Product upgrades

Along with the traditional toy industry, innovation has played an important role in driving high-quality development among various industries in Guangdong, a traditional economic powerhouse in southern China.

In Foshan, which lies southwest of Guangzhou, the provincial capital, more than 8,000 designers are based at an industrial design center. Their work involves upgrading products that include kitchen appliances, medical instruments and creative magic cubes, among numerous others.

Guangdong Industrial Design Center, launched in 2009 in the Shunde district of Foshan, has more than 285 research and design companies that have helped generate about 828.4 billion yuan in industrial design value.

Feng Jianing, chief operations officer at Guangdong Totin Science and Technology Industrial Development Co, which operates the center, said, "As innovative design has become one of the manufacturing industry's core competitive fields, we are committed to introducing high-end design resources and improving design innovation capabilities to form a complete industrial design service system."

The center has established closer cooperation with a total of 168 domestic and overseas higher education authorities to help introduce highly talented industrial designers, Feng added.

"Behind each product, there is a logical story of designers' creations being strongly based on market demand," she said.

While providing design services for the manufacturing industry, the center also integrates design, digital technology and supply chains to enhance the industry's core competitiveness, making industrial design a strong engine for promoting the sector's high-quality development, Feng said.

In addition to the intelligent home appliances and mechanical equipment industries, the center will expand its focus to new fields such as clothing and hardware to form a multidimensional and innovative service system in Foshan.

Pang Wangyu, deputy general manager of Foshan Innohause Network Technology Co, one of the companies at the center, said, "Industrial design is the most vibrant attraction of our products, which have gained popularity among global consumers."

The company, which focuses on the research and development of middle-to-high-end small kitchen appliances, achieved year-on-year export growth of 30 percent last year, despite a global slowdown in foreign trade.

"Our brand conveys life aesthetics through design, and builds consumer brand awareness, adapting to the consumption preferences of various markets," Pang said.

Industrial design and innovation have also significantly propelled the development of local manufacturing, research and development, and supply chains' quality control systems, Pang added.

"Guangdong Industrial Design Center is more like an aircraft carrier, helping to introduce talent from various areas of the industrial design field, and enabling us to better use these resources to build a competitive force throughout the entire industrial chain," Pang said.

The center has also introduced design platforms for strategic emerging industries such as medical devices and new energy vehicles.

Yu Xu, general manager of Qianju Medical Technology Co, said, "Innovative design integrates the entire industrial chain to transform the medical industry, from clinical trends and predicting demand, to product planning, technology research, supply chains and marketing services."

Based on Foshan's strong competitiveness in manufacturing, medical devices will soon have great market potential, Yu said.

As part of an action plan to develop industrial design in Foshan, local authorities have allocated more than 100 million yuan in special funding each year.