The Wuhan Marine Machinery Plant, located in Hubei's provincial capital, is already China's largest ship equipment producer for both military and civil use.
Despite the downturn in ocean shipping the past few years, Wuhan Marine has still been able to generate overseas orders this year.
Wuhan Marine Technology Director Sun Kai says one of their main businesses is producing barges which provide logistic services for oil drilling platforms.
"The auxiliary barges help load and unload raw oil, maintain oil drilling platform's equipment, accommodate staffs, etc. Each one worth around 60-million US dollars. What makes us competitive is that we produce not only the ship's body, but also the core devices, including piles that fix barges under water, wheels and racks, tower cranes and anchors. These are all world-class technology which used to be monopolised by Rolls-Royce."
Before each barge is sent out, the ships go through a digital fault detection system that is able to find malfunctioning components.
Fang Min is on the front line of post-production reviews.
"The system can automatically collect, process, and put out data that tells us what the machines are doing. It lets us know where malfunctions are, and also has the ability to lock the system down so repairs can be made. Once we update the technology, we hope it will be able to not only tell us where the problems are, but also predict where future problems might occur."
Finding faults before they happen is key to keeping ocean-bound vessels from running into major problems.
The digital technology used by Wuhan Marine also fits into EXACTLY what the Chinese government is hoping to accomplish with its "Made in China 2025" program.
Zuo Shiquan is an equipment industry researcher with the China Center for Information Industry Development.
"The company is a fore-runner in linking up information that is necessary for high-tech marine engineering. It's digital design process runs through the entire research and development process, which is critical to cutting-back on overlap and delays."
"Made in China 2025" was an initiative launched last year.
Chinese officials equate it to Germany's "Industry 4.0" and the US "Industry Internet" strategies, and say it's a critical component of the Chinese government's efforts to turn the country into a more advanced manufacturing center.
