3-year experiment helps Alibaba reinvent factories

After helping more than a million brick-and-mortar Chinese retailers modernise their operations, Alibaba Group Holding has now set its sights on a new target: the country’s outdated factories.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 multitrillion-dollar manufacturing arena improving efficiency and meet rising consumer expectations.