Building a "Green Factory" Matrix, Meizhi and Welling Create "Green Competitiveness" for Home Appliances

At present, vigorously promoting sustainable development and accelerating the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development have become the common goals of all walks of life. As system-level solution suppliers of core components for consumer appliances, GMCC and Welling adhere to the group's "green strategy" and, relying on continuous R&D investment and lean manufacturing capabilities, have built a green manufacturing matrix including six national green factories, promoting the deep integration of industrial digitalization, intelligence and greening, and continuously leading the green and low-carbon development and sustainable transformation of China's home appliance industry.

The GMCC Meizhi Technology Industrial Park (Meizhi Xingtan Factory), which will be put into operation in 2023, is one of the newest factories in Meizhi's global layout.

The six national green factories of GMCC and Welling include: Anhui GMCC Refrigeration Equipment Co., Ltd., Welling (Wuhu) Motor Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Guangdong GMCC Precision Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Guangdong Welling Motor Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Huaian Welling Motor Manufacturing Co., Ltd., and Foshan Welling Washing Motor Manufacturing Co., Ltd.; in addition, Anhui GMCC Precision Manufacturing Co., Ltd. was also selected as a provincial green factory, and Guangdong GMCC Precision Manufacturing Co., Ltd. and Guangdong Welling Motor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. were both selected as provincial green supply chain management enterprises.

Create green products with leading technology

Products are the soul of the manufacturing industry and one of the core carriers of the concept of sustainable development of enterprises. Meizhi and Welling fully implement the concepts of low carbon, green, high efficiency and environmental protection in technology research and development, product design, and raw material selection, so as to significantly improve the environmental friendliness of products. As early as 2013, the R290 rotary compressor independently developed by Meizhi with core independent intellectual property rights has been mass-produced. The use of R290 environmentally friendly refrigerant effectively reduces greenhouse gas emissions. This not only marks that the initial commitment of Meizhi R290 compressor production line as a United Nations Montreal Demonstration Project has been realized, but also strongly promotes the process of environmentally friendly refrigerant substitution in the global home appliance industry. With the continuous research and development of environmentally friendly refrigerant technology and innovative breakthroughs, in 2023, the key technology research and application of Meizhi's high-efficiency R290 rotary compressor won the "International Leading" appraisal. Through the three major innovations of reducing the refrigerant retention of the compressor, improving the volumetric efficiency of the compressor, and improving the mechanical efficiency of the compressor, the monomer efficiency of the R290 rotary compressor has been improved and the amount of refrigerant retention has been reduced, leading the industry's energy conservation, emission reduction and green sustainable trends.

GMCC Air Conditioning Compressor

In the field of home appliance motors, Welling has been driving the green and efficient development of the home appliance industry with motor energy efficiency upgrades and lightweight materials. For example, Welling's research and application of key technologies for ultra-high-efficiency ferrite fan motor systems has been conducted to address the problem of "improving efficiency and reducing consumption" in motor systems. The efficiency of ferrite motor systems has been studied in depth, and ultra-low iron loss technology, active resonant harmonic elimination technology, and ultra-low strain iron core technology have systematically solved the pain point that it is difficult to significantly improve the efficiency of traditional fan motor systems.

Promoting green manufacturing with digital intelligence upgrades

Based on the production and manufacturing links, Midea and Welling fully leverage their advantages in intelligent manufacturing and lean production, and rely on innovative digital upgrades and equipment energy-saving transformation to create a green intelligent manufacturing system. While improving production efficiency, raw material utilization and product quality, it effectively reduces waste and specifically reduces energy consumption levels in key links.

For example, Guangdong Welling Motor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. has achieved lean improvement in factory production operations by digitally upgrading its logistics and distribution processes. By using measures such as on-demand review, sorting and classification, and AGV automatic delivery to the production line, combined with the application of digital methods such as accounting informationization and digitalization of material order instructions, the factory has effectively improved its distribution efficiency by 50%, and its accounting accuracy rate has reached 98.5%, achieving good results in improving quality and efficiency. The green factories under Meizhi and Welling have also actively built an intelligent manufacturing system based on intelligent equipment, and continuously increased the number of machines per 10,000 people; through digital construction, the factory's intelligent production equipment, intelligent logistics equipment, intelligent testing equipment, intelligent monitoring equipment, equipment networking and other key equipment have achieved interconnection and interoperability, and it has taken the lead in the industry to achieve a zero-breakpoint factory for the entire value chain process, effectively improving production efficiency.

Welling Motor

Anhui Meizhi Air Compressor System Digital Large Screen

Vigorously developing the circular economy and promoting waste reduction and resource utilization are also important directions for green manufacturing. In this regard, GM and Welling actively promote the reduction of solid waste at the source and resource utilization, minimize the amount of landfill, aiming to minimize environmental impact and promote the circular economy. For example, Guangdong Welling Motor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. passed the TÜV Rheinland Waste Zero Landfill Management System Certification (Zero Waste Factory Certification), becoming the first factory in the global motor industry to pass the three-star certification. In this process, Guangdong Welling Motor significantly reduced the generation of various types of waste through process breakthroughs, process and mold optimization, harmless transformation of raw materials, and optimized feeding methods, thus winning the highest level of "three-star" certification for the waste zero landfill management system.

Implementing green energy through full-process management

Promoting green production and sustainable development requires continuous improvement in energy utilization and management. On the one hand, Meizhi and Welling actively promote the use of cleaner green energy, and on the other hand, actively improve the level of smart energy management, effectively improving energy efficiency through online monitoring and collection of energy consumption data.

For example, Guangdong Meizhi Precision Manufacturing Co., Ltd. is one of the earliest enterprises in Foshan to invest in the construction of distributed photovoltaic projects. It has been self-generating and using green electricity for more than 10 years. The annual power generation of the photovoltaic power generation system is about 1.5 million kWh, and the cumulative reduction of carbon dioxide emissions exceeds 10,000 tons. Guangdong Welling Motor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. is also actively installing distributed photovoltaic power generation systems and has planned the second and third phase photovoltaic projects. After the completion of the overall project, the annual power generation is expected to reach 5.0266 million kWh, which can reduce the emission of about 3,000 tons of carbon dioxide.

Photovoltaic power station on the roof of the factory building of Guangdong Meizhi Precision Manufacturing Co., Ltd.

In addition to increasing the "source" utilization of green energy, Meizhi and Welling also focus on continuously exploring the optimization space of energy use through lean energy management. Meizhi Xingtan Factory has initially established an energy control center to monitor and collect real-time data on production, air compressors, central air-conditioning systems, etc. Welling uses an intelligent energy consumption monitoring platform to monitor, count and control the electricity consumption of each power consumption area and large equipment, improve the level of equipment maintenance, detect abnormalities in time and respond quickly, thereby reducing energy waste. Among them, the data of the energy management platform can be synchronously connected to the carbon platform, and the carbon emissions of each workshop are statistically analyzed every month to create data support for the implementation of the "dual carbon" strategy.

Not only that, smart energy management technology also makes energy-saving renovations for existing equipment and facilities more targeted. Anhui Meizhi has adopted a series of targeted energy-saving strategies for the factory's "big energy consumer" - the air compressor station, achieving effective improvement in energy efficiency. Through technical approaches such as pipeline pressure loss change detection, cloud intelligent control AI algorithm modeling and monitoring, Anhui Meizhi has effectively achieved on-demand gas supply and energy efficiency optimization of the air compressor station, significantly reducing the energy consumption of the air compressor station by 30%, saving more than 18 million kWh of electricity each year, and reducing carbon emissions by 14,951 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. It was successfully listed as a national "first-level energy-efficient compressed air station" in April 2024.