Technological innovation drives high-quality development, and the VSA gathers wisdom to ride the wave of progress.
On June 24, the Budweiser APAC Equipment Manufacturers Strategic Alliance Technology Forum grandly opened at Zhongchen Machinery.

Peng Weizhen, Chief Supply Chain Officer of Budweiser APAC, and Jan Clysner, Vice President of Procurement and Sustainability at Budweiser APAC, attended the forum and delivered speeches.

Wang Xin, Vice Chairman of the China Light Industry Machinery Association, also attended and addressed the forum.

Zha Zhengwang, Party Secretary and Chairman of Zhongchen Machinery, attended and delivered a welcome speech, while He Sheng, General Manager of Zhongchen Machinery, shared industry collaborative innovation experiences through a presentation on “VSA/VPO Case Practices.”

Speech by Peng Weizhen

Peng Weizhen gave a comprehensive review of the five-year development journey of the Budweiser APAC VSA (Value Sharing Alliance). He traced its evolution from addressing key industry pain points and achieving localization in its early stages, through four critical phases of growth, and finally toward its current expansion into the global market—demonstrating the VSA's important role in advancing Budweiser’s global operations.

Looking ahead, Peng expressed strong confidence in the future of the VSA. He emphasized that the alliance stands at the intersection of promising macroeconomic opportunities and clear industry trends. From a macro perspective, China possesses the most comprehensive industrial system in the world, providing a solid foundation for VSA’s sustained development.

Zooming in on the industry, Peng noted that the trajectory toward intelligent manufacturing in the food and beverage sector is becoming increasingly defined. According to McKinsey's latest report on smart manufacturing, the beer equipment sector is expected to experience explosive growth by 2030—offering vast opportunities for VSA’s continued expansion.

He concluded by reaffirming the alliance’s guiding principles: staying true to its original mission, fostering honest cooperation, embracing innovation, and maintaining a pragmatic approach. With a clear vision and grounded strategy, Peng stated that VSA will continue to make meaningful strides in the intelligent manufacturing of beer equipment, driving sustainable growth and industry leadership.

Speech by Jan Clysner

Jan Clysner, Vice President of Procurement and Sustainability at Budweiser APAC, reviewed the development journey of the VSA project. Starting with small-scale investment in its early stages, VSA has gradually expanded across China and the Asia-Pacific region, and is now evolving into a global demonstration initiative.

He emphasized the importance of regularly reviewing project progress—not only to summarize successful experiences but also to identify areas for improvement to ensure continuous optimization. This forum, he noted, is aimed at addressing key challenges, listening to partners’ voices, and jointly planning the project’s future development.

Looking ahead, Jan shared three core expectations for the continued growth of the VSA project:

1. Globalization of the China Supply Chain
   Promote the integration of Chinese supplier resources into the global supply network, making them a vital component of the international supply chain.

2. Integration of VSA and SSA Projects
   Facilitate the connection between the VSA and SSA initiatives and their respective supplier groups, enhancing resource coordination and improving the efficiency of project implementation.

3. Focus on Innovative Business Development
   Budweiser has remained committed to innovation in recent years. Moving forward, the company hopes to strengthen communication with suppliers, explore new innovation opportunities together, and inject fresh momentum into the VSA project.

Speech by Wang Xin

Wang Xin shared the latest updates from the industry and the China National Light Industry Council. She gave an in-depth interpretation of the Implementation Plan for the Digital Transformation of the Food Industry, systematically analyzing its alignment with the industry through dimensions such as policy background, development goals, four key initiatives, and eighteen specific measures.

She provided a deep analysis of the current state of the industry and pointed out directions for future breakthroughs. As a leading sector within the liquid food industry, the beer industry has made remarkable progress in automation and intelligent manufacturing. Represented by Budweiser Group, the construction of smart factories has reached internationally advanced levels, fully demonstrating its leading and exemplary role in the industry.

Wang Xin also shared the future development roadmap for the industry, introducing the key directions of the “15th Five-Year Plan” for liquid food equipment. She emphasized the importance of actively responding to national policies and aligning with each enterprise's specific circumstances. Enterprises should accurately identify entry points for digital transformation and work together to promote the high-end, intelligent, and green development of China’s food industry. This will inject new momentum into high-quality growth and make greater contributions to expanding the global presence of "Made in China."

Welcome speech by Cha Zhengwang

Cha Zhengwang, on behalf of Zhongchen Light Machinery, expressed gratitude to the leaders of the China Light Industry Machinery Association for their great attention and strong support for this forum. He also thanked the various leadership levels of Budweiser Asia Pacific for their immense trust in Zhongchen Light Machinery, and warmly welcomed all core members of the Budweiser Asia Pacific Equipment Manufacturers Strategic Alliance. He stated that the cooperation between Zhongchen Light Machinery and Budweiser Group is like a “mutual journey.” Through the deep integration of VSA and VPO, Zhongchen Light Machinery has overcome many technical challenges and achieved significant results in quality management and supply chain collaboration, laying a solid foundation for sustainable development for both parties. He hopes that through this cross-industry dialogue, an intelligent interactive platform can be built to combine Budweiser’s standards and future needs, promote technological iteration and industry demonstration; establish an ecosystem to enable closed-loop innovation; through in-depth dialogue along the supply chain, form a closed-loop system of “demand proposal – technology evaluation – solution implementation,” achieving a leap from passive innovation to proactive innovation; lead standards and create shared value by jointly formulating industry standards covering key indicators such as equipment energy efficiency and hygiene levels.

VSA Discussion and Exchange

The management team of Budweiser Asia Pacific focused on the core theme of "Continuously Building a Collaborative and Win-Win Cooperation System", framing it around the four key elements driven by future sustainability. Based on practical supply chain results, they systematically explained the localization strategy goals of VSA. Representatives from Budweiser’s global management team participated online in the forum, delivering insightful presentations on the global supplier strategic alliance. By reviewing phased achievements and deeply analyzing bottlenecks encountered during implementation, they outlined a forward-looking and actionable implementation path from both strategic planning and execution perspectives. This approach aims to guide the efficient rollout of the VSA system, achieving coordinated development through innovation in cooperation models and enhanced operational efficiency.

Workshop Visit

During the forum, leaders conducted an in-depth onsite visit to Zhongchen Light Machinery’s digital production workshop, focusing on understanding the intelligent manufacturing and processing workflows of Zhongchen’s products. They gained a vivid appreciation of the seamless integration between Budweiser’s VSA/VPO initiatives and Zhongchen’s outstanding modern lean management system. The leaders expressed strong recognition of Zhongchen’s recent progress and achievements.

The deep integration of Zhongchen’s digital technologies with lean management has significantly enhanced efficiency across the entire process from order placement to delivery, continuously leading the industry. As a core supplier in the Budweiser Asia-Pacific Equipment Manufacturer Strategic Alliance, Zhongchen’s robust momentum is demonstrated not only by its high level of production line automation but also by its standardized operational systems that consistently deliver outstanding value to the supply chain.

For example, the Argentina project completed manufacturing and delivery within 90 days, with installation, debugging, and commercial production achieved within two weeks, successfully passing the SAT acceptance. Similarly, the Colombia project was delivered within 90 days, and after just 10 days of commercial production, it smoothly passed a continuous 5-day SAT acceptance with 100% efficiency, setting a benchmark standard in the industry.

More than 70 people attended the forum, including Budweiser Asia-Pacific leadership, Budweiser global leadership, representatives from 14 core member companies of the Budweiser Asia-Pacific Supplier Strategic Alliance, senior executives from Zhongchen Light Machinery, and key members of the VPO team.