With the rapid development of science and technology, the digital-intelligent economy has become a highly important direction in current social and economic development. In the process of the scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, it has formed a model supported by data as the core production factor and the collaboration of digital and intelligent technologies, driving the manufacturing industry to transform toward intelligence and networking. As an important manufacturing base on China’s eastern coast, Qingdao has established a sound and systematic manufacturing industrial system. However, it still faces certain problems in the digital-intelligent transformation, which directly affect the integrity of the value chain and the sustainability of competitiveness improvement of Qingdao manufacturing enterprises. Therefore, starting from the current development status of Qingdao manufacturing enterprises, this paper deeply analyzes the significance of improving the value chain upgrading level and competitiveness of manufacturing enterprises under the background of digital-intelligent economy, and systematically discusses the effective paths for value chain upgrading and competitiveness enhancement of Qingdao manufacturing enterprises in this context, hoping to provide new ideas for the high-quality development of Qingdao’s manufacturing industry.