With information technology as its core driver, the digital transformation of the manufacturing industry comprehensively promotes the upgrading and optimization of manufacturing production models, management methods, and ecological paradigms. It provides an effective means to advance new-type industrialization and build a dynamic and competitive modern industrial system. As benchmark representatives of global smart manufacturing and digital transformation in the manufacturing sector, lighthouse factories help observe innovative practices and cutting-edge directions in the transformation and development of the manufacturing industry. Taking annual lighthouse factories as samples, this paper finds, through diachronic data comparison, that China has achieved “quantitative”progress in terms of the number and growth of listed lighthouse factories, the coverage of involved industries, and the expansion of regional distribution. However, compared with developed countries such as the United States and Germany, there remains a certain “qualitative” gap in areas such as the conversion of old and new growth drivers, the overall digitalization process, and the international influence of technological output. By analyzing the current development achievements and existing gaps in the digital transformation of the manufacturing industry, this paper attempts to put forward referenceable path suggestions for further deepening and solidifying China’s manufacturing digital transformation.