"'Smart Manufacturing' Breakthrough: Who's Quietly Breaking the Game?"

The Evolution of a Leading Chain Enterprise

On March 11, at the FOTAI 2026 Global Smart Kitchen Ecosystem Conference, the first “Global Smart Kitchen Innovation Development White Paper” was officially released. FOTAI, in partnership with Huawei Sports & Health and over 30 other cutting-edge industry partners, co-created the “Future Ecosystem of Smart Kitchens,” sending a clear signal to the outside world: this leading kitchen appliance company from Ningbo, Zhejiang, is transforming from a “technology product leader” into a “industry standard and ecosystem paradigm setter.”

The significance extends beyond the company itself.

As a new wave of technological revolution and industrial transformation accelerates, major economies worldwide are pushing to upgrade manufacturing to intelligent production, aiming to seize the high ground of future competition. In this context, how can manufacturing powerhouses like Zhejiang take the lead?

Standing at the new starting point of the 14th Five-Year Plan, Zhejiang has explicitly proposed to “build a globally advanced manufacturing base at a high level,” while Ningbo, a manufacturing city, is targeting the goal of becoming the “Global Innovation Capital of Intelligent Manufacturing.”

Against this backdrop, FOTAI’s crucial step vividly illustrates how this economically strong province is breaking through in “smart manufacturing”—when a leading manufacturing enterprise focuses on defining industry standards and leading ecosystem construction, its regional industrial cluster already plays a significant role on the global map.

1

The Radiating Effect of a “Future Factory”

Over the past five years, Zhejiang’s GDP has consecutively surpassed 7 trillion, 8 trillion, and 9 trillion yuan, reaching 94.545 trillion yuan by 2025, maintaining the fourth position nationwide. Behind this economic leap is a profound shift in development logic and pathways.

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By 2025, Zhejiang’s “415X” advanced manufacturing cluster will achieve an operating income of 8.97 trillion yuan. Not only does it account for a quarter of the country’s industrial scale, but its digital and intelligent transformation efforts have also become a national benchmark for new industrialization.

Among these, the “Future Factory,” as an advanced form of intelligent manufacturing, is regarded as a vital carrier for Zhejiang’s deep industrial transformation.

Take FOTAI’s high-end kitchen appliance future factory as an example. Inside, dozens of core smart manufacturing equipment and systems—such as RFID collection systems, multi-functional six-axis robots, CCD vision systems—operate in an orderly manner. The industry chain can produce a range of products, such as range hoods or dishwashers, every 25 seconds.

By 2025, FOTAI’s smart kitchen appliance factory was officially recognized as a national-level excellence smart factory and 5G factory, leading the way in intelligent manufacturing.

Data shows that compared to traditional manufacturing modes in the kitchen appliance industry, FOTAI’s smart factory has increased production efficiency by 36.8%, reduced operating costs by 22.9%, shortened product development cycles by 30.3%, and improved energy utilization by 10.2%. For example, in smart production, the factory has introduced AGV robots and automated production lines, with key processes automated at over 95%, including the “lights-out” production of range hoods.

Another aspect of building these smart factories is the deep integration of the leading enterprise into the regional industrial chain: Ningbo is one of China’s four major home appliance clusters, and Cixi is renowned as the “Small Appliance Capital,” with over 2,000 home appliance manufacturing companies and nearly 10,000 supporting enterprises, accounting for about 60% of global small appliance production. Developing a standard factory model centered on the chain leader not only allows replication and promotion across other FOTAI bases but also drives upstream and downstream industry upgrades through data connectivity, further enhancing regional industrial collaboration.

FOTAI’s headquarters—Qianwan New Area in Ningbo—is a strategic bridge connecting Ningbo with Shanghai and integrating into the Yangtze River Delta, and a key industrial hub in Zhejiang.

In 2016, the “Hangzhou-Ningbo Twin Cities” initiative was proposed, marking the start of coordinated development between the two “twin stars” within Zhejiang. That same year, FOTAI established the Hangzhou Intelligent Kitchen Appliance Research Institute in Qianjiang Century City, 120 km from its headquarters.

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Hangzhou, the “Number One City for Digital Economy,” and Ningbo, the “City of Manufacturing Champions,” exemplify how “dislocation coordination and integrated fusion” can be implemented on the industrial front.

FOTAI has explored a path: the research institute fully leverages Hangzhou’s technological innovation and talent advantages, focusing on R&D of many kitchen appliance smart technologies from “0-1,” then refining “1-10” product and technical standards at the Ningbo headquarters innovation center, and finally utilizing the headquarters’ production capacity for “10-100” mass production, supporting the intelligent upgrade of the product system.

In a sense, from exploring intelligent production methods to leading regional industrial chain collaboration, FOTAI’s smart manufacturing genes are deeply embedded in the regional economic development and resonate with it.

2

A 30-Year “Relentless” Innovation Marathon

At the end of last year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced the ninth batch of national manufacturing single champion enterprises, with Ningbo adding 15 new companies, totaling 119, maintaining the top spot in the country for eight consecutive years. Analyzing the growth secret of this “champion city,” independent innovation remains a defining feature.

" Ningbo’s innovation is pragmatic—no fancy show, just focusing on solving technical problems, upgrading processes, and perfecting products. They stick to their guns in niche fields and rely on real skills to stand firm," said well-known financial writer Wu Xiaobo.

Starting in the 1990s, FOTAI exemplifies local innovation-driven development.

At that time, foreign brands monopolized China’s high-end kitchen appliance market, while domestic brands were still at the stage of “usable tools.” In 1996, at its founding, FOTAI targeted the pain point that ordinary range hoods could not meet Chinese cooking needs. The team spent eight months developing, and its first A-type range hood sold over 30,000 units in the first year.

Since then, continuous innovation achievements have emerged.

Recently, at the top global appliance and consumer electronics event—AWE 2026—FOTAI launched its smart smoke and stove solution, which attracted industry attention with its cutting-edge technology. The solution features the world’s first invisible range hood paired with FOTAI’s global first Sentinel Stove, integrating three core technologies—“invisibility, odor invisibility, and noise invisibility”—and deep linkage between smoke and stove, creating a smart cooking ecosystem characterized by “active perception, intelligent coordination, and comprehensive protection,” representing disruptive innovation.

Example: To address the long-standing issue in Chinese households of “oil smoke odor and safety hazards coexisting,” FOTAI’s invisible range hood series uses intelligent odor purification technology, actively monitoring odors and removing harmful gases 24/7. With proprietary AI full-range purification technology, it offers wider coverage, stronger suction, faster smoke control, and better exhaust effects. Its latest AI smart smoke technology at AWE features industry-first “five-sense precise monitoring,” blocking oil smoke at the source while assisting cooking, leading to technological leapfrogging.

For instance, in terms of “invisibility,” FOTAI’s invisible range hoods adopt an aerospace-inspired foldable lift structure, with a seamless design and ultra-thin lightweight technology, achieving a thin yet strong, light yet stable profile—disrupting the bulky, conspicuous, and installation-limited past. Regarding “quietness,” the range hoods mimic the biological structure of nautilus, pioneering a full-path biomimetic noise reduction system, achieving “library-level silence,” making cooking a joyful experience again.

The technological breakthroughs of FOTAI’s smart smoke and stove extend further. Its global first Sentinel Stove uses innovative radar technology and a proprietary three-level anti-dry-boil system to ensure cooking safety. It also achieves full-range intelligent linkage among smoke, stove, steaming, and baking functions, breaking down device barriers between range hoods, stoves, and ovens, integrating efficiency and user-friendliness into the entire cooking process for seamless smart operation.

Industry experts believe that the epoch-making significance of FOTAI’s smart smoke and stove lies in fundamentally redefining the value coordinates and competitive rules of the kitchen appliance industry, opening a new scene of scenario-based innovation through “smoke and stove system synergy.”

For ten consecutive years, FOTAI’s high-end smoke and stove sales have ranked No. 1. The key to continuous breakthroughs is the unwavering long-term commitment to R&D and innovation. According to Ma Lixiang, founder of FOTAI Group, the ultimate competition in China’s kitchen appliance industry is not in showrooms but in the uncharted territory of basic science.

By 2025, this giant in the kitchen appliance industry has accumulated a “super patent pool” with over 17,000 global patents, including more than 4,000 invention patents, and holds eight patents related to range hoods, ranking first worldwide.

3

An Evolving “Definer” of Ecosystem Co-Construction

Winning strategic initiative in major power competition must rely on technological innovation, but controlling the discourse on innovation development is not about closed technological monopolies; it’s about open ecosystem co-creation. The same applies to regions and enterprises.

In recent years, the phenomenon of the “Six Little Dragons”—with their breakthrough core technologies—has become a vivid example of Zhejiang’s ongoing optimization of its innovation ecosystem. Some analyses suggest that the core insight is not just individual technological breakthroughs but the creation of a healthy ecosystem with “sunshine, rain, and fertile soil.”

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FOTAI’s ecological thinking aligns with this. Vice President Sun Liming stated that the core of industry competition has shifted to the ability to build ecosystems across devices, services, and scenarios. The essence of a smart kitchen is a systematic reconstruction of the relationships among “people, food, space, and environment” through technology.

Looking back over its 30 years of technological pursuit, FOTAI has not only witnessed China’s kitchen appliance industry transforming from “catch-up” to “leading” but also gained confidence for future competition. In 2006 and 2017, FOTAI’s sales revenue surpassed 1 billion and 10 billion yuan respectively, becoming China’s first kitchen appliance company to break the 100-billion-yuan mark; by 2021, it exceeded 15 billion yuan, and by 2025, it aims to surpass 17 billion yuan, achieving a leap from traditional manufacturing to a global brand.

Meanwhile, this industry leader in technological innovation continues to deepen its exploration in digitalization and intelligence.

This perhaps explains why the recent FOTAI 2026 Global Smart Kitchen Ecosystem Conference attracted dozens of ecosystem partners such as Huawei Sports & Health, Zhiyuan Robotics, and Yuwell Medical, once again leading industry innovation and setting the trend.

Currently, “promoting the deep integration of technological and industrial innovation” is placed in an even more prominent strategic position. This will bring more comprehensive strategic planning, deeper reform courage, and higher-priority resource investment—an opportunity for innovative and intelligent manufacturing enterprises.

In specific scenarios, as Kevin Kelly, founding editor of Wired and “Father of Silicon Valley Spirit,” said at the FOTAI 2026 conference: “Everyday kitchen activities, including food processing, cooking, and storage, will be made more efficient, more thoughtful, and more understanding by technology in the future. The kitchen will become the center linking emotion and intelligence.”

From this perspective, deeply linking high-tech “rational products” like AI with the human insights of Chinese kitchens and empowering them will accelerate the evolution from “single product intelligence” to “scenario intelligence.” The innovative value of FOTAI’s smart smoke and stove solutions is self-evident.

As the wheel of the times spins rapidly, and the future of manufacturing is full of uncertainties, it is foreseeable that the “pioneers” riding this wave will continue to forge ahead, creating endless possibilities.

Text | Li Meng

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