With the green layers of Laoshan Mountain, craftsmanship builds dreams. On August 23, the 2025 Qingdao "Digital Innovation on Giant Peak · Intelligent Manufacturing for the Future" Employee CNC Milling Skills Competition kicked off at Qingdao Hongda Textile Machinery Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Qingdao Hongda"). This competition was sponsored by the Laoshan District Federation of Trade Unions, the Laoshan District Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, and the Laoshan District Bureau of Industry and Information Technology, and undertaken by Qingdao Hongda. As a second-class vocational skills competition in Qingdao, it focused on the core field of intelligent manufacturing, attracting 58 CNC elites from 9 units across the city to compete on the same stage, sounding the strong voice of "new productive forces" with precision manufacturing skills.

Deng Zibu, Deputy Director of the Standing Committee of the Laoshan District People's Congress and Chairman of the District Federation of Trade Unions, Liu Zhao, Secretary of the Party Group and Executive Vice Chairman of the Laoshan District Federation of Trade Unions, Sun Yanyan, Deputy Director of the Laoshan District Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, Bian Tiecheng, Member of the Party Group of the Laoshan District Bureau of Industry and Information Technology and Deputy Director of the District Industrial and Information Technology Development Center, Zhang Wenxin, Secretary of the Party Committee, Director, and General Manager of the company, and Lu Xianghui, Deputy General Manager, attended the opening ceremony, which was hosted by Zhao Wenqing, Chairman of the Trade Union.

Government-Enterprise Collaboration: Building a Training Ground for High-Skilled Talents

Zhang Wenxin introduced the company's situation and the background of the competition. He pointed out that manufacturing is the foundation of a country and the basis of a strong nation. Skills are the foundation of a career, and competitions are the bridge to success. The Qingdao Skills Competition, as a "training ground" and "display platform" for vocational skills talents in the city, has become an important platform to promote the construction of a skilled talent team and help the high-quality development of the manufacturing industry.

The company has always regarded innovation-driven and talent-strengthening enterprises as the core strategy for development, actively carrying out activities such as "Golden Blue Collar" training, independent evaluation of skilled talents, and master-apprentice inheritance, and smoothing the career development channels for skilled talents. At present, the proportion of senior workers and above skilled talents in the company has exceeded 27%, and the number of technicians and senior technicians has doubled compared with before 2022. The company's skilled talents have won many honors such as the National May 1st Labor Medal, China Textile Great Craftsman, SINOMACH Chief Technician, SINOMACH Technical Expert, and Qingdao May 1st Labor Medal.

Deng Zibu said that this competition is not only an important measure to implement the "Digital Qingdao 2.0" strategic layout, but also a vivid practice to deepen the technical reform of the industrial worker team and cultivate new productive forces. It is hoped that all contestants will take the machine tool as the stage and code as the language, show the industrial pursuit of craftsmanship in millimeters, further promote the spirit of model workers, the spirit of labor, and the spirit of craftsmanship, empower traditional manufacturing with digital technology, activate industrial kinetic energy with innovative thinking, and inject stronger skill strength into Qingdao's creation of a "model of a manufacturing strong city".

Chen Jiarui, the chief referee of the competition, and Li Chao, the representative of the contestants, took the oath and spoke in turn. The chief referee promised to uphold justice and enforce the judgment strictly; the contestant representative expressed his determination to abide by the rules and strive for the first place with a sonorous and forceful oath.

Precise Organization: Laying a Solid Foundation for the Competition

The successful holding of the competition benefited from careful preliminary preparation and efficient organizational coordination. All participating units attached great importance to this competition and actively organized contestants to prepare for the competition. Among them, Qingdao Hongda, as the undertaking unit, carefully organized and actively prepared for the competition since the start of the selection. The contestants made full use of their spare time to devote themselves to high-intensity theoretical review and practical simulation training, showing their firm determination to win glory for the enterprise and strive for the first place, as well as the craftsmanship spirit of pursuing excellence. All these hard work have laid a solid foundation for their stable performance in the competition.

Since the launch of the competition, the competition organizing committee has formulated detailed competition implementation plans and technical documents, and conducted multiple simulation drills for the competition process to ensure seamless connection of all links.

In order to strictly ensure the fairness and standardization of the competition, 5 external senior experts were invited to set questions and enforce the judgment to ensure professionalism and authority. The competition discipline is strict. The theoretical examination is under electronic monitoring throughout the process, and identities are verified and commitment letters are signed upon entry; the practical operation link adopts a batch mode, and the process is strict, comprehensively testing the comprehensive ability of workpiece precision processing and professional quality. The competition guarantee team dispatched meticulously and efficiently completed work such as workpiece encryption, site arrangement, and equipment reset, ensuring the compactness and fairness of the competition.

Craftsman's Mirror: Seeing the Truth in Millimeters

This competition was held at the Comprehensive Training Center of Qingdao Engineering Vocational College, lasting for two days. The competition content included two parts: theoretical knowledge and practical operation, aiming to comprehensively test the contestants' professional theoretical reserve and exquisite practical skills.

In the theoretical examination room, the contestants answered carefully, and the examination room was in order, showing a solid professional theoretical foundation.

In each 3-hour practical operation competition, contestants need to independently complete the whole process tasks from drawing reading, process planning, CNC programming to part processing and self-inspection and correction. In the competition venue, machine tools roared and cutter heads rotated rapidly. The contestants were fully focused, programming carefully in front of the operation panel, clamping and aligning the cutter  beside the machine tool, and the operation process was standardized and smooth, giving full play to the experience and technical accumulation accumulated on weekdays.

Fruitful Results: Jointly Empowering Industrial Development

After fierce competition, Fan Nina from Qingdao Hongda won the first prize; Sui Zhangwei from Qingdao Hongda and Liu Zhongsheng from Qingdao Hongda won the second prize; Li Chonglin from Qingdao Zhongzhi Zhuochuang Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd., Li Chao from Qingdao Hongda, and Liang Xiao from Qingdao Hongda won the third prize. At the same time, 15  winners were also selected in this competition.

The competition is not only a competition of skills, but also an efficient exchange and improvement. After the competition, the referee team conducted a concentrated technical review, in-depth analysis of the common advantages and areas for improvement of the contestants, and pointed out the direction for subsequent talent training.

The successful holding of this competition is a practical measure for Qingdao and Laoshan District to implement the central government's deployment on deepening the reform of the industrial worker team and expanding the high-skilled talent team. It has effectively built a platform for skilled talents to display their skills and exchange and learn, stimulated the enthusiasm of the majority of employees to drill business, practice technology, and strengthen their abilities, and provided solid skilled talent support for the high-quality development of Qingdao's intelligent manufacturing industry.