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• Thales Smart Card Technologies (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. has been recognized as a "Shanghai Advanced-Level Smart Factory" by the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization in 2025.
• The facility has achieved an automation rate of 70% and a connectivity rate of 80%, making it one of the most efficient production sites within Thales’ global operations, and a benchmark for smart card manufacturing worldwide.
• This achievement reflects a decade-long, systematic digital transformation guided by an Industry 4.0 roadmap, underscoring Thales’ commitment to advancing intelligent manufacturing in China and leveraging local industrial ecosystem to strengthen Thales’ global supply chain resilience.
Against the backdrop of China's accelerating industrial transformation and its cultivation of new quality productive forces, this "Shanghai Advanced-Level Smart Factory" recognition highlights Thales’ leadership in digital transformation and smart manufacturing. It reaffirms its long-term commitment to deepening its presence in China while contributing to global innovation from China.
It reaffirms its long-term commitment to deepening its presence in China while contributing to global innovation from China.
Established in 1998, Thales’ Shanghai Manufacturing Competency Center (MCC) serves as a one-stop shop for eSIM and banking cards, managing the full cycle from cards design to packaging and delivery. Over two decades, the facility has delivered a comprehensive range of localized products and services from Shanghai to customers worldwide.
Guided by a clear Industry 4.0 roadmap, the transformation is built on lean manufacturing excellence, advanced automation, digitalization, connectivity, and intelligent technologies, enabling end-to-end visibility, real-time monitoring, and data-driven decision-making across the entire manufacturing value chain.
Innovation Highlights
Thales’ Shanghai MCC demonstrates its innovation leadership by integrating AI, big data & analytics, and industrial IoT across business management:
• AI-Driven Acceleration Unlocking Data Potential: Advanced AI cameras enable real-time quality inspection, eliminating manual waiting times and ensuring consistent product standards. Inspection data continuously feeds machine-learning models, while AI-based portfolio enhances operator training and skills development.
• End-to-End Innovation Empowering Value Chain: A self-developed, integrated digital platform connects order management, product design, materials planning, and logistics through a unified data architecture, enabling full lifecycle visibility, traceability, and agile collaboration across internal operations, suppliers, and partners.
• Human-Machine Collaboration Redefining Smart Manufacturing: Vision-guided systems, automated guided vehicles (AGVs), collaborative robots (Cobots) are deployed across critical production processes to ensure high-precision operations and seamless logistics flows - increasing productivity while unlocking the workforce’s true potential.
• IoT-Enabled Intelligence for Equipment Lifecycle Management: IoT-enabled edge devices and connected equipment provide real-time monitoring and predictive insights, enabling proactive maintenance and optimized asset performance across the equipment full lifecycle management, strengthening reliability and operational resilience.
These innovations have delivered tangible operational and economic impact. End-to-end digital workflows have doubled order processing.
"Being recognized as an advance-level smart factory is a testament to our team's dedication", said Jean-Marc REYNAUD, CEO of Thales in China. "The Shanghai MCC exemplifies how China-based efficiency, agility, and scalability strengthen Thales’ global supply chain resilience, advance operational excellence, and reinforce our role as a trusted partner in China’s industrial ecosystem."
About Thales
Thales (thalesgroup.com) is a global leader in advanced technologies for the Defence, Aerospace, and Cyber & Digital sectors. Its portfolio of innovative products and services addresses several major challenges: sovereignty, security, sustainability and inclusion.
The Group invests more than €4 billion per year in Research & Development in key areas, particularly for critical environments, such as Artificial Intelligence, cybersecurity, quantum and cloud technologies. Thales has more than 83,000 employees in 68 countries. In 2024, the Group generated sales of €20.6 billion.
About Thales in China
Thales provides innovative solutions for the infrastructure that forms the backbone of China’s growth. The Group introduced its aerospace business to China in 1964 and has been recognized as a trusted partner of long-term cooperation with the Chinese aviation industry. In the areas of Cybersecurity & Digital Identity, Thales has also successfully applied its advanced technology to mobile communication, Fintech, automobile connectivity and software monetization, etc. Thales employs more than 800 people with offices located in 7 cities across China. With R&D centers and Innovation Hubs established in Beijing, Dalian and Hong Kong, Thales is committed to develop innovative solutions for customers.
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