CEAT Limited Sriperumbudur and Hindustan Unilever Limited Tinsukia Join World Economic Forum’s Global Lighthouse Network

#GlobalLighthouseNetwork #GlobalLighthouseAwards #DigitalTransformation #DigitalLighthouses #WEF #WorldEconomicForum

Source: World Economic Forum

"Across our Global Lighthouse Network, digital technologies are revolutionizing production ecosystems. From AI-driven control towers to zero-code workflows, Lighthouses exemplify sustainable innovation, setting benchmarks millions can follow to drive transformational change across the entire ecosystem." - Kiva Allgood, Head of the Centre for Advanced Manufacturing and Supply Chains, World Economic Forum.

January 2025 : The World Economic Forum recently announced that 17 innovative industrial sites have joined the Global Lighthouse Network, expanding the community to 189 leading production facilities and value chains that harness digital technologies at scale to achieve exceptional performance in productivity, supply chain resilience, customer centricity, sustainability and talent.

India continues to make significant strides in manufacturing innovation, with three of its facilities being recognized in the Global Lighthouse Network for their exceptional impact in digital transformation.

"Across our Global Lighthouse Network, digital technologies are revolutionizing production ecosystems," said Kiva Allgood, Head of the Centre for Advanced Manufacturing and Supply Chains, World Economic Forum. "From AI-driven control towers to zero-code workflows, Lighthouses exemplify sustainable innovation, setting benchmarks millions can follow to drive transformational change across the entire ecosystem."

In 2024, Lighthouses were recognized under two categories - Digital Lighthouses and Sustainability Lighthouses. Digital Lighthouse Awards recognize organizations and production ecosystems (single sites and end-to-end value chains) that have achieved step-change impact in productivity through technology-enabled transformation in their production sites and wider production ecosystems. Sustainability Lighthouse Awards recognize organizations, projects and production ecosystems that have achieved step-change impact through industry-leading reductions in energy, emissions, water and waste in pursuit of a holistic set of net-zero, decarbonization and circularity goals.

Within the Digital Lighthouse categories, organizations have been recognized based on two impact domains: • Factory: focuses within the four walls of the factory on asset utilization, worker enablement, quality improvement and resource optimization. • E2E value chain: connects with suppliers and customers to improve planning, service and working capital.

India’s success at the awards spans two categories: the Factory Lighthouse category and the E2E Lighthouse category. CEAT’s Sriperumbudur plant was recognized under the Factory Lighthouse category while Unilever’s Tinsukia facility earned recognition under the E2E Lighthouse category.

Factory Lighthouse - CEAT Limited (Sriperumbudur, India) To support its global expansion and manage a more complex product portfolio, CEAT’s Sriperumbudur facility deployed over 30 digital solutions, including operational research models for reducing turnaround time, advanced analytics for predictive control and machine learning-based design. These solutions improved labour productivity by 25 percent, reduced dispatch turnaround time by 54 percent, accelerated product ramp-up by 30 percent and cut Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 47 percent.

E2E Lighthouse - Hindustan Unilever Limited (Tinsukia, India) To adapt to the surge in “Instant delivery E-Commerce” via shorter runs and wider product variety, Unilever Tinsukia, operating in a remote region with limited resources, implemented over 50 digital use cases improving end-to-end supply chain agility through machine learning-driven planning, AI-enabled changeovers and a green digital twin. This helped reduce planning frozen periods from 14 days to one, enabling a threefold increase in unique SKUs and cutting the time for sustainable packaging trials by 84 percent. Additionally, the site supported local community development by fostering digital skills through an Industrial Training Institute and a digital-Braille lab, strengthening its social impact alongside its digital transformation.

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