas of being "afraid to transform" and "unsure how to transform."
He concluded by calling for the integrated platform to unite industrial forces, nurture lightweight and cost-effective digital solutions, and codify a Chinese model for manufacturing transformation—continuously driving the deep fusion of technological innovation and management reform to bolster new productive forces, modern industrial systems, and world-class enterprises.