On Thursday, the ZEISS Vision Care manufacturing base in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province, became the world's first-ever optical lens manufacturing facility to be added to the World Economic Forum's Global Lighthouse Network.

The certification attests that ZEISS Vision has achieved leading global standards in digitalization, intelligent transformation, and green development, demonstrating the positive synergy between Chinese intelligent manufacturing efficiency and German precision engineering, according to a statement released by the government of Guangzhou's Huangpu district on Friday.

Lighthouse Factories represent the pinnacle of industrial excellence in intelligent and digital transformation.

As of January, the total global number of Lighthouse Factories has reached 224. To become a benchmark factory in the "Customer-centric" category requires groundbreaking practices in key areas such as customized production optimization and end-to-end delivery acceleration. Only four facilities worldwide have achieved that category.

Zeiss is a German company best known for making high-quality optical products, including lenses for eyeglasses, cameras, microscopes, and medical equipment.

Its factory in Guangzhou produces precision optical lenses, mainly for vision care, using advanced digital manufacturing systems to improve efficiency, quality control, and customization for different customer needs.

"It is an honor to receive formal recognition as a Lighthouse for customer centricity at our manufacturing site in Guangzhou," said Benjamin Viering, COO & CTO, Zeiss Vision Care.

Winston Yang, president & CEO of ZEISS Vision Care China, said ZEISS Vision would take the Guangzhou Lighthouse Factory as a benchmark, implement the development path of 'In China, beyond China', support the high-quality development of China's optical lens industry, and drive the coordinated digital and green upgrading of the regional high-end manufacturing cluster in the following years.