Forging the Flame of a Manufacturing Powerhouse with Machine Tools as the Medium and Craftsmanship as the Furnace

With stars shining brightly across the land, and industries flourishing at the crossroads of tradition and innovation, a landmark event unfolded in Dongguan. To anchor the goals of building a manufacturing powerhouse and a skilled workforce, and to bridge the gap between industrial demand and technician talent development, the Advanced Manufacturing Technology Seminar, themed "Connecting Industrial Demand, Empowering Talent Development, and Deepening Industry-Education Integration," was successfully held from July 2 to 3 in Dongguan. Hosted by the Equipment Manufacturing Group of the Guangdong Provincial Technical Colleges Research Association and organized by CATO Precision Machinery (Guangdong) Co., LTD., the seminar brought together teaching leaders from dozens of technical colleges across the province and leading industry experts at the CATO factory in Houjie for technical exchange, teaching discussions, and school-enterprise collaboration activities.

At 14:30 on July 2, the seminar officially began. Lin Cuimei, Deputy General Manager of CATO, delivered a welcome speech. She anchored her remarks in the broader context of the industrial machine tool sector, reviewing the journey of domestic high-end 5-axis machine tools in breaking overseas technological monopolies. She emphasized that high-quality development of the equipment manufacturing industry relies heavily on skilled talent with strong practical abilities. She stated that the company would fully open its production facilities, core equipment, and technical teaching resources to build a collaborative platform for school-enterprise talent development, working with technical colleges across the province to establish a long-term talent cultivation system. Her speech received enthusiastic responses from all attendees.

The core keynote session was delivered by Wei Shiyong, a recipient of the National May Day Labor Medal and a Senior Engineer at CATO, who presented a lecture titled "Development Trends in High-End Equipment R&D and Production Systems." Drawing on the company's two decades of experience in high-end machine tool R&D, Wei systematically summarized four major transformative trends in the equipment manufacturing industry: the shift from imitation to process-driven forward design, the evolution of traditional CNC machines into AI-integrated complete equipment, the transformation from single-device competition to full-industry-chain system integration, and the global market entry of domestic high-end equipment.

The lecture incorporated practical case studies from core high-end manufacturing sectors such as aerospace, new energy vehicles, and humanoid robotics, demonstrating CATO's self-developed key components, including spindles, 5-axis cradle tables, and direct-drive linear mechanisms. Wei also outlined the core standards for talent recruitment in manufacturing based on real production scenarios. The lecture closely aligned with the practical teaching needs of technical colleges, offering authoritative industrial insights for curriculum restructuring and practical training system optimization in CNC machining, mold manufacturing, intelligent manufacturing, and related fields. Participating teachers engaged attentively and held special interactive discussions.

Following this, several industry experts delivered specialized presentations. Peng Xiaoyin discussed typical application cases of 5-axis precision machining in the aviation sector.

Song Yitao from Hexagon shared insights on industrial precision measurement technology and enterprise talent competency models. Zheng Guokang from XunTong Exhibition introduced the preparatory work for the 2026 DMP Greater Bay Area Industrial Expo and announced the implementation plan for the Fifth 5-Axis Skills Competition, providing vocational teachers and students with a professional high-level skills competition platform. Additionally, representatives from the Industrial Collaboration Hub, Jiangpin Talent Network, and the Equipment Manufacturing Group of the Guangdong Provincial Technical Colleges Research Association presented supporting policies for industry-education integration, covering industrial resource matching, skilled talent employment channels, and provincial teaching research planning. During the tea break, teaching leaders from various colleges engaged in in-depth discussions with industry and enterprise experts on pain points such as training equipment selection, integration of courses, certificates, and competitions, and graduate employment channels.

Following the seminar, all participants toured CATO's intelligent production facility, led by the company's chief technical engineers who provided on-site explanations and answered questions. The study group visited the precision component machining workshop, the complete machine assembly workshop, and the finished 5-axis equipment testing area, observing the company's standardized FMS flexible production lines, vertical and horizontal 5-axis machining centers, high-speed drilling and tapping machines, and other full-series industrial machine tools. On-site staff demonstrated the complete production processes, including fully automatic machining, micron-level precision closed-loop inspection, and multi-station collaborative operations, vividly showcasing the hard power of domestic high-end precision manufacturing. Participants focused on key areas such as core component assembly processes, the operational logic of the self-developed CNC system, and benchmarked enterprise production standards. They engaged in face-to-face exchanges with company engineers on teaching challenges related to campus training scene construction, student practical skill development, and training equipment configuration.

On the evening of July 2, the organizers hosted a school-enterprise networking dinner, providing a relaxed and efficient informal exchange platform. The CATO team provided meticulous hospitality throughout, creating a warm and dynamic atmosphere. College representatives engaged in free-flowing discussions with corporate management and frontline technical experts, exchanging views on core cooperation areas such as joint program development, establishment of on-campus training bases, and targeted talent cultivation. Multiple representatives actively interacted during the dinner, using cultural exchanges to build consensus on school-enterprise cooperation, further bridging the gap between educational institutions and the industrial sector, and solidifying the foundation for collaborative talent development.

On the morning of July 3, all participating vocational education leaders conducted benchmarking visits to leading local manufacturing enterprises, including DeRUCCI Healthy Sleep Co., Ltd. and Nanxing Machinery Co., Ltd. At the DeRUCCI Intelligent Manufacturing Industrial Park, the team explored flexible customization production lines, digital warehousing management systems, and competency standards for smart manufacturing roles, gaining insights into talent career pathways and cross-industry CNC training management experience. At Nanxing Machinery, a leading woodworking machinery manufacturer, participants toured the intelligent equipment production facility, R&D labs, and product showrooms, learning about industrial internet control platforms and the industrialization of specialized CNC equipment. They discussed the upgrade path from general-purpose machine tools to specialized equipment for niche sectors, aligning on the development of customized training courses and targeted talent delivery. The two benchmarking visits broadened the horizons of vocational education leaders across the province, successfully concluding all planned activities of the seminar.

As a national-level key "Little Giant" specialized and sophisticated enterprise rooted in Dongguan, CATO has remained committed to its founding mission of "revitalizing the national equipment industry." For two decades, it has focused on independent R&D of high-end industrial machine tools, overcoming numerous "bottleneck" core technologies. With over 90% domestic localization in its complete machines, its products serve more than 80 countries and regions worldwide. While expanding its industrial capacity and driving domestic substitution of high-end machine tools, CATO places great emphasis on nurturing skilled talent at its source. It has taken the lead in building a provincial equipment manufacturing industry-education matching platform, fully opening its technical, equipment, and industrial resources to support teacher training, program development, student practical training, and vocational skills competitions in technical colleges, contributing private sector responsibility to regional vocational education development.

Forging the flame of a manufacturing powerhouse with machine tools as the medium and craftsmanship as the furnace, this seminar leveraged Dongguan's robust advanced manufacturing industrial cluster advantages to establish regular communication channels between enterprises, industries, and technical colleges. It helped frontline vocational educators accurately grasp the pace of technological iteration in the high-end equipment sector and the standards for job talent, providing clear direction for teaching reform in equipment manufacturing programs across the province. Moving forward, technical colleges throughout Guangdong will deepen long-term school-enterprise cooperation with CATO, optimize skilled talent training programs based on industrial realities, and cultivate a large number of high-quality craftsmen suited to Guangdong's advanced manufacturing industry chain. This collaboration will support Dongguan's transformation from a manufacturing city to a smart manufacturing powerhouse, laying a solid skilled talent foundation for the high-quality development of Guangdong's manufacturing sector and the national strategy of building a manufacturing powerhouse.