Wave Makers | The New Generation at Procter & Gamble's Taicang Lighthouse Factory: Breaking the Rules of Standard Game, Creating a New Category of Laundry Concentrate Liquid

“Many people might not realize how serious some laundry detergents cut corners.” At the recent 2nd Fabric Cleaning and Care High-Quality Development Forum, Fan Ping, technical advisor at the National Surface Active Agents and Detergent Standards Center, revealed techniques used in the laundry detergent industry to cheat by playing “standard games.”

“Because industry standards for laundry detergents are non-mandatory, less than half (about 47.5%) of the products on the market comply with industry standards, while the rest follow inconsistent corporate standards. There was a case where a company deliberately increased the test concentration of samples sent for inspection to get more striking contrast and better data in the reports,” Fan Ping said with some frustration. “Some companies set key indicators (like total active ingredients and cleaning power) far below recommended industry standards to produce a ‘qualified’ certificate easily. These behaviors directly lead to the current uneven product quality.”

Procter & Gamble, which has been working in the laundry category for 80 years, also struggles with the industry’s inconsistent standards and low-quality internal competition. Therefore, it set higher thresholds for its Tide, Bounty, and Downy laundry liquids than the industry norms. After raising their corporate standards, the total active ingredient content standard was increased from ≥15% to ≥20%, and the cleaning power for key stains was required to be twice the industry standard. They also added standards not mentioned in the industry benchmarks, such as anti-washout performance and easy-rinse standards— the latter directly aligned with infant detergent standards.

Unexpectedly, this popular product on social media is produced at P&G’s Taicang Lighthouse Factory. Beyond minor fluctuations that can be eliminated by manual adjustments, the implementation of AI visual inspection systems to ensure compliance relies on the efforts of multiple generations of P&G employees.

P&G’s Taicang factory in Jiangsu is also recognized as a “Global Lighthouse Factory” and a “National Green Factory.”

Pioneering the Path: From Blueprints to Lighthouse Factory, Creating High-Quality Laundry Liquids

In early 2014, in Taicang, before a vacant lot awaiting construction, Li Zhen, who had been with P&G for only six months, was staring at blueprints. A graduate of Materials Science from Beihang University, she joined the “cosmic giant” P&G with hopes of a rare ten-year entrepreneurial opportunity, becoming the manufacturing lead for the first laundry liquid production line at the Taicang plant. She probably never imagined that this land would witness the rise of a world-class benchmark factory.

“I couldn’t believe it myself. I thought I would start with basic process execution, but unexpectedly, I was involved in team tasks like recruiting staff and evaluating equipment,” Li Zhen recalled. During the initial preparations, she and a colleague from Guangzhou would review over a dozen tasks daily, including technician assignments, equipment testing, and process inspections.

In early 2016, Li Zhen faced a new challenge—whether the factory could still reliably supply high-quality products amid surging production orders. At that time, the most advanced technology was to upgrade factory equipment and processes through intelligent means, reducing human errors under high output pressure and improving quality stability. Therefore, P&G Taicang decided to build Asia’s first “lights-out” automated fabric care workshop. However, automation technology was not yet fully mature, and the unique characteristics of each factory limited available case studies. Li Zhen’s team had to be the first to try.

“The real goal of ‘lights-out’ is to eliminate tiny fluctuations caused by human operation, achieving near-absolute stability,” Li Zhen explained. The team considered installing sensors for temperature and pressure, along with automatic tuning programs, to enable the production line to operate precisely in a dark environment, reducing monthly downtime failures to single digits. “Any fluctuations could be detected and corrected within seconds.” This innovative breakthrough helped the Taicang factory earn the World Economic Forum (WEF) “Global Lighthouse” certification in 2019.

“Everyone at P&G is willing to share openly,” Li Zhen told us. From the startup team, there were seasoned veterans and new employees just joining the factory. From day one, she worked hands-on with team members to learn the technology. As a new leader, she also broke down responsibilities for each partner and encouraged everyone to achieve their goals. “This is a ‘battle friendship’ without hierarchical relationships.” What made Li Zhen proud was that, before she took a maternity leave in 2017, almost no team members had left.

Laundry Liquid Production Site: P&G Taicang Lights-Out Automated Workshop

In February 2025, Li Zhen, now the Supply Chain Director for Fabric Care, returned to Taicang. Her role expanded beyond manufacturing to coordinating packaging, technology, and other processes. “The departments and information I need to focus on are more numerous. I need to consider how to implement new products and further improve product quality for consumers,” Li Zhen revealed. One of her key tasks in 2025 was the development and production of Tide, Bounty, and Downy laundry liquids.

As the production lead for the “liquid laundry detergent” project, Li Zhen had been liaising with R&D, sales, and marketing since 2024 to turn this “epoch-making new product” from an intangible concept into a tangible product for consumers.

To provide a laundry product that excels in cleaning, scent, anti-washout, and easy-rinse without residue, the formula uses highly active ingredients, demanding higher production standards. For example, the water used in production is multi-stage reverse osmosis deionized water, even purer than drinking water, to ensure active ingredients are unaffected by impurities. The automatic feeding pipes and storage tanks are made of medical-grade 316L stainless steel, ensuring corrosion resistance and safety.

However, the innovative lightweight bottles with leak-proof diamond caps introduced new packaging challenges, such as label adhesion and clasp detection. “Customer experience begins with opening the package,” Li Zhen said. To address this, she and her cross-functional team repeatedly tested and built an AI visual inspection system to perform 100% quality checks on each bottle. This “never-tiring eye” can scan every detail within 150 milliseconds, catching even slight label misalignments or clasp deviations.

Production of Tide Laundry Liquid

When the first bottle of laundry liquid rolled off the line, Li Zhen saw her early self in Taicang—passionate and dedicated. Now, she has grown from a builder of the production line into a promoter of industry standards.

New Generation Innovation: Automation Empowering Production Lines for Timely Delivery During Promotions

If Li Zhen laid the foundation for Taicang’s factory, then the addition of post-00s engineer Feng Anqi injected new digital energy. A master’s graduate in Food Science and Engineering from Jiangnan University, Feng Anqi joined as a process engineer, bringing cross-disciplinary courage and curiosity about supply chain implementation. After three months of shift work, she quickly understood the equipment logic. Her real breakthrough came through an innovation to improve production efficiency.

“Insufficient stock and a smoking production line can’t meet the demand,” she said. During Double 11, this often meant overwhelmed supply chains.

“Can I shorten the production time for each batch?” Feng Anqi, an avid online shopper, wanted to use her expertise to enhance the brand’s promotional capacity. She discovered that relying on manual data recording and transfer created hidden bottlenecks during peak periods, consuming valuable time and reducing responsiveness to orders.

“Since manual data transfer doesn’t add value, why not use technology to free our hands?” She decided to develop an automatic data synchronization program. Although her Python skills were basic, she learned quickly through P&G’s digital training resources and consulting with other factory tech experts. After three months of debugging, she successfully automated data transfer, reducing hourly production time by two minutes. This small improvement significantly increased the factory’s capacity during peak sales.

For this newcomer, a successful idea realization made her realize she was on a different path from her academic background. “School taught me more about standard answers; here, I get to explore and see results quickly.” She happily said, “From the factory’s perspective, this is efficiency; from my personal view, it’s the first time I’ve used a self-made intelligent tool to deliver consumer-loved laundry liquids faster. Plus, frontline colleagues say they spend less time on repetitive tasks and can focus more on quality control. It makes me feel my work is truly valuable.”

Li Zhen also helped build an AI knowledge base called “Digital Sutra,” consolidating and optimizing operational knowledge for new employees to find solutions quickly. The motivation came from noticing that practical knowledge—like raw material handling and minor equipment troubleshooting—was often only stored in experienced workers’ memories, lacking systematic resources. Now, a system is online, with several more in development.

“New employees prefer highly automated environments. Compared to manual equipment, digital systems are more attractive,” Li Zhen observed. Projects led by post-00s like Feng Anqi are helping Taicang shift from traditional manufacturing to intelligent production.

Today, Li Zhen still arrives at the factory at 8 a.m., monitoring the past 24 hours’ production data during shift handovers; Feng Anqi, after debugging the latest knowledge system, begins planning the next efficiency project. The two generations of innovators meet at Taicang, sharing different growth stories but with the same core goal—using their expertise to drive category innovation and fulfill the promises written on ingredient labels through the products consumers receive.

“As a factory, our value and pursuit are to continuously explore leading technologies, uphold human-centered care, and create real value for consumers,” summarized Zhou Min, General Manager of P&G Jiangsu Taicang Factory, at the industry forum.

When the efforts of Li Zhen and Feng Anqi translate into positive social media reviews of laundry detergent’s cleaning power, it signifies that industry progress is never achieved alone.

Daring to give newcomers opportunities and paving the way for innovation—more paddlers will join the fabric cleaning and care journey.