News on China's scientific and technological development.

At the height of flood season the western press hype the impending burst of three gorge dam and the accompanying disaster downstream But nothing happened that should be testament to the skill of Chinese dam builder

China's Three Gorges passes all tests, effective in flood control, power generation
Source: Global Times Published: 2020/11/1 15:03:03 Last Updated: 2020/11/1 15:54:16

China announced Sunday the full completion of the Three Gorges project, and that it had passed all tests. The dam and reservoir are running smoothly and fully operational in flood control, power generation, navigation and water resources utilization, a sharp rebuke to long-held Western hype and suspicions that it is at risk of collapse and poses a danger to the environment.

The Three Gorges Project is by far the world's largest water control project and the most comprehensive hydropower project, Chinese officials from the Ministry of Water Resources and National Development and Reform Commission announced on Sunday.

Monitoring shows that the river dam, flood discharge, energy dissipation, water diversion and power generation, navigation facilities and protective buildings are in normal operating condition. The mechanical and electrical systems and equipment, and metal structure equipment are also operating safely and stably, they said.


Infographic:GT

In terms of flood control, by the end of August, the Three Gorges Reservoir had accumulated more than 180 billion cubic meters of floodwater. In 2010, 2012 and 2020, the maximum flood peak exceeded 70,000 cubic meters per second. Through the retention by the reservoir, the flood peak was reduced by about 40 percent, greatly reducing the flood control pressure in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

The Three Gorges Power Station is also the world's largest hydropower station with the largest total installed capacity. By the end of August, the Three Gorges Power Station had generated 1.354 trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity, boosting power supply in East China, Central China and South China's Guangdong Province and other regions. The reservoir has also become an important large-scale clean energy production base in China.

The project has significantly improved the navigation conditions of the Sichuan River waterway. Since trial navigation in June 2003, the freight volume of the Three Gorges Dam ship locks has increased rapidly, exceeding 100 million tons for the first time in 2011 and reaching 146 million tons in 2019. By the end of August, a total of 1.483 billion tons of cargo had passed through the sluice, giving a strong boost to the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt.


Photo taken on Aug. 19, 2020 shows water gushing out from the Three Gorges Dam in central China's Hubei Province. Photo: Xinhua

The annual discharge of the Three Gorges Reservoir during the dry season has been raised to more than 5,500 cubic meters per second, bringing replenishment of more than 20 billion cubic meters of water for the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

By the end of August, the reservoir had provided replenishment for a total of 2,267 days, with a total water supply of 289.4 billion cubic meters, improving the production, living and ecological water conditions in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

Also by the end of August, the high-quality clean power generated by the Three Gorges Power Station will be equivalent to saving 430 million tons of standard coal and 1.169 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions, representing significant benefits in energy conservation and emission reduction.

Officials announced that a total of 1.3 million residents had been relocated during the construction of the project, significantly improving their living conditions. The geological environment of the resettlement area as well as the reservoir are generally safe.　　　　

Global Times

Robots preparing for Single's Day.

You would never see automatized anything out in public happening in the US because there are enough people that see that as an easy crime of opportunity or anti-social/anti-authority people will have to vandalized it out of principle. Amazon drone delivery... you better believe people will attempt to shoot them down when they're seen flying by. There will so many angles they have to think about through the whole process to protect them that it just won't be worth it. But it makes nice PR though.

Fourth Industrial Revolution. Imagine it is applied to the world's largest manufacturing economy.

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Bloomberg News
Sun, November 1, 2020, 8:03 PM EST

After helping more than a million brick-and-mortar Chinese retailers modernize their operations, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has now set its sights on a new target: the country’s outdated factories.

China’s largest corporation unveiled in September its first smart factory, a secret experiment that Alibaba’s been conducting for three years on the outskirts of its hometown of Hangzhou. The three-story facility known as Xunxi -- translated literally as “fast rhino” -- is the company’s attempt at leveraging its consumer data and technologies to help the multi-trillion-dollar manufacturing arena improving efficiency and meet rising consumer expectations.

Here is a quick peek into Alibaba’s newest business.

Alibaba’s path to smart manufacturing starts with garments, a market worth 2.2 trillion yuan ($328 billion) in China last year based on Euromonitor International’s estimates. Alibaba has said that one in four clothes purchases in the country was shipped via its e-commerce platforms, granting it access to an ocean of data that it’s now deploying to assist domestic garment makers in design and production planning.

It’s also centralizing the material procurement process to help reduce costs. Artificial intelligence, robotic arms as well as many other in-house technologies have also been put into use at the Xunxi factory prototype.

It usually takes months for apparel companies to bring a new design from the runway to stores, but Alibaba claims it is able to cut order lead times by 75% with its solutions. This would address the growing demand for instant gratification among China’s Gen-Z consumers. For instance, with the help of AI, designers can review simulated rendering effects on so-called digital fabrics on their computer screens, rather than going through a time-consuming process to dye the fabric.

Garment workers at the factory have high-tech assistants, such as AI-enabled cutting machines and internet-connected sewing devices, that help fine-tune their work.

Once a step has been completed, the item will be transferred to the next work station via a conveyor belt. Since the entire workflow is recorded digitally, factory management no longer have to stay on site. Instead, they can track the progress remotely on computers or through their mobile phones.

The data and technology deployed at the Xunxi factory mean merchants, which typically need at least 90 days to get their goods ready for the storefront, can decide what items to make and the scale of the production over the course of two weeks, reducing the need to accumulate inventory.

Xunxi was one of 10 factories identified by the World Economic Forum this year as adopting so-called fourth industrial revolution technologies to transform manufacturing. They join 44 others on the list. “In the future, large-scale standard production will be transformed into very flexible small-scale production,” Chief Executive Officer Daniel Zhang told a WEF meeting in September.

Its ultimate goal, according to Alibaba, is to become a one-stop production solution provider for garment merchants on its Taobao and Tmall marketplaces.

weig2000 said:

Fourth Industrial Revolution. Imagine it is applied to the world's largest manufacturing economy.

---------------------------------------------------------

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Bloomberg News
Sun, November 1, 2020, 8:03 PM EST
After helping more than a million brick-and-mortar Chinese retailers modernize their operations, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has now set its sights on a new target: the country’s outdated factories.

China’s largest corporation unveiled in September its first smart factory, a secret experiment that Alibaba’s been conducting for three years on the outskirts of its hometown of Hangzhou. The three-story facility known as Xunxi -- translated literally as “fast rhino” -- is the company’s attempt at leveraging its consumer data and technologies to help the multi-trillion-dollar manufacturing arena improving efficiency and meet rising consumer expectations.

Here is a quick peek into Alibaba’s newest business.

Alibaba’s path to smart manufacturing starts with garments, a market worth 2.2 trillion yuan ($328 billion) in China last year based on Euromonitor International’s estimates. Alibaba has said that one in four clothes purchases in the country was shipped via its e-commerce platforms, granting it access to an ocean of data that it’s now deploying to assist domestic garment makers in design and production planning.

It’s also centralizing the material procurement process to help reduce costs. Artificial intelligence, robotic arms as well as many other in-house technologies have also been put into use at the Xunxi factory prototype.

It usually takes months for apparel companies to bring a new design from the runway to stores, but Alibaba claims it is able to cut order lead times by 75% with its solutions. This would address the growing demand for instant gratification among China’s Gen-Z consumers. For instance, with the help of AI, designers can review simulated rendering effects on so-called digital fabrics on their computer screens, rather than going through a time-consuming process to dye the fabric.

Garment workers at the factory have high-tech assistants, such as AI-enabled cutting machines and internet-connected sewing devices, that help fine-tune their work.

Once a step has been completed, the item will be transferred to the next work station via a conveyor belt. Since the entire workflow is recorded digitally, factory management no longer have to stay on site. Instead, they can track the progress remotely on computers or through their mobile phones.

The data and technology deployed at the Xunxi factory mean merchants, which typically need at least 90 days to get their goods ready for the storefront, can decide what items to make and the scale of the production over the course of two weeks, reducing the need to accumulate inventory.

Xunxi was one of 10 factories identified by the World Economic Forum this year as adopting so-called fourth industrial revolution technologies to transform manufacturing. They join 44 others on the list. “In the future, large-scale standard production will be transformed into very flexible small-scale production,” Chief Executive Officer Daniel Zhang told a WEF meeting in September.

Its ultimate goal, according to Alibaba, is to become a one-stop production solution provider for garment merchants on its Taobao and Tmall marketplaces.

Click to expand...

Hi weig2000,

You can differentiate AMazon model and Alibaba model. If we based it in a Movie, One is a Jerry Maguire (show me the money) the other is a Forrest Gump ( like I was sayin', shrimp is the fruit of the sea. ). I'm a big fan of Forrest Gump ....

weig2000 said:

Fourth Industrial Revolution. Imagine it is applied to the world's largest manufacturing economy.

---------------------------------------------------------

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Bloomberg News
Sun, November 1, 2020, 8:03 PM EST
After helping more than a million brick-and-mortar Chinese retailers modernize their operations, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has now set its sights on a new target: the country’s outdated factories.

China’s largest corporation unveiled in September its first smart factory, a secret experiment that Alibaba’s been conducting for three years on the outskirts of its hometown of Hangzhou. The three-story facility known as Xunxi -- translated literally as “fast rhino” -- is the company’s attempt at leveraging its consumer data and technologies to help the multi-trillion-dollar manufacturing arena improving efficiency and meet rising consumer expectations.

Here is a quick peek into Alibaba’s newest business.

Alibaba’s path to smart manufacturing starts with garments, a market worth 2.2 trillion yuan ($328 billion) in China last year based on Euromonitor International’s estimates. Alibaba has said that one in four clothes purchases in the country was shipped via its e-commerce platforms, granting it access to an ocean of data that it’s now deploying to assist domestic garment makers in design and production planning.

It’s also centralizing the material procurement process to help reduce costs. Artificial intelligence, robotic arms as well as many other in-house technologies have also been put into use at the Xunxi factory prototype.

It usually takes months for apparel companies to bring a new design from the runway to stores, but Alibaba claims it is able to cut order lead times by 75% with its solutions. This would address the growing demand for instant gratification among China’s Gen-Z consumers. For instance, with the help of AI, designers can review simulated rendering effects on so-called digital fabrics on their computer screens, rather than going through a time-consuming process to dye the fabric.

Garment workers at the factory have high-tech assistants, such as AI-enabled cutting machines and internet-connected sewing devices, that help fine-tune their work.

Once a step has been completed, the item will be transferred to the next work station via a conveyor belt. Since the entire workflow is recorded digitally, factory management no longer have to stay on site. Instead, they can track the progress remotely on computers or through their mobile phones.

The data and technology deployed at the Xunxi factory mean merchants, which typically need at least 90 days to get their goods ready for the storefront, can decide what items to make and the scale of the production over the course of two weeks, reducing the need to accumulate inventory.

Xunxi was one of 10 factories identified by the World Economic Forum this year as adopting so-called fourth industrial revolution technologies to transform manufacturing. They join 44 others on the list. “In the future, large-scale standard production will be transformed into very flexible small-scale production,” Chief Executive Officer Daniel Zhang told a WEF meeting in September.

Its ultimate goal, according to Alibaba, is to become a one-stop production solution provider for garment merchants on its Taobao and Tmall marketplaces.

Click to expand...

India’s human capital will be left to rot once a robot exceeds the intelligence/dexterity of a 20yo Indian.

localizer said:

India’s human capital will be left to rot once a robot exceeds the intelligence/dexterity of a 20yo Indian.

Click to expand...

Hi localizer,

Yup, there goes their much acclaim population dividend. Every nation should be careful though they might export their problem to the rest of us.

Xunxi was one of 10 factories identified by the World Economic Forum this year as adopting so-called fourth industrial revolution technologies to transform manufacturing. They join 44 others on the list. “In the future, large-scale standard production will be transformed into very flexible small-scale production,” Chief Executive Officer Daniel Zhang told a WEF meeting in September.

Click to expand...

They should need 5G to do that.

That is future of the factory. If they want their factory to remain competitive, it has to be able to make many things and quickly retool or re-purpose itself.

ansy1968 said:

Hi localizer,

Yup, there goes their much acclaim population dividend. Every nation should be careful though they might export their problem to the rest of us.

Click to expand...

Hi ansy1968,

Yeah, hehe ...

That's why India kicked itself out of the RCEP, because the other countries refused to accept Indians transferring their technical qualification accredited by various organizations, along with their person, to other countries in the RCEP.

They delayed signing the RCEP because the waited for the Indians to negotiate their way into the pact, when first they did not want to join, eventually they left on their own again.

localizer said:

India’s human capital will be left to rot once a robot exceeds the intelligence/dexterity of a 20yo Indian.

Click to expand...

Most 20yos around the world can do little more than customer service type roles eg waitress/telemarketer; when AI takes over these roles, there won't be much for india's human capital to do anthing other than to transform into its own 'Arab spring'.

horse said:

Hi ansy1968,

Yeah, hehe ...

That's why India kicked itself out of the RCEP, because the other countries refused to accept Indians transferring their technical qualification accredited by various organizations, along with their person, to other countries in the RCEP.

They delayed signing the RCEP because the waited for the Indians to negotiate their way into the pact, when first they did not want to join, eventually they left on their own again.

Click to expand...

The first country that recognises such 'accreditation' is going to be inundated by indians to the detriment of the young local workforce who are themselves having difficulty acquiring decent jobs in order to raise their own families.