On July 21, at the fourteenth Executive Committee (expansion) meeting of Foshan Federation of Industry and Commerce and Foshan entrepreneurs'hall, Liu Yuelun, Secretary of Foshan Municipal Party Committee, put forward a plan to build a trillion-yuan industrial chain of equipment manufacturing industry within five to six years. This is a strong response of Foshan Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government to the earlier layout of the Provincial Party Committee, Foshan led the West Bank of the Pearl River Delta to create a trillion-yuan plan for the preparation of industrial belts.

As an important pillar industry in Foshan City, the equipment manufacturing industry completed its industrial output value of 453.6 billion yuan in 2013, with output value exceeding 1 billion yuan, more than 30 enterprises and over 100 million enterprises reaching more than 300. Ceramic bathroom machinery, electrical machinery and equipment, woodworking machinery, plastic machinery, textile machinery, glass machinery, printing and packaging machinery, metal processing machinery, medical equipment and so on are characteristic leading industries in Foshan. According to statistics, ceramic sanitary ware machinery, woodworking machinery and plastic machinery occupy 90%, 60% and 30% of the national market respectively. Ceramic sanitary ware machinery undoubtedly occupies an important part of the trillion industrial chain of the equipment manufacturing industry in Foshan.

Guangdong Provincial Party Committee has laid the burden on Foshan to build a trillion-yuan planning industrial belt in the West Bank of the Pearl River Delta. It has made a full investigation of the industry in Foshan. At present, there are more than 11,000 ceramics manufacturing enterprises in Foshan. In the meantime, with the strength of the ceramics industry, the flourishing of Foshan ceramics machinery industry, there are now about 450 ceramics machinery manufacturing enterprises in Foshan. A number of ceramics machinery enterprises, such as Koda, Litai, Meijia and Zhongyao, have become the leading enterprises in operation. This is in marked contrast to the situation of a few ceramic machinery enterprises in Foshan in the early 1990s, as long as the General Factory of Ceramic Machinery Manufacturing of Fotao Group (later converted to Henglitai Machinery Co., Ltd.).

Following the opening of ceramic bathroom operation skills, these ceramic machinery enterprises are also actively developing new products, advanced equipments such as inkjet printing, drum printing, and products are exported to home and abroad. Kodajineng, Rapid Development Ceramic Machinery, Xinpeng Ceramic Machinery, Xinjingtai Ceramic Machinery, Meijia Ceramic Equipment, Bainte Forward Ceramic Machinery, Koxinda Technology, Expected Ceramic Machinery, Modena Technology and other planned large number of ceramic machinery production enterprises to flourish. Global pottery giants such as Italian Saami have also had to establish production bases in Foshan. In 2013, the total sales value of Foshan ceramics machinery was about 15 billion yuan, accounting for 90% of the national shopping malls.

In the face of the rapid increase of labor cost and the difficulty of recruiting front-line workers in ceramic bathroom operations, the opening of Foshan equipment manufacturing industry has become an important key to the transformation and promotion of labor-intensive opening methods in ceramic bathroom operations, and to change the current situation of over-reliance on labor force.

It is understood that many bathroom enterprises have now used the high-pressure grouting production line, and some powerful bathroom enterprises have now used robotic operation in spraying glaze process to reduce the damage of dust and toxic and harmful gases to workers. Last year, the first batch of 20 domestic glaze-spraying robots developed by Wrigley Sanitary Ware and Foshan Xinpeng Robot Skills Co., Ltd. were put into use. It is estimated that the glaze-spraying robots will save 36 million yuan of labor cost for enterprises every year after they are put into use.

In hardware bathroom operation, the degree of mechanization has also trekked greatly. Robots have also replaced many labor forces, polishing, polishing and other processes. Robots can complete tasks accurately. In the production base of Supol Sanitary Ware in Shenyang, the reporter saw many gratifying phenomena of mechanical equipment replacing labor force.

"Let machines do what machines can do. Humans should engage in creative activities." More than 50 years ago, Omron Group, the pioneer of automation technology, put forward this slogan. More than 50 years later, the labor-intensive ceramic bathroom operation has completed the leap of production automation. Ceramic bathroom machinery occupies 90% of the market share, which is enough to prove that Foshan has opened up space for ceramic bathroom machinery operation. Ceramic bathroom machinery will be an important part of Foshan's trillion industrial chain equipped with manufacturing industry.