Abstract: Local intelligent manufacturing policies serve as a crucial lever for governments to promote the transformation and upgrading of regional manufacturing industries. As industrial development constitutes a systematic project, it imposes higher requirements on the formulation of intelligent manufacturing policies. Existing literature primarily focuses on analyzing the impact effects and antecedent factors of policies. While these studies provide important perspectives for understanding the implementation effects of local intelligent manufacturing policies, they fail to clearly elucidate the essential elements of policy formulation and their underlying logical framework. Furthermore, most scholars emphasize national-level policy analysis, neglecting the specific challenges encountered at the local level in practical implementation. LDA (latent dirichlet allocation) enables comprehensive identification of thematic keywords within extensive policy texts, assisting researchers in discerning the focal priorities of local intelligent manufacturing policies. Meanwhile, ISM (interpretive structural modeling) facilitates analysis of both direct and indirect interrelationships among various elements, thereby revealing the operational mechanisms of policy components. This study systematically collects and analyzes 45 intelligent manufacturing policy documents issued by 31 provincial-level administrative regions across China. By employing the LDA topic modeling technique, we identify key policy elements embedded within these documents. Subsequently, the ISM approach is utilized to systematically examine the hierarchical relationships and interdependencies among these elements, thereby uncovering the integrated framework and foundational logic underpinning local intelligent manufacturing policy formulation. The research yields three primary findings: (1) Local intelligent manufacturing policies are composed of eight critical elements: Intelligent Manufacturing Goal Setting, Intelligent Manufacturing Policy Pathways, Intelligent Manufacturing Industrial Spatial Planning, Intelligent Manufacturing Open Integration, Intelligent Manufacturing Development Engine, Intelligent Manufacturing Service Support, Intelligent Manufacturing Innovation Initiatives, and Intelligent Manufacturing Demonstration Leadership; (2) Based on driver-dependency analysis, these policy elements can be categorized into driver elements, self-regulating elements, and dependent elements, which respectively play roles in guiding, supporting, and coordinating policy implementation; (3) Based on the analysis of policy content, this study constructs a fundamental logical framework for local intelligent manufacturing policies characterized by "top-level design - practical exploration - support mechanisms", while clarifying the policy-making priorities at each stage. The elements of top-level design serve as the starting point and foundation for policy formulation, providing guidance for the establishment of intelligent manufacturing policies, leading the support mechanisms and paving the way for practical exploration. Support mechanisms constitute critical components in policy-making, simultaneously reinforcing both top-level design elements and practical exploration initiatives. Practical exploration elements represent the most direct implementation approach for intelligent manufacturing policies, relying on support mechanisms while responding to the directional guidance of top-level design. Based on this, this paper proposes that when formulating local intelligent manufacturing policies, local governments should improve the top-level design of such policies. Local governments should fully recognize the guiding role of top-level design in the development of intelligent manufacturing policies and formulate policies accordingly. It is essential to strengthen the supportive mechanisms for local intelligent manufacturing policies. In policy formulation, local governments need to translate macro-level visions into concrete, actionable policy measures and implementation pathways to ensure effective policy execution. Furthermore, it is crucial to guide practical explorations of local intelligent manufacturing policies. For targeted development areas, policies should leverage their guiding function of "pooling resources, piloting initiatives, and scaling up successful practices" to drive progress.