GENEVA, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- The World Economic Forum (WEF) on Thursday named seven factories, two from China, as "Lighthouse" facilities, leading manufacturing facilities based on their successful implementation of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
The Lighthouse program is designed to help industries adopt the technologies of the future.
The newly named seven factories from Germany, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, The Netherlands and China.
All members of the network agree to share knowledge with other manufacturers, WEF said in a statement here.
Expansion of the network coincides with the publication of a white paper, Fourth Industrial Revolution: Beacons of Technology and Innovation in Manufacturing, highlighting findings from the Lighthouse program to date.
The Lighthouses join a group of nine others unveiled in 2018.
"All were selected from an initial list of 1,000 manufacturers based on their successful implementation of Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies in ways that have driven financial and operational impact," said the WEF in a statement.
The broader purpose of the community is to help overcome the practical challenges experienced by industries in advanced and emerging economies when upgrading technology.
Danfoss, Commercial Compressors from China's port city Tianjin, was the first factory from China named.
It makes compressors for refrigerators, air conditioning units, and other products.
"By using its full digital traceability system and digital tools such as smart sensors, visual inspection, auto monitoring system, etc. to improve quality control, it has improved labor productivity by 30 percent and decreased customer complaints by 57 percent within two years," said WEF.
Foxconn, an electronic products manufacturer from southern China's Shenzhen is known as the "Lights off factory", said WEF.
"Its Fourth Industrial Revolution-first approach has resulted in efficiency gains of 30 percent and lowered its stock cycle by 15 percent," said the WEF.
