In today’s industrial sector, the wave of intelligentization is sweeping across the globe with an unstoppable momentum. The concept of "Industry 4.0" is in the ascendant, whose core lies in revolutionizing the traditional manufacturing production model and building smart factories with capabilities such as lean production, intelligent equipment operation and maintenance, and digital operation. In recent years, China has long regarded industrial intelligentization as a national strategy, issuing guiding policies including the "14th Five-Year Plan for Development" and "Developing New Quality Productive Forces" to accelerate the development of industrial intelligentization.

Data, as the core asset of industrial intelligentization and smart factory construction, its importance is self-evident. Data collection, analysis, and application have become the cornerstone for enterprises to gain insights, optimize decision-making, and innovate services. Through in-depth mining of massive industrial data, industrial enterprises can realize demand forecasting, raw material cost and supply chain forecasting, equipment monitoring and fault diagnosis, production monitoring and planning, product quality optimization, and intelligent logistics management. This further enables the achievement of multiple goals such as improving production flexibility, enhancing equipment reliability, and reducing maintenance costs. However, currently, problems such as "data failing to be collected" and "data failing to be properly utilized" are still prevalent in China. These issues not only restrict the improvement of production efficiency but also hinder the in-depth advancement of intelligent transformation.

Against this backdrop, Nanjing KaoSi Data Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "KaoSi Data") emerged. Focusing on "industrial intelligence," the company takes data and algorithm technologies such as edge computing, industrial big data, advanced control, and operational optimization as its core driving forces. Starting from the monitoring, protection, fault diagnosis, and intelligent operation and maintenance of moving equipment in industrial enterprises, it provides comprehensive intelligent solutions for industrial enterprises and accelerates the pace of smart factory construction.

As a technology-driven company, the founding team of KaoSi Data consists of top scientific research talents in the fields of edge computing and intelligent diagnosis, big data and statistical modeling, operational research, and artificial intelligence. Dr. Yang Shifei, the founder, graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the United States and has long been engaged in research on industrial big data collection and analysis, mastering world-leading key fault diagnosis technologies and development methods for equipment. During his studies, he met Dr. Xu Xu, a fellow townsman who also pursued further studies in the United States. Dr. Xu Xu was admitted to the School of Mathematical Sciences at Peking University at the age of 16 and later went on to specialize in the field of data analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Yang Shifei also joined forces with Dr. Xu Xu, Zou Xiaoyong (an expert in digital transformation of intelligent manufacturing), and Dr. Sun Lei (an expert in operational research). The four explored the integration points of their respective technical fields and shared a common goal of assisting domestic industrial enterprises in transforming toward smart factories.

Considering that smart factory construction involves numerous technical fields, Dr. Yang Shifei chose the equipment operation and maintenance field—where he excels—as the entry point for his entrepreneurship. By leveraging data technology, the company provides online monitoring, intelligent early warning, fault diagnosis, and intelligent operation and maintenance services for rotating and reciprocating moving equipment commonly used in industrial production, and continuously expands into business areas such as advanced control and operational optimization. Currently, KaoSi Data has provided intelligent equipment operation and maintenance, advanced control, operational optimization products, and solutions for leading enterprises in industries including iron and steel, cement, coal, chemical engineering, and automobiles. Its strong technical background and solid products have enabled KaoSi Data to continuously gain recognition from the market and customers, and attract capital attention. Since its establishment, it has completed three rounds of financing totaling tens of millions of yuan.

"When we undergo a medical check-up, doctors judge our health status by collecting various human health data. Similarly, KaoSi Data is the health doctor for the core equipment of industrial enterprises, providing 24/7 real-time online ‘check-ups’ for equipment."

Predictive equipment operation and maintenance technology involves high knowledge barriers. Currently, many enterprises still adopt manual inspection systems, which are time-consuming and labor-intensive, inefficient, and pose potential safety risks. KaoSi Data brings together experts from various fields and utilizes cutting-edge technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), big data, and artificial intelligence. With feature extraction, data modeling, and mechanism modeling as the core, the company conducts in-depth learning to break down system and knowledge barriers, and provides "check-ups" for core power equipment in enterprise production—such as bearings, drum machines, gear reducers, and belt conveyors. By deploying intelligent sensors and collectors on equipment, it collects "health" data including current, voltage, vibration, and temperature, which is then uploaded to the predictive equipment maintenance and health management platform. The platform builds an intelligent operation and maintenance system featuring "remote monitoring + intelligent early warning + automatic diagnosis + proactive operation and maintenance," transforming equipment maintenance from post-failure repair to predictive maintenance, safety management from passive supervision to proactive prevention, and decision-making from experience-driven to data-driven. This helps enterprises improve their overall operation and maintenance capabilities, ensure the safe and stable operation of equipment, reduce economic losses caused by equipment failures and shutdown maintenance, and even prevent tragic incidents such as explosions, fires, and casualties resulting from equipment failures.

"We first focused on the application scenarios of iron and steel production. During the service process, we continuously polished our products, refined and deepened our expertise in iron and steel production scenarios, and then iterated and replicated our experience and solutions to other industry scenarios to achieve the effect of ‘mastering one and applying it to all’." In 2018, KaoSi Data reached a strategic cooperation with Baowu Group to assist the group in realizing intelligent equipment operation and maintenance. Later, it also established cooperation with Conch Cement and Shanxi Coking Coal. Its predictive equipment maintenance and health management platform has helped customers solve one practical problem after another, winning wide praise from customers.

Domestic industrial enterprises are accelerating their transformation toward "digitalization" and "intelligentization," and the construction of smart factories is taking place at the right time, currently still in the ascending phase of industry popularity. Smart factories themselves are the product of integration across multiple disciplines and fields, making it difficult to achieve overnight success. Some "large and comprehensive" industrial intelligent products on the market may cover various scenarios, but they often fail to delve deeply into each one. KaoSi Data first thoroughly explores the equipment operation and maintenance field, and then extends to other areas of smart factory development. In 2022, KaoSi Data began piloting advanced control business within its corporate customers. Previously, this technology was mostly monopolized by European and American enterprises; however, compared with foreign technologies, KaoSi Data’s advanced control system is in no way inferior.

In June 2023, Nanjing Chuangyi No.1 Science and Technology Innovation Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership)—entrusted and managed by the Venture Capital Group—invested 5 million yuan in Nanjing KaoSi Data Technology Co., Ltd., with a post-investment valuation of 290 million yuan.

Wang Shuli, General Manager of the First Investment Department, stated that the core technical team of KaoSi Data all hold doctoral degrees from first-class universities in the United States and have many years of work experience in Fortune 500 companies. The company focuses on the industrial Internet of Things, starting from the monitoring, protection, fault diagnosis, and intelligent operation and maintenance of moving equipment (rotating, reciprocating) in industrial enterprises. By combining edge and cloud-based big data analysis, it arranges equipment maintenance in a reasonable manner, which can effectively reduce the risk of equipment shutdown and potential safety hazards, and improve enterprise production efficiency. The company’s industrial big data modeling technology based on statistics and enterprise operation optimization technology based on operational research make it believed that its solutions can be widely applied in multiple industrial fields such as iron and steel, cement, energy, and automobiles.

In the future, KaoSi Data will continuously optimize the performance of its hardware and software products, deepen technological R&D, optimize product services, and continuously extend its business to fields such as advanced control, supply chain management, and resource management. It aims to assist more industrial enterprises in realizing intelligent transformation, build efficient, safe, and environmentally friendly smart factories, and promote the high-quality development of China’s manufacturing industry.