"Intelligence" Leads the Future, "Innovation" Brightens the Brilliance: Licai Group, Subsidiary of Wuliangye, Forges New Resilience in the Packaging Industry with "Smart Manufacturing"

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Reprinted from: Xinhua Finance

When Wuliangye 29° “Yijian Qingxin” stunned the market with its unique sky-blue packaging, few knew that the entire process—from design to mass delivery—took only eight days. This record was set by Likai Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of Wuliangye Group, which has long been deeply involved in the packaging industry chain.

Since its establishment in 2004, Likai Group has gradually transformed with the support of Wuliangye Group into a one-stop packaging solution provider covering customer needs, product design, production, delivery, and after-sales service, becoming one of China’s top 100 packaging and printing enterprises and forging a resilient development path.

From “Manufacturing” to “Intelligent Manufacturing” Reshaping the Printing Industry Value Chain

Walking into the fourth floor of Likai Group’s production center, you see an efficient automated production line—paper feeding, box forming, quality inspection, bagging and boxing, stacking—all seamlessly integrated. In the past, gift wine boxes relied on manual assembly, making it difficult to balance efficiency and consistency. Likai Group, through in-depth analysis of different product structures, innovatively designed a continuous automated line, achieving intelligent packaging from “a sheet of paper to a box.”

Printing and packaging are typical highly discrete manufacturing processes, with complex procedures, diverse equipment, and high precision requirements. The industry is highly segmented with low entry barriers. Under this industry background, Likai Group deeply realizes that only intelligentization can secure the future. In recent years, the company has taken technological innovation as a breakthrough, embarking on a path of systematic innovation and continuous advancement.

How can machines not only replace human hands but also learn and surpass experienced workers? With this in mind, Likai Group has continued to promote automation upgrades and has undertaken R&D and project practice in artificial intelligence. This led to the birth of the “AI + Intelligent Printing and Packaging Manufacturing” project.

It is understood that the project aims to support a future output of 3 billion yuan. All preliminary demonstrations and top-level designs have been completed, and in 2025, it passed a joint review by industry experts, the group, and third-party organizations. The project plans to start building the digital infrastructure and core production line upgrades this year.

“The core of this project is to use the ‘AI Process Large Model’ to create a super decision-making hub,” said Cao Chongxu, Deputy General Manager of Likai Group. He explained that traditional printing quality heavily depends on experienced workers, with color matching relying on eyesight and layout on tactile feel. This project integrates materials science, color engineering, equipment control, and semantic understanding to develop an intelligent system that can automatically generate optimal printing parameters for new designs within 30 minutes and predict potential quality risks, revolutionizing from “experience-driven” to “data and algorithm-driven” paradigms.

This pioneering AI project is just a part of Likai Group’s digital transformation blueprint. To systematically promote digital transformation, the company has outlined a path centered on “Device Intelligence, Digital Production, Lean Management, Data-Driven Decision-Making, and Ecosystem Services,” forming the “1325” strategy, aiming to optimize delivery cycles, operational costs, and inventory turnover through technological empowerment.

“‘During the 14th Five-Year Plan,’ the company will strive to become a provincial-level 5G benchmark factory,” Cao Chongxu revealed.

From Rapid Response to Value Co-Creation Building a Collaborative Ecosystem

“Looking back at the development of wine packaging, from early general-purpose paper boxes meeting practical needs to now becoming an important medium for conveying brand culture and emotional value, packaging has evolved from a simple ‘container’ to an ‘emotional carrier,’” Cao Chongxu said. As consumer markets trend toward personalization, self-pleasure, and cultural innovation, the industry features small-batch, multi-episode, and personalized production, with increasingly diverse materials and processes.

Currently, Likai Group is building an intelligent flexible manufacturing system. In the future, it will achieve rapid response to orders through automatic order disassembly, digital simulation pre-visualization, AGV intelligent logistics, and full-process data traceability—meeting the demands of limited editions, cultural collaborations, and high-quality, fast-delivery orders.

The ability to respond quickly is rooted in a continuously deepening co-creation system. Technologically, Likai Group has established one provincial-level enterprise technology center, owns more than ten industry-leading technologies and over 50 national patents, and collaborates closely with universities such as Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Chengdu University of Technology to develop automatic gluing equipment, intelligent visual inspection systems, and more, transforming cutting-edge R&D into flexible production capabilities. In design, an open innovation platform links with Chongqing University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and others to turn cultural concepts into unique, realizable processes. In talent development, the company utilizes the Yibin Industry-Education Integration Training Base to systematically cultivate versatile talents with both craftsmanship and digital literacy, ensuring core momentum for ongoing innovation and agile response.

Deeply rooted in value co-creation is the goal of helping clients build sustainable future competitiveness. Under the trend of green consumption, green packaging has become an essential part of the entire industry chain for brands like Wuliangye.

To help users build green competitiveness, Likai Group integrates green practices across the entire chain: using eco-friendly materials; promoting lightweight packaging to reduce material consumption; investing hundreds of millions in volatile gas collection and treatment to improve workshop environments; and implementing energy management systems to reduce energy consumption through equipment upgrades and management optimization. The widespread use of eco-friendly materials like water-soluble adhesives and FSC forest certification has enabled Likai Group’s products to meet high environmental standards required by international markets, including the EU.

From rapid market response to continuous deepening of green intelligent manufacturing, Likai Group consistently explores new paths through systemic innovation and manufacturing resilience. In the era of manufacturing transformation toward intelligence, greenization, and integration, Likai Group is writing a story of solid progress with focus, agility, and wisdom.

Editor: Feng Mingyuan

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