Ceramic tile factory embraces future with digital brain, green heart

What does a ceramic tile factory look like in the age of artificial intelligence?

The answer, at least at Marco Polo Holdings' Shatian digital and intelligent factory in Dongguan, Guangdong province, is probably very different from what many people would imagine.

Walking through its production line, there is little of the dust-filled air, deafening noise and sweltering heat often associated with traditional ceramic production. Instead, intelligence is embedded in nearly every process.

In the raw-material workshop, an intelligent batching system enables rapid formula switching, shortening production changeovers and making it easier to handle smaller, more diversified orders. Nearby, smart continuous ball mills operate around the clock, while powdered materials are automatically transported to the molding area through an intelligent storage and delivery system.

Further along the line, ultrawide roller presses continuously feed tile bodies into towering kilns. Inside a nearby control room, engineers no longer rely solely on experience to judge firing conditions. Instead, an AI-powered monitoring system tracks the status of ceramic products in real time, helping raise the premium-product yield rate from 97.5 percent to 99.8 percent.

Once fired, the tiles move to the printing stage, where each product receives a unique anti-counterfeiting identifier.

"By checking the product's identity code, we can clearly trace where it goes and how it is used. It also helps consumers effectively identify counterfeit products," said Xu Xiaoyong, head of marketing at the group.

Before entering warehouses, every tile must pass one final test. An AI-powered inspection system scans each product for dimensional accuracy, flatness and surface defects.

"This effectively avoids missed detections and errors that can occur with manual visual inspection," Xu said.

For Huang Jianping, chairman of the group, digitalization is not simply about adopting fashionable technologies.

"The true value of AI lies in whether it genuinely solves problems," said Huang, adding that for the traditional manufacturing sector, developing new quality productive forces is not simply about upgrading equipment or improving efficiency, it is more about shifting from scale-driven production toward innovation-led value creation.

"At its core, this means creating a development model that is more technologically advanced, more efficient, higher in quality and more sustainable," Huang said.

Beyond its digital brain, the factory also has a green heart. Open-air collection ponds, storage tanks and a web of underground pipelines form a complete rainwater harvesting system. On the rooftop, solar panels stretch across the factory, supplying 70 percent of its electricity.

"We use the collected rainwater for production. The entire factory has achieved 100-percent recycling of industrial water, and no industrial wastewater is discharged," Xu said.

"These green technologies are especially important when building factories in overseas markets with relatively strict environmental requirements, such as the United States."

Today, the Chinese ceramic tile manufacturer operates five major production bases — four in China and one in Tennessee, US — and exports to more than 130 countries and regions, with an annual revenue of 6.5 billion yuan ($958 million) in 2025.

This plant offers a window into a broader move toward intelligent upgrades in the country's manufacturing sector.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said China has so far built 15 "pilot-level" intelligent factories — representing the highest tier of global intelligent manufacturing — where AI has penetrated more than 70 percent of their business scenarios.

In addition, the country is also home to more than 35,000 basic-level, over 8,200 advanced-level and over 500 excellence-level intelligent factories. By 2025, the application rate of AI technology among industrial enterprises above designated size exceeded 30 percent, MIIT data showed.