How An 80-year-old Established State-owned Enterprise Builds A Cutting-edge Intelligent Factory

In the latest nationwide ranking of economic performance of book and publication printing enterprises released by the China Printing and Equipment Industries Association, Hebei Xinhua First Printing Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as 'First Printing Company') has shown strong development momentum. As a state-owned old factory with more than 80 years of revolutionary heritage, it serves as a vivid example of proactively seeking change and striving for innovation in the tide of the times. Its story vividly illustrates how traditional manufacturing can use 'digital intelligence' as a wing to achieve a profound leap from 'ensuring production' to 'leading value'.

Strategic Lead

Top-Level Design to Implement a Blueprint Through to Completion

Facing the accelerated digital transformation of the printing industry and the upgrade in quality demands during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, Yinyin Company did not choose minor repairs but instead launched its transformation with a systematic and forward-looking strategic restructuring.

The company deeply realized that piecemeal improvements could not address fundamental challenges. In 2022, Yinyin Company formulated a 3–5 year systematic strategic plan, clearly establishing "digital-intelligent transformation" and "high-quality development" as the dual engines driving the future. To this end, the company set up the "Digital-Intelligent Transformation Leadership Group" led by key executives, establishing a top-level promotion mechanism to ensure resource allocation and execution strength. This strategic positioning paved the way for all subsequent technology introduction, management reforms, and talent upgrades, truly achieving "a blueprint implemented through to completion."

The transformation path is clear and determined. Relying on the Hebei Digital Printing Industrial Park (Baoding Base), the company is building a distinctive development model that integrates the red heritage of state-owned enterprises, the characteristics of digital-intelligent manufacturing, and cultural highlights. This positioning not only continues the red bloodline and cultural mission since the factory's establishment in 1938, firmly shouldering the political responsibility of delivering primary and secondary school textbooks "before the class" and printing Party and government publications, but also looks to the future, embracing the infinite possibilities of intelligent manufacturing and industrial integration.

Technological Empowerment

Building the "Four Pillars and Eight Beams" of Intelligent Manufacturing

The implementation of strategy ultimately relies on strong technical strength. Yinyin Company's intelligent transformation is a full-chain "body reconstruction" covering prepress, printing, and post-press.

At the hardware level, the company has successively introduced advanced equipment such as high-speed four-color and eight-color offset presses, and high-speed binding lines, constructing a modern production matrix. But having the "sharp tools" also requires "skillful use." The company innovated the processes of rotary equipment with a "double input, single output" approach, significantly improving single-shift output; upgraded LED-UV ultraviolet ovens to meet high-end printing needs; successfully tested and mass-produced new processes such as book-in-book binding, expanding business boundaries. More notably, by implementing the "Digital-Intelligent Print Factory System Integration" project, the company spent eight months integrating 32 major production devices into a connected system, achieving automatic collection and closed-loop management of production data.

At the software and standard level, Yiyin took the lead in passing the strict C9 printing and packaging quality control certification in Hebei Province, transforming color management from "master's experience" to "quantifiable data". The dual gatekeeping system of automatic comparison of pre-press graphics, automatic tracking of overprinting in the printing process, detection and automatic weighing of post-press graphics and text, and deep integration of manual experience and intelligent technology makes the goal of "zero error" a daily routine. Innovative processes such as "cloth with folded mouth bare back hollow ridge" have not only increased the firmness of books and periodicals by 20%, but also won wide praise from the market for its artwork-like appearance. These technological breakthroughs have finally condensed into a series of internal control standards such as the "Plate Making Process Standardization Manual" and the "Production Process Specification and Quality Standard Manual", forming a sustainable and replicable quality control system.

Market breakout

From "Printer" to "Value Co-Creator"

The upgrade of technology and management must ultimately be tested by the market. The market strategy of Yiyin Company shows obvious characteristics of "breaking the circle" and "upgrading".

In terms of core business, the company not only firmly undertakes the task of printing textbooks for primary and secondary schools, but also helps the group win the silver award in the quality evaluation of the People's Education Edition textbooks with excellent quality. In the field of high-quality printing, Zizhi Tongjian has won many awards such as the China Printing Grand Gold Award, proving its ability to conquer the high-end market.

More forward-looking is the expansion of business models. The company took the initiative to "go global", deepened cooperation with leading publishing institutions in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, undertook the printing of classic classics, and promoted the proportion of non-group business revenue to 50%. At the same time, the company reverses its own cultural accumulation of more than 80 years, builds the Baoding Printing Museum, innovatively develops the research experience of "the first line of life", successfully transforms the "industrial production line" into a "cultural experience line", creates a new format of "printing + cultural tourism" integration, and injects a deep cultural premium into the corporate brand.

Management restructuring

Use digital leverage to leverage development efficiency

The technological revolution will inevitably call for a management revolution. The core of Yiyin's management restructuring is to replace empirical judgment with data-driven to achieve a leap from "fuzzy management" to "lean operation".

As early as 2017, the company built and continued to optimize the "comprehensive budget management" system, establishing a closed loop of "quota-accounting-analysis-assessment". This system transforms strategic goals into quantifiable budget indicators, decomposes them layer by layer to departments and individuals, and forms a mechanism of "all employees control costs, tap potential and increase efficiency". Regular budget execution analysis meetings are like the "digital dashboard" of the enterprise, so that every resource investment is clearly visible, effective and controllable.

At the same time, the company took the construction of the "digital intelligent printing factory" as an opportunity to promote the reengineering of the production process. Based on the data linkage of ERP and MES systems, explore automatic order splitting and dynamic allocation of production capacity; The verification and operation of the AGV intelligent logistics system has opened a new model of intelligent scheduling and precise distribution of materials. The final results are intuitively reflected in the shortening of the production cycle, the improvement of delivery punctuality and the optimization of overall operating costs, and the company will be recognized as an "advanced smart factory" by the Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology in 2025.

Building Talent Foundations

Creating a "Vibrant Ecosystem" to Drive Innovation

Ultimately, any transformation is a transformation of people. Yinyin Company deeply understands this principle, elevating talent system development to a strategic level and focusing on addressing talent gaps in traditional manufacturing.

In 2024, the company was successfully approved as the first professional skills level recognition institution in the printing industry in Hebei Province covering the full process and all job types. This means that Yinyin Company can not only cultivate talent independently but also set skill standards for the industry. The company has used this to build an integrated "training-certification-promotion" mechanism, forming a professional assessment team, and has successfully completed multiple batches of skill level certifications, providing employees with a clear career development "overpass."

In terms of incentive mechanisms, the company implements a "challenge and lead" competition system, breaking down departmental barriers through competition and special project applications, allowing those who want to work and are capable to stand out. The scientific "three-determinations" optimize the organizational structure, while integrating digital intelligence achievements and green production indicators into performance assessments, and establishing an "Innovation Reward Fund," effectively igniting intrinsic innovation motivation among all employees. A composite team of "digital craftsmen," proficient in both traditional printing techniques and digital technology, is taking shape and becoming the company's most valuable intellectual capital.

Green Future

Moving Toward an "Excellence-level" Sustainable Journey

Under the guidance of the "dual carbon" goals, greening is not optional but essential. Yinyin Company embeds environmental protection into the entire production process: building advanced eco-friendly facilities such as ground source heat pumps and zeolite rotary RTO gas treatment systems; using environmentally friendly raw and auxiliary materials to completely eliminate the "ink smell" in teaching materials; monitoring energy consumption through digital systems to achieve a year-by-year reduction in energy use per unit output. Green has become a distinctive foundation for the company's high-quality development.

At the new starting point of the 15th Five-Year Plan, Yinyin Company centers on quality control and uses digitalization and green development as dual wings to drive the comprehensive upgrading of its business, industrial chain, and talent system. The company has established a two-step goal for intelligent factory construction: initially building an "excellence-level intelligent factory" and, on that basis, advancing to a higher-level "pilot-level intelligent factory." Across factory construction, product development, process design, production management, operations services, and supply chain management, the company conducts business decoupling that covers the full product lifecycle, entire manufacturing process, and complete supply chain. By promoting the deep integration of next-generation information technology and manufacturing technology, deploying intelligent manufacturing equipment, industrial software, and intelligent systems, it achieves business restructuring through digitalization, networking, and intelligence, creating standardized and replicable smart manufacturing scenarios, which are ultimately integrated to form a truly intelligent factory.

Yinyin Company's transformation is a "four-dimensional resonance" of technology, management, talent, and culture, and it also serves as a vivid microcosm of the transformation and upgrading of Chinese manufacturing. It clearly demonstrates that traditional industries are not sunset industries. As long as one dares to use innovation as a blade to break conventional patterns, and insists on using practical efforts as steps to scale the peak of digital intelligence, it is entirely possible to rejuvenate in the waves of the times, even taking a leading position.

The journey of the "Yinyin people" is an unceasing path of lean development. Their story is not only about the rise of a printing factory but also about how to make profound industrial memories shine with new brilliance through heritage and innovation, leaving deep marks of diligent effort in the great cause of serving the construction of a culturally strong nation. In the future, this team, combining red heritage with digital intelligence, will continue to advance steadily toward the goal of an excellence-level intelligent factory, adhering to the spirit of "craftsmanship to maintain original intention, diligence to demonstrate responsibility."