Email
overseas@ytsanchuan.com
-
- En
-
-
From Traditional Production to Digital Leadership: Inside China’s First 5G Smart Water Meter Factory
.jpg "author-li-qiangzu(1).jpg")
Yingtan, China — In a bold step toward redefining the future of water metering, Li Qiangzu, Chairman of Sanchuan Wisdom Technology Co., Ltd., unveiled the company’s 5G smart digital factory in Yingtan, Jiangxi. Behind him, robotic arms assembled smart water meters every 18 seconds, while AGVs navigated an overhead logistics system. “This isn’t just the birth of a new factory—it’s the beginning of a revolution,” he declared.
For Li, this marks a 21-year journey from industry follower to rule-maker, guiding China’s first listed water meter company from mechanical production into the era of digital intelligence.From Industry Catch-Up to Technological Leadership
When Li joined Sanchuan, China’s water meter market was mired in low-cost competition. The breakthrough came in 2000 with the launch of a prepaid smart base meter—China’s first of its kind. That innovation disrupted the traditional mechanical market and set the tone for a technology-first strategy.
By 2010, Sanchuan went public on the Shenzhen Growth Enterprise Market(stock code:300066). But challenges remained. “The term ‘smart meter’ was more of a slogan than a reality,” Li said. Months of on-site debugging led to breakthroughs in non-magnetic interference and microflow sampling. That meter went on to sell over 15 million units, capturing 70% of China’s smart water meter market.
Sanchuan’s 5G smart factory—three years in the making—is more than a production upgrade. It’s a fundamental transformation of the company’s DNA.
By integrating ERP, MES, WMS, and other systems, production cycles have shortened dramatically. “Order planning is no longer dependent on shift schedules,” Li explained. “Now, 90% of components arrive just in time, thanks to an 18-second production rhythm that forced a supply chain overhaul.”
Every water meter produced now generates 300+ real-time data parameters, uploaded to an industrial cloud. This data is feeding back into R&D, reducing fault rates, especially in challenging northern environments. The platform now connects to over 500 water utilities, enabling future services like network monitoring and leak detection.
Even sustainability plays a role. A rooftop 4MW solar plant powers the factory, and Sanchuan is now offering modular “green factory” solutions that integrate PV, energy storage, and smart water technologies—a first for the industry.
“Smart water isn't about piling on software and hardware—it’s about ecosystem collaboration,” Li emphasized. In one project with Shenyang Water Group, Sanchuan co-developed a data management platform over 18 months, with 50+ workshops and 20,000+ data elements.
Instead of a “turnkey” delivery, Sanchuan embedded engineers into the utility’s daily operations for three months, even replicating Excel-style interfaces to fit user habits. This deep integration resulted in a software repurchase rate exceeding 85%.
Sanchuan is now developing a modular lighthouse factory solution—like Lego blocks—for small and mid-sized manufacturers to upgrade step by step.
Li is confident: “Every smart meter we produce is tested, and every test result helps us improve the next one.” With 518 patents, 419 software copyrights, and participation in 60+ national standards, Sanchuan stands as a technical cornerstone of the industry.
What excites Li most isn’t just machines—it’s the collaboration between humans and data. “When a master technician’s skills become digital knowledge, and young engineers write algorithms that fine-tune production rhythms—that’s true smart manufacturing.”
Sanchuan is now leading efforts to build a Trusted Data Space for Smart Water Utilities under China’s National Data Infrastructure (NDI) initiative. With its vast meter deployment and 5G-enabled digital twin systems, the company aims to unlock the value of water-related data through blockchain, privacy computing, and standardized data circulation protocols.
From precise metering and pipeline diagnostics to integrated energy services, Sanchuan is creating a closed-loop digital ecosystem: Hardware → Data → Services → Ecosystem Collaboration.
As the lights of Sanchuan’s 5G factory reflect off the solar panels at dusk, Li gazes toward the future site of an even more advanced facility. “People ask if transformation is painful,” he smiles, “But when you’ve seen the future—it’s too exciting to sleep.”
Sanchuan Wisdom Technology Co., Ltd. is a leading Chinese provider of smart water metering and digital water solutions. As the first publicly listed company in China’s water metering industry, Sanchuan integrates advanced metering, NB-IoT/LoRaWAN communication, and cloud platforms to help utilities reduce water loss, enhance billing accuracy, and accelerate digital transformation. Backed by a 5G-powered smart factory and partnerships with over 1400 water utilities, Sanchuan is setting new benchmarks for intelligent, sustainable water infrastructure worldwide.