Step inside the world’s first Lighthouse Factory for traditional Chinese medicine and see how AI and digital systems support herbal medicine production.
For many people, traditional Chinese medicine brings to mind herbal ingredients, experienced practitioners and techniques passed down over generations.
However, inside a factory in southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality, much of the process now runs through digital systems.
The Fuling pharmaceutical factory of China National Traditional Chinese Medicine Holdings, located in the Fuling High-tech Zone, recently became the world’s first Lighthouse Factory dedicated to traditional Chinese medicine. The recognition came from the World Economic Forum, which recognises factories that apply advanced manufacturing technologies at scale.
Rows of automated equipment operate behind glass walls. Sealed pipelines transport herbal extracts through different production stages. Robotic systems fill bottles, while inspection and packaging lines run continuously. Instead of workers moving between machines, most activity appears on large digital control screens.
The biggest change is not only automation. It is how traditional production processes are organised.
One comparison displayed inside the factory highlights that shift. In one photo, several inspectors sit under bright lights, examining bottles one by one. In another, an automated visual inspection system performs the same task. It checks products with high-speed cameras and uses a digital model to identify possible quality issues.
Factory staff said many procedures that once relied on visual judgement now depend on machines, data and digital control. This reduces repetitive manual work and helps keep product quality consistent.
Meanwhile, another part of the factory focuses on herbal processing and extraction. Operators no longer need to remain beside production equipment throughout the process. Instead, they monitor and control more than 1,200 sets of equipment remotely from a central control room.
According to Tang Biao, a senior technician in the herbal extraction workshop, workers previously operated equipment in hot and humid conditions. Manual operation could also lead to differences during production. Today, staff mainly work through digital control systems, while production runs automatically.
The factory has introduced more than 30 dedicated intelligent manufacturing solutions. Together they connect herbal preparation, extraction, concentration, liquid filling and packaging into a single digital production system. The facility now has an annual production capacity of 100 million bottles of syrup and 3 billion oral liquid doses.
Next to the workshops, another digital platform provides a broader view of the industry.
A large display screen presents information on production capacity, supply chains, traceability, smart decoction services and traditional Chinese medicine resources. Rather than focusing on one factory, the platform links different stages of the production process.
One application demonstrated during the visit is an AI-powered identification system for herbal pieces. According to the display, the system has processed more than 8.67 million images covering 732 varieties of medicinal materials. It completes identification in 68 milliseconds.
During the demonstration, staff selected images of herbs including angelica root, processed dodder seed and moutan bark. The system quickly identified each item and displayed its confidence score.
Staff explained that recognising herbal materials can be difficult because their appearance varies and different herbs may look similar, especially when mixed. The image recognition system supports this work by using specialised datasets and algorithm models.
The platform also connects to a smart herbal decoction service.
Its interface follows each prescription through different stages, including order creation, medicine collection, verification, soaking, decoction, packaging and completion. According to the factory, the platform has connected with 22 medical institutions, served more than 300,000 patients and processed more than 1.23 million prescriptions.
From automated production lines to digital traceability and AI-assisted identification, the factory integrates digital technologies into traditional Chinese medicine manufacturing across production, quality control and supply management.
Written by Ronnie Yu, Additional reporting by Xinhua, CNS, cqcb.com.
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