Global Lighthouse Network Grows with 15 New Cutting-Edge Facilities

Fifteen factories have been added to the Global Lighthouse Network roster of state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) has selected these factories as leaders in adopting Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) technologies to transform their operations, increase their productivity and reduce their carbon footprint. The network has now grown to 69 manufacturing lighthouses globally.

The adoption of advanced manufacturing around the world has progressed at a significantly slower rate than expected—in fact, more than 70 percent of companies are still only rolling out their pilot projects. The WEF’s network aims to accelerate the process by presenting a platform to develop, share and scale innovative uses of 4IR in manufacturing facilities.

While you can see the full list of new network members here, let’s focus in on three examples of Lighthouse facilities—and how they set the example for manufacturers worldwide.

Foxconn, the world’s largest electronics contractor and a significant Apple supplier, was facing challenges in keeping up with its rapidly growing business demands while dealing with a shortage of skilled workers and products that were increasingly complex.

In response, the company made significant investments in mixed reality, artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies to train its workforce. AI-powered optical inspection was deployed, reducing manual inspection by 92 percent. Quality control measures, enabled with Foxconn’s own IoT platform, identified production defects and decreased quality alert time by 99 percent. Foxconn also used advanced analytics to optimize product planning, which led to a 25 percent reduction in inventory. Equipment efficiency was boosted by 17 percent through predictive maintenance technologies that pulled aggregate historical data from sensors. Overall, labor efficiency was increased by a whopping 200 percent at the plant.

This push for 4IR implementation has already shown results: in fact, Chengdu joins another Lighthouse-designated Foxconn facility, the Shenzhen factory, which received the designation in 2019.

“Foxconn is committed to continuously improving on our manufacturing systems and to building even more lighthouse factories as we serve our customers and contribute to a better world,” said Young Liu, chairman of the Foxconn Technology Group.

Consumer product giant Henkel has seen its Laundry and Home Care production facility in southern Spain given Lighthouse status—like Foxconn, it’s the company’s second factory to receive the designation.

At the Montornès del Vallès plant, the company implemented AI algorithms to prescribe actions based on historical data to prevent breakdowns along its line operations. Line efficiency has also been boosted through predictive maintenance technologies.

Forklifts have been replaced with fully automated guided vehicles (AGVs) to enable touchless and safe product movement, which has grown in importance during the pandemic. The AGVs improve occupational safety and maintain optimal inventory of stock, raw materials and products. These materials also benefit from a digitally-based smart product serialization technology that makes it easier to track materials and products from their source through production and all the way to the consumer.

Henkel is deploying 4IR technologies to reduce its carbon footprint as well. To increase energy efficiency, the company created a digital twin of the Montornès del Vallès factory—a cloud-based 3D replica of the plant that simulated operations to optimize energy use, implement safety measures and identify other efficiencies. As a result, total waste was reduced by 35 percent, and energy and water consumption are steadily improving.

The plant’s digital ecosystem also provides real-time data and standardized workflows—including a mobile app that digitizes and simplifies shop floor processes.

Ericsson’s first fully automated 5G factory has been open for just over a year and has already been designated a Lighthouse facility. The telecom giant has pumped more than $100 million into its Lewisville factory.

By incorporating 4IR technologies, the facility has increased employee output by 120 percent while reducing manual material handling by 65 percent.

The factory also runs on 100 percent renewable electricity, and its integrated environmental systems have been designed to reduce energy consumption by 24 percent and indoor water usage by 75 percent—of particular concern in the frequently hot Texas climate.

Everything is connected through a 5G network: drones that respond to alarms and monitor the facility autonomously, conducting maintenance under the control of remote experts through augmented reality headsets and using virtual reality to connect teams in Ericsson facilities around the world. Autonomous robots and automated assembly lines take the manual labor load, freeing up skilled workers to focus on other business tasks.

Ericsson places an emphasis on connectivity as a mechanism for carbon footprint reduction as well. “Capabilities like IoT and machine learning mean we can optimize existing physical infrastructure, and therefore reduce the need for more, or bigger infrastructure in the future,” the company said.

The company has made the impressive claim that incorporating 4IR technologies has resulted in output per employee that is 2.2 times higher than at a similar site without advanced manufacturing solutions.

“Running fully automated factories using the latest technologies is part of our strategy for a more resilient and sustainable global supply chain,” said Fredrik Jejdling, Ericsson’s executive vice president and head of Networks. “This World Economic Forum designation highlights the transformative impact of 5G technology in general—and on our factories in particular—to benefit business and society at large.”

The other 12 facilities to achieve lighthouse designation are:

• Bosch (Suzhou, China): The company deployed a digital transformation strategy in its manufacturing and logistics functions, resulting in a 15 percent reduction in manufacturing costs and a 10 percent improvement in quality.
• HP Inc. (Singapore): HP transformed from a manual, labor-intensive and reactive plant to a digitized, automated and AI-driven factory that lowered manufacturing costs by 20 percent and raised productivity and quality by 70 percent
• Midea (Shunde, China): Investments in digital procurement, flexible automation, digital quality, smart logistics and digital sales improved product costs by 6 percent, reduced order lead times by 56 percent and lowered CO₂ emissions by almost 10 percent.
• ReNew Power (Hubli, India): India’s largest renewables company used proprietary advanced analytics and machine learning solutions to increase the yield of its wind and solar assets by 2.2 percent, reduce downtime by 31 percent and improve employee productivity by about a third.
• Tata Steel (Jamshedpur, India): This 110-year-old plant incorporated 4IR technologies such as machine learning and advanced analytics to reduce raw material costs by 4 percent, and prescriptive analytics in production and logistics planning to reduce customer service costs by 21 percent.
• Tsingtao Brewery (Qingdao, China): Tsingtao redeployed smart digital technologies along its value chain to enable its 118-year-old factory to cut customized and new product development lead times in half, resulting in a revenue increase of 14 percent and an increased market share of 33 percent.
• Wistron (Kunshan, China): Wistron leveraged AI, IoT and flexible automation technologies to improve labor, asset and energy productivity, leading to a 26 percent improvement in manufacturing costs while cutting energy consumption almost in half.
• Johnson & Johnson Consumer Health (Helsingborg, Sweden): Johnson & Johnson used digital twins, robotics and state-of-the-art tracking and tracing to boost product volume growth by 7 percent, reduce the cost of goods sold by 20 percent, and get products to market 25 percent faster.
• Procter & Gamble (Amiens, France): Procter & Gamble deployed digital twin technology and digital operations management and warehouse optimization—leading to a 6 percent reduction in inventory, a 10 percent increase in equipment effectiveness and a 40 percent reduction in scrap waste.
• Siemens (Amberg, Germany): Siemens implemented a structured lean digital factory approach that included smart robotics, AI-powered process controls and predictive maintenance algorithms. The result: 140 percent factory output at double product complexity, without using more electricity or a change in resources.
• STAR Refinery (Izmir, Turkey): A $70 million investment in asset digital performance management, digital twin and machine learning, and organizational capabilities led to an increase in diesel and jet yield by 10 percent while reducing maintenance costs by 20 percent.
• Procter & Gamble (Lima, USA): Procter & Gamble invested in supply chain flexibility, digital twins, advanced analytics and robotic automation. As a result, the factory got new products to market 10 times faster and achieved facility performance that was twice as effective as competitors in avoiding stock-outs.

These factories are impressive additions to an already formidable roster of cutting-edge manufacturers—and promise to continue creating momentum toward 4IR technologies.

“This is a time of unparalleled industry transformation,” said Francisco Betti, the World Economic Forum’s Head of Shaping the Future of Advanced Manufacturing and Production. “The future belongs to those companies willing to embrace disruption and capture new opportunities. The lighthouses are illuminating the future of manufacturing and the future of the industry.”