Tuesday, April 30, 2024

Zymergen - Emeryville - Industrial Engineering 4.0 - WEF - McKinsey Light House Plant.


Lighting the way: New leaders in the fourth industrial revolution

July 3, 2019 

Biotechnology firm Zymergen brought robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) to bioengineering labs, traditionally highly manual sites. Innovation rates soared, allowing Zymergen to use bioengineering for products previously were not feasible.

https://www.weforum.org/press/2019/07/scaling-intelligent-manufacturing-10-factories-leading-the-way-in-innovation/




Zymergen’s Opportunity to Drive the Fourth Industrial Revolution through Biology

Mar 9, 2020

by Josh Hoffman, CEO, Zymergen


The World Economic Forum and McKinsey recently published a whitepaper in which they recognize Zymergen as a “lighthouse company”, in implementing  the Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies. 

The world of petroleum-based material development and manufacturing is experiencing a significant innovation lull; fewer new ideas, fewer areas for improvement, and a finite raw material resource that’s running out quickly. Bio-based manufacturing is the answer and it will create the next industrial revolution.

Zymergen is bringing the best of pure technology, automation, and biological experimentation together in a single platform and thus  transforming the way things are made. 

At Zymergen, our view is that biological system of the universe or earth itself is the world’s greatest manufacturing system.  So we partner with nature to create and commercialize revolutionary new materials. We developed a unique technology platform that combines biology, machine learning, and automation to develop  the largest library of proprietary genomic data in the world, and we use that information to discover, design and scale in a way no other company can. As a result, we can bring new products to market in half the time and for one-tenth the cost of companies that use petrochemical-based materials. And the applications are incredibly broad: from electronics to adhesives to agriculture products — and more. There are loads of benefits to our approach, including lower cost, shorter time to market and dramatically lower environmental footprint. But at the end of the day, we’re actually making better products, and that’s a key difference between our team and others in this emerging space.


Our team fuses deep biology, chemistry, and computer science expertise. We invested in creating an automated, high-throughput biomanufacturing system that can be reconfigured in minutes and can scale to fill a factory, bringing the best of pure technology, automation, and biological experimentation together in a single platform that is wholly transforming the way things are made.

In the time we’ve been in operation, we have realized a 40% increase in our production yield and a 50% reduction in lead time, all while lowering our operating costs by 42% — simply by optimizing our capacity, inventory and teams.


https://medium.com/@zymergen/growing-zymergens-opportunity-to-drive-the-fourth-industrial-revolution-through-biology-d3e3342fe367


https://medium.com/@dcvc/bringing-zymergen-to-scale-enabling-engineering-biology-with-ai-robotics-d998a2b0cc1


https://medium.com/@peterkakljugin/ai-pioneers-unveiling-cutting-edge-artificial-intelligence-startups-ae284ba2f6e8


Pdf files

https://partnershiponai.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Case-Study_Zymergen.pdf


https://www.appengine.ai/company/zymergen


https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/bioengineering-revolution-maria-marenco


https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/top-10-ai-startups-2020-healthcare-clinical-trail-ganapathy-shankar


https://www.sumitomo-chem.co.jp/english/news/detail/20190417e.html


https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6944054/


https://www.biofuelsdigest.com/bdigest/2018/12/13/zymergen-the-porsche-911-of-the-materials-superhighway-raises-400m-in-monumental-series-c-round/


https://www.ginkgobioworks.com/


https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-20122-2


https://www.forbes.com/sites/johncumbers/2020/06/05/how-california-can-lead-the-global-bioeconomy-a-conversation-with-zymergen-ceo-josh-hoffman/?sh=57481c56a64a

https://glasp.co/youtube/p/zymergen-ceo-josh-hoffman-on-biofacturing-plus-founderu-startup-math-e1231

https://ecorner.stanford.edu/podcasts/insights-of-an-accidental-entrepreneur/










List of Industry 4.0 Light Houses - WEF - McKinsey - Have You Benchmarked with the Best in Industry 4.0 Implementation?

 

https://initiatives.weforum.org/global-lighthouse-network/lighthouses#


Benchmarking Process Productivity and Cost

https://nraoiekc.blogspot.com/2023/05/benchmarking-process-productivity-and.html


List of Industry 4.0 Light Houses

ACG - Pithampur

To stay ahead of the curve in an intensely competitive market, pharmaceutical supplier ACG Capsules prioritized manufacturing superior-quality products, improving responsiveness, increasing production yields and enhancing workforce productivity. To achieve this, ACG Capsules implemented 25+ Fourth Industrial Revolution use cases powered by the industrial internet of things (IIoT), machine learning (ML), deep learning (DL), digital twins, extended reality and generative AI. Effective adoption of these use cases has resulted in a reduction in critical defects of 98%, a shortening of production lead times of 39%, a drop in total losses of 51% and a 44% rise in workforce productivity.

INDIA | HEALTH

ACG - Pithampur


AMOREPACIFIC - Osan

To stand out in the cosmetics industry, global beauty company AMOREPACIFIC used Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies such as AI and 3D printing to optimize manufacturing process design, accelerate new product introductions and improve flexibility. This reduced new product lead time by 50% and defects by 54%. It also enabled a new business model for manufactured-in-store customized cosmetics, with over 800,000 unique products offered.

REPUBLIC OF KOREA | FOOD & RETAIL

AMOREPACIFIC - Osan



Agilent - Waldbronn

Amid demand fluctuations, strong growth of more than 50%, supply-chain disruptions and evolving product needs, Agilent Waldbronn introduced more than 25 Fourth Industrial Revolution-related roles and 20 associated use cases to address the challenges. Its high-volume and high-mix life-science manufacturing platform benefited from solutions from its Fourth Industrial Revolution toolkit, including AI applications and IIoT for rapid simulation and prediction. The facility has achieved a 35% increase in quality, a 44% boost in productivity and a 48% rise in output, ultimately enabling market share growth.

GERMANY | HEALTH

Agilent - Waldbronn



CATL - Liyang

To address soaring demand and increasing labour costs, and to meet its carbon neutrality commitment, CATL Liyang applied big data to simulate quality-testing, additive manufacturing to reduce changeover times, computer vision to achieve micron-level quality inspection, and deep learning to optimize process controls and energy management. This has resulted in a 320% output increase, a 33% reduction in manufacturing costs, a 47.4% reduction in normalized emissions and a 99% reduction in quality defects. Defect measurement has been upgraded from “per million” to “per billion”.

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | TECHNOLOGY

CATL - Liyang


 CITIC Pacific Special Steel’s Jiangyin Xingcheng plant

To meet the fast-growing global demand for customized steel products while navigating volatile raw material and energy-supply issues, CITIC Pacific Special Steel’s Jiangyin Xingcheng plant deployed 40+ Fourth Industrial Revolution use cases such as advanced analytics-powered process simulation and optimization, as well as AI-enabled energy management. As a result, the plant has been able to increase customized orders by 35.3%, reduce its non-qualified product rate by 47.3% and cut its energy consumption by 10.5% per tonne of steel.


China Resources Building Materials Technology - Tianyang

To address the requirements of green and low-carbon development, higher quality expectations and cost pressures, Tianyang site, a cement factory under China Resources Building Materials Technology Holdings, has deployed 30+ Fourth Industrial Revolution use cases with advanced analytics, autonomous driving and IIoT to improve energy, labour and equipment efficiency and quality performance. As a result, the site has reduced carbon emissions by 24%, increased labour productivity by 105%, reduced unplanned downtime by 56% and improved quality consistency by 25%.

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | MATERIALS

China Resources Building Materials Technology - Tianyang


DHL Supply Chain - Memphis

Facing a growing e-commerce market and driven by retail promotions and a consumer consumption switch from offline to online orders, in addition to heavy seasonality impacts, DHL Supply Chain in Memphis, Tennessee established a strategic Fourth Industrial Revolution site, equipped with a control tower for centralized planning and execution oversight to manage and control E2E operations. This site has seamlessly integrated robots, analytics and a flexible staffing solution, resulting in a 50% overtime reduction, a 57% shipment cycle time reduction and a 290% increase in capacity, leading to a 28% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) since 2019. Consequently, the site has emerged as a primary training hub for the global adoption of new technologies.

USA | SUPPLY CHAIN & TRANSPORTATION

DHL Supply Chain - Memphis



GAC AION - Guangzhou

To satisfy customers’ spiking demand for reliable and customized electric vehicles, GAC AION deployed 40+ Fourth Industrial Revolution use cases to provide customers with more than 100,000 configuration options and ensure timely and qualified deliveries. The fully automated production line supports mixed production of made-to-order and made-to-stock models, increasing production efficiency by 50%, reducing delivery times by 33%, raising first-pass yields by 8% and reducing manufacturing costs by 58%.

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | AUTOMOTIVE

GAC AION - Guangzhou


Haier - Hefei


The rise of a new middle class and increased consumer consumption in China have driven upgrades from a split air conditioner (AC) system to a central AC system, which has higher requirements in terms of quality and energy efficiency. Haier’s Hefei air conditioner factory applied advanced algorithms, digital twins, knowledge graphs and other cutting-edge technologies in the research and development (R&D), production and testing of household central AC systems, resulting in a 33% increase in energy efficiency, a 58% drop in the defect rate, a 49% increase in labour productivity and a 22% drop in unit manufacturing costs.

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | TECHNOLOGY

Haier - Hefei


Haier - Qingdao

To stay ahead of the industry on cost and address common problems of unprofessional and delayed services in the home-appliance industry, Haier deployed 136 Fourth Industrial Revolution use cases for procurement cost savings and improvements in productivity and quality of services, using technologies including 5.5G, advanced algorithms and ready-to-use digital twins. This initiative has resulted in product cost being optimized by 32%, labour productivity increasing by 36% and the service complaint rate being cut by 85%.

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

Haier - Qingdao


Hengtong Alpha Optic-Electric - Suzhou

Facing higher cost pressures as well as quality and green production expectations from the international market, Hengtong Alpha accelerated the large-scale application of advanced analytics, machine vision and AI technology across 27 advanced use cases covering the whole production value chain. As a result, unit manufacturing costs have decreased by 21%, the defect rate has reduced by 52% and unit power consumption has fallen by 33%.

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | TECHNOLOGY

Hengtong Alpha Optic-Electric - Suzhou


Ingrasys - Taoyuan

The rapid development of AI foundation models has brought an explosion in demand for computing power and higher efficiency, quality and iteration speed requirements for AI servers. By deploying AI use cases across order forecasting, warehouse and production scheduling, product design, quality and assembly-testing domains, Foxconn Industrial Internet’s Taiwan factory has achieved a 73% increase in production efficiency, a 97% reduction in product defects, a 21% reduction in lead time and a 39% decrease in unit manufacturing costs.

TAIWAN, CHINA

Ingrasys - Taoyuan



Johnson & Johnson - Xi’an

To improve agility and responsiveness, raise quality standards and enhance competitiveness, Johnson & Johnson Xi’an replaced its manual facility with a Fourth Industrial Revolution-enabled new factory in 2019. This facility includes digital twins for technology transfer and material handling, intelligent automation of continued process verification (CPV) and batch execution processes. This has shortened the product transfer time by 64% during site relocation and has enabled a 60% decrease in non-conformance, while improving productivity by 40%, operating costs by 24% and GHG emissions by 26%.

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

Johnson & Johnson - Xi’an


Johnson & Johnson - Xi’an - Sustainability

To address growing energy demands while reducing its environmental impact, Johnson & Johnson Xi’an constructed a state-of-the-art manufacturing site. To meet and surpass its LEED Gold® certification, it implemented a series of Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies, including AI algorithms for process control, IIoT-based intelligent cleaning and digital twins. This has resulted in a 47% reduction in material waste, a 26% decrease in GHG emissions and a 23% reduction in energy consumption.

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | HEALTH

Johnson & Johnson - Xi’an - Sustainability


K-Water - Hwaseong

The climate crisis has caused significant water supply concerns, as heatwaves and heavy rains create more volatile and turbid supplies. To address this, K-water launched a next-generation AI water treatment plant to reduce production costs, improve responsiveness and reduce human error. It is being scaled across 40+ other sites and has helped K-water to reduce its chemical usage by 19%, improve labour efficiency by 42% and reduce power consumption by 10%.

REPUBLIC OF KOREA | ENERGY & UTILITIES

K-Water - Hwaseong


Kenvue - Bangkok - Sustainability

Kenvue Thailand deployed Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies for more sustainable resource management across site operations. This includes an end-to-end water-to-ecosystem performance management system, a digital twin to optimize chiller system energy consumption, and a dynamic scheduling and container loading optimization solution that leverages data analytics and robotic process automation. From 2018 to 2023, the site reduced water utility intake by 35%, energy-related consumption (scope 1&2) by 34%, correlating GHG emissions by 29%, normalized for production volumes, and container utilization improved by 35% leading to more efficient transportation.

THAILAND | HEALTH

Kenvue - Bangkok - Sustainability


Kenvue - Shanghai

To keep up with the growth in e-commerce, faster speed to market and the fluctuating demands that come from increased cost competitiveness, Kenvue Shanghai deployed more than 25 Fourth Industrial Revolution use cases, including big data analytics on social media, digital twins, additive manufacturing and ML across its E2E value chain. This resulted in a 50% reduction in new product introduction lead times, 1.3-times improvement in forecast accuracy and 99.8% on-time-in-full deliveries within 48 hours. This enabled the e-commerce business to double from 30% to 60% of overall business.

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

Kenvue - Shanghai


LONGi Solar - Jiaxing

Driven by the desire to reduce costs, improve quality and shorten the lead time on solar modules, the Jiaxing site implemented more than 30 Fourth Industrial Revolution use cases, using AI and advanced analytics to boost manufacturing operations. These efforts have had significant impacts, with the site achieving a 28% reduction in unit manufacturing costs, a 43% cut in yield loss and an 84% decrease in production lead time within one year, while also lowering energy consumption by 20%.

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES

LONGi Solar - Jiaxing


Mondelēz - Beijing

Embracing sustainability ambition from both Mondelēz Global and Beijing City while meeting Mondelēz’s growth ambitions and addressing operating cost pressures due to year-on-year (YoY) 6% labour cost inflation, Mondelēz Beijing implemented 38 Fourth Industrial Revolution use cases, such as an AI-powered dough-making lights-off workshop and gas consumption optimization by machine learning. As a result, Mondelēz Beijing has achieved a 28% net revenue growth and 53% increase in labour productivity while reducing GHG emissions by 24% and food waste by 29%.

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | FOOD & RETAIL

Mondelēz - Beijing


ReNew - Ratlam

To maximize productivity, streamline costs and redeploy the existing workforce to help in-source operations and maintenance (O&M) capabilities, renewable energy company ReNew built on and scaled the digital and analytics backbone from its first Lighthouse site, including new proprietary AI models and the rapid scaling of Fourth Industrial Revolution use cases across 70 wind farms, 10 original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and 22 unique wind turbine models. Ratlam, the company’s benchmark site for this scale transformation, has sustained improvements of 1.7% higher energy yield, 17% reductions in operating expenses and 40% less waste. This led to a 20% increase in profitability.

INDIA | ENERGY & UTILITIES, ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES

ReNew - Ratlam


Schneider Electric - Hyderabad - Sustainability

Schneider Electric’s Hyderabad site aims to be zero carbon on Scope 1 and 2 by 2030, based on a strong Fourth Industrial Revolution core. This includes an E2E closed-loop system with CO2 tracking for strategic suppliers. The system is powered by real-time data generation and cloud analytics for all facility assets that interlink with shop-floor operations using an IIoT-enabled equalizer and AI-based predictive monitoring. This has led to a 59% reduction in energy consumption, 61% decrease in CO2 emissions, 57% cut in water consumption and a 64% reduction in normalized waste generation.

INDIA | TECHNOLOGY

Schneider Electric - Hyderabad - Sustainability

To become a zero-carbon pioneer in the context of 92% growth in production output in the past three years, Siemens’ Chengdu factory deployed a holistic digital energy management system, implemented predictive maintenance throughout the manufacturing process, introduced AI-based automation to identify and handle up to 16 types of production waste and applied eco-design features to improve circularity and dematerialization. This has reduced unit product energy consumption by 24% and production waste by 48%.

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | TECHNOLOGY

Siemens - Chengdu - Sustainability


Unilever - Sonepat

To improve agility and cater to diverse product segments, reduce costs in an inflationary environment and improve sustainability, Unilever Sonepat implemented 30+ Fourth Industrial Revolution use cases in its E2E supply chain. Top use cases included boiler and spray dryer process twins, as well as customer data-informed no-touch production planning and inventory optimization. This improved service by 18%, forecast accuracy by 53%, conversion cost by 40% and Scope 1 carbon footprint by 88%. The use of biofuels enabled by a boiler process twin also supports livelihoods for local farmers.

INDIA | FOOD & AGRICULTURE, FOOD & RETAIL

Unilever - Sonepat



A Karo - Bozüyük

Increased energy prices and inflation have affected energy costs and the labour-intensive ceramic tile production process. To sustain competitiveness while responding to higher demands and maintaining a complex portfolio of 4,200+ SKUs, VitrA Karo’s Bozüyük site deployed its digital transformation roadmap, focusing on intelligent process and production controls. This has resulted in a 19% increase in OEE, a 56% decrease in scrap, a 14% decrease in energy consumption and a 43% increase in the use of recycled content.

TÜRKIYE | MATERIALS

VitrA Karo - Bozüyük


ASE - Kaohsiung

To improve productivity and reduce lead time in an increasingly complex manufacturing environment of over 100 process steps, ASE Kaohsiung’s bumping factory deployed AI applications in their processes from inspection to dispatch. As a result, the site was able to increase output by 67% while reducing order lead time by 39%.

TAIWAN, CHINA | TECHNOLOGY

ASE - Kaohsiung


Agilent Technologies- Singapore

With the ambition to simplify high-tech manufacturing in low-volume, high-complexity instruments to meet rising customer demand, Agilent Singapore deployed IIoT-powered digital twin, AI & Robotic Automation solutions to achieve sustainable growth, overcoming bottlenecks from specialized manpower and transforming the workforce into scalable 4IR-ready generalists. This resulted in improved productivity by 60%, improved cycle time by 30% and quality cost by 20%.

SINGAPORE | TECHNOLOGY

Agilent Technologies- Singapore

60% Increase in Productivity - Benchmark With It - Agilent Technologies- Singapore - Industrial Engineering - Industry 4.0

https://nraoiekc.blogspot.com/2024/02/60-increase-in-productivity-benchmark.html


Bosch Automotive - Bursa

To secure future investments and resources for production of new products such as hydrogen components, Bosch Powertrain Solutions Plant in Bursa needed to further strengthen its cost leadership. By deploying AI use cases such as close loop process control for hydro-erosion, and upskilling 100% of the workforce, they reduced unit manufacturing cost by 9% and improved OEE by 9%.

TÜRKIYE | AUTOMOTIVE

Bosch Automotive - Bursa


CATL - YiBin

To catch up significant business growth, and higher quality and sustainability expectation, CATL builds up a large greenfield in Yibin city since 2021. The plant further deployed in depth AI, IoT and flexible automation on top of CATL Ningde headquarters lighthouse digital initiatives, have achieved 17% increased line speed, 14% reduced yield loss, and zero carbon emission

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | AUTOMOTIVE

CATL - YiBin


CEAT - Halol

To capture greater market volumes, CEAT needed to incorporate greener materials and meet stringent in-process specifications. CEAT deployed Fourth Industrial Revolution use cases like advanced analytics to optimize cycle times and digitalization of operator’s touchpoints. As a result, the site reduced cycle times by 20%, process scrap by 46%, and energy consumption by 15% . Overall, this resulted in approximately a 2.5 times increase in export and OEM sales in two years.

INDIA | AUTOMOTIVE

CEAT - Halol


Cipla Indore

Facing rising challenges of steep price-cuts & growing input costs to its endeavor of pioneering access to high-quality affordable drugs globally, Cipla deployed “Digital-Automation-Analytics (DAA)” to unlock E2E cost, productivity; quality leadership – across a network of 22 India sites in parallel, over just 2 years.Indore-OSD led this “DAA” journey with 30+ use-cases, spanning IIoT, Digital, Advanced Analytics, NLP, RPA, Robotics, etc. – to improve Total Cost (26%↓), Productivity (23%↑), Quality (300%↑) & GHG emission (28%↓).

INDIA | HEALTH

Cipla Indore


Danone - Opole

Being one of the best performing plants, facing a dynamic labor market and a growth of its production complexity by 35%, Danone Opole engaged its whole workforce across functions and levels into a digital transformation journey to deploy connected shopfloor, artificial intelligence and automation at scale. As a result, it improved costs by 19%, efficiency by 12% while improving quality and reducing GHG emissions by close to 50%. It became a transformation leader for the other 39 Danone plants in Europe & top employer in the local market

POLAND | FOOD & RETAIL

Danone - Opole


Dr Reddy's - Hyderabad

Facing business challenges from severe price erosion and rapidly evolving quality expectations, the 25-year-old site embarked on large scale digitalization to sustain and grow in the generic pharma market. The site deployed 40+ 4IR use cases by operating in garage mode and leveraging IIoT & democratized platform for advanced analytics. As a result, it improved manufacturing cost by 43% while proactively enhancing quality and reducing energy by 41%

INDIA | HEALTH

Dr Reddy's - Hyderabad


Flex - Sorocaba

Faced with the challenge of competitiveness while not losing sight of sustainability, employees health & safety commitments, Flex implemented 4IR initiatives along the end-to-end value chain, from circular economy to digital performance management and EHS to supply chain control tower, resulting into a 50% labor cost improvement, a 81% material loss reduction, increased plant agility while improving sustainability and increasing customer satisfaction (+18%) as well employee engagement & well-being.

BRAZIL | TECHNOLOGY

Flex - Sorocaba



Foxconn - Yuzhan

In response to customers’ needs for rapid releases of new smartphone products and strict quality standards, Foxconn Industrial Internet enabled agile product introduction, quick capacity ramp-up, and smart mass production by deploying 37 different Fourth Industrial Revolution use cases at scale. This accelerated new product introduction by 29%, led to 50% faster ramp-ups, reduced quality non-conformance by 56% and reduced manufacturing cost by 30%. 

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | TECHNOLOGY

Foxconn - Yuzhan


Haier - Hefei

Facing challenges in product diversity, time-to-delivery and quality brought by the operational shift from within-group single supply to external broader supply, Haier factory in Hefei leveraged the self-developed IIoT platform to accelerate at-scale deployment of AI, machine vision and advanced analytics in 18 Fourth Industrial Revolution use cases across supply network, R&D, manufacturing and customer service, shortening order lead time by 50% and lowering on-site defect rate by 33%.

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | OTHER

Haier - Hefei



Haier - Qingdao / Refrigerators

Facing the demand of customers for customized design, fast delivery and high quality, Haier refrigerator factory leverages big data, digital twin and advanced visual inspection technology to accelerate R&D, upgrade manufacturing process and logistics scheduling mode . The order response lead time has been shortened by 35%, production efficiency has been increased by 35% and quality performance has been improved by 36%.

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | OTHER

Haier - Qingdao / Refrigerators


Huayi New Material - Shanghai

To respond to external challenges, such as 30% over-capacity and higher costs due to market volatility, the company has deployed 28 different Fourth Industrial Revolution use cases, such as machine-learning-enabled process optimization and AI-enabled safety management. As a result, labour productivity increased by 33%, conversion cost fell by 20%, energy consumption dropped 31%, and recordable safety incidents reached zero.

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | CHEMICALS

Huayi New Material - Shanghai


Johnson & Johnson Consumer Health - Mulund

Facing a volatile demand in a highly fragmented and complex network of distributors and vendors, Johnson & Johnson India deployed Fourth Industrial Revolution solutions such as demand sensing, smart logistics, robotics and 3D printing. As a result, they reduced OTIF losses by 66%, accelerated new product introduction by 33% and improved cost per piece by 34%.

INDIA | HEALTH

Johnson & Johnson Consumer Health - Mulund



LG Electronics - Clarksville

Following the establishment of a plant in the US two years ago to be closer to customers, LG encountered various human resource risks and a lack of production know-how. By adopting Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies, such as deep learning, automation and digitalization, LG was able to strengthen its strategic production base in the US, increasing sales by 68% and growing net profit by 703%.

USA | OTHER

LG Electronics - Clarksville


Lenovo - Hefei

Facing fierce competition, significant demand fluctuation and growing product customization, Lenovo Hefei, the world’s largest single PC factory, deployed over 30 Fourth Industrial Revolution flexible automation and advanced analytics use cases, improving labour productivity by 45%, reducing supplier quality issue by 55%, while managing small-size yet numerous customer orders (80% of them being less than five units).

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

Lenovo - Hefei


MantaMESH - Frottstadt

With cost leadership being critical to compete as a SME in a highly competitive commodity market, MantaMESH developed a Fourth Industrial Revolution an online manufacturing business model that connects customers to an automated fulfilment system. All customer interactions are automatically processed online with real-time connection to smart manufacturing plants. The result is a 261% increase in customer activity and 73% growth in production volumes while reducing energy consumption/kg produced by 32%.

GERMANY | OTHER

MantaMESH - Frottstadt


Midea - Shunde

In order to meet the demands of consumers for high quality and short lead-times of products, Midea Shunde factory has actively deployed AI, digital twin and other Industry 4.0 technologies in the end-to-end value chain, realizing 24% lower unit production cost, 41% shorter lead-times,30% shorter R&D lead time and 51% less defect rate.

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | OTHER

Midea - Shunde


Mondelez - Sricity

Driven by the aspiration to 1) outgrow the market through superior volume delivery, 2) strengthen cost leadership, 3) build further resilience and diversity in a volatile environment, Mondelez Sricity deployed end-to-end digitalization, predictive analytics, artificial intelligence and advanced automation to increase labour productivity by 150%, reduce manufacturing costs by 38% and sustain 50% female workforce making it a benchmark manufacturing site for Mondelez globally.

INDIA | FOOD & RETAIL

Mondelez - Sricity


Mondelez - Suzhou

To quadruple retail channels in China and double store coverage to 4 million retail outlets, and address the impact of double-digit inflation related to labour and logistics costs, the company invested in multiple Fourth Industrial Revolution solutions. This allowed it to transform a linear supply chain into an integrated supply ecosystem, with improved OTIF by 18%, reduced lead times of 32% and securing growth in market share from 23.4% to 28.3%.

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | FOOD & RETAIL

Mondelez - Suzhou


Procter & Gamble - Takasaki

To address a 2-3% year-on-year business growth with limited footprint expansion potential, the site implemented Fourth Industrial Revolution use cases such as data flow integration, digital twin, machine learning across end-to-end value chain (from R&D to customers). As a a result, the innovation lead time accelerated by 72%, shutdown days for trial were reduced by 21%, and order horizon from customers improved 14-fold.

JAPAN | CHEMICALS

Procter & Gamble - Takasaki


Sany Group Co. Ltd - Changsha

To address the challenges from industryspecific market cycle fluctuations, product complexity (263 SKUs) and production of heavy duty products, Sany Changsha leveraged flexible automation, AI and IIoT at scale to build a digital and flexible heavy equipment manufacturing system that excels at cost, efficiency and quality. As a result, the site expanded capacity by 123%, improved labor productivity by 98%, and reduced unit manufacturing cost by 29%.

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | TECHNOLOGY

Sany Group Co. Ltd - Changsha


The Coca-Cola Company - Ballina

Ballina site, the company’s largest concentrate manufacturing facility, delivers over 3,500 SKUs to 68 countries. To enable growth, build resilience and address increasing portfolio complexity, the site implemented digital, and analytics use cases. As a result, it improved cost by 16% while expanding its SKU portfolio by 30%, and led Fourth Industrial Revolution scaling across the network of 17 sites.This greenfield factory is a product of the Arçelik use caseThis greenfield factory is a product of the Arçelik use case

IRELAND | FOOD & AGRICULTURE

The Coca-Cola Company - Ballina


Unilever - Indaiatuba

Facing a shrinking market, the Unilever site in Indaiatuba, the largest powder detergent factory in the world, top in productivity and second in cost globally but Unilever’s biggest contributor to GHG emissions, implemented use cases such as digital twin and AI to improve cost leadership and agility to the market while minimizing environmental footprint. As a result, Indaiatuba reduced innovation lead time by 33%, production costs per tonne by 23% and nearly eliminated GHG emissions.

BRAZIL | CHEMICALS

Unilever - Indaiatuba


Unilever - Tianjin

Having navigated the COVID-19 uncertainties in the catering industry in the past three years, Unilever accelerated market penetration in low tier cities by deploying over 30 Fourth Industrial Revolution use cases, such as tailor-made 24/7 digital selling, optimal end-to-end advanced planning and AI-enabled quality control. As a result, the number of served customers doubled, order-to-delivery lead time shrank by 40% and customer complaints fell by 62%.

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | CHEMICALS

Unilever - Tianjin


WIstron - Zhongshan

The company is under pressure to deliver 60% of orders in less than 72 hours and needed to accelerate end to end processes without compromising quality excellence. Wistron transformed its entire value chain via 33 in-house-built use cases. Despite supply shortages, UPPH was enhanced by 32%, defect rates were reduced by 55% and delivery times shortened to 48 hours, ultimately reducing manufacturing unit costs by 22%.

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | TECHNOLOGY

WIstron - Zhongshan


Western Digital - Bang Pa-In

Bang Pa-in is producing cost sensitive consumer hard disk drives (HDDs). Facing material cost increase caused by supply chain uncertainty and with the goal to limit capital deployment due to market shifting to solid-state drives (SSD), Bang Pa-in implemented diverse Fourth Industrial Revolution use cases to reduce factory cost by 33% while reducing energy consumption/peta byte (PB) by 40%.

THAILAND | TECHNOLOGY

Western Digital - Bang Pa-In


Western Digital - Laguna

To build resilience in the face of volcanic eruptions, typhoons, long lead time for materials, volatile demand and tightened product specifications, the Laguna site deployed over 25 use cases at scale, such as event anomaly detection by advanced analytics and end-to-end production variation compensation by machine learning. As a result, the site was able to reduce unplanned shutdowns by 82% and production cost/unit by 54%.

PHILIPPINES | TECHNOLOGY

Western Digital - Laguna



Western Digital - Shanghai

With 250% of annual growth rate, short technology transition pace of 18 months, and workforce challenges in Shanghai city, Western Digital Shanghai as a high-volume & high-mix semiconductor backend factory overcame these challenges by implementing diverse 4IR use cases such as automated product design system, machine learning based virtual wafer test, in house designed lights-out automation and intelligent planning system and have achieved 40% time to market reduction, 221% productivity improvement, 75% manufacturing lead time reduction and 62% product cost reduction

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | TECHNOLOGY

Western Digital - Shanghai



With 250% of annual growth rate, short technology transition pace of 18 months, and workforce challenges in Shanghai city, Western Digital Shanghai as a high-volume & high-mix semiconductor backend factory overcame these challenges by implementing diverse 4IR use cases such as automated product design system, machine learning based virtual wafer test, in house designed lights-out automation and intelligent planning system and have achieved 40% time to market reduction, 221% productivity improvement, 75% manufacturing lead time reduction and 62% product cost reduction

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | TECHNOLOGY

Western Digital - Shanghai


BOE - Fuzhou

To pursue premium product market share with high quality expectation, BOE Fuzhou has widely adopted artificial intelligence and  advanced analytics at fully automated production system to achieve best-in class quality excellence, equipment efficiency and energy  sustainability with new product yield ramp-up period shorten by 43%, cost per unit decreased by 34% and output increase by 30% without  major capex investment.

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | TECHNOLOGY

BOE - Fuzhou


Bosch Automotive - Changsha

Facing 20% labor wage increase, YoY 10%+ price reduction request from customer and high fluctuation in customer orders, Bosch  Changsha implemented 45 4IR use cases with automation and AI to increase competitiveness, maintained the market position with 100%  NEV (New Energy Vehicle) customer portfolio penetration and reached carbon neutral.

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | AUTOMOTIVE

Bosch Automotive - Changsha


Haier - Zhengzhou

Facing booming market of water heater and increasing requirement of high-end product and service, Haier Zhengzhou, as a new built  plant, leverages big data, 5G edge computing and UWB solutions to build close connection with supplier, plant and customer, which speed  up order response lead-time by 25%, increase production efficiency by 31% and improve quality performance by 26% since its start in 2020 to 2021.

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | OTHER

Haier - Zhengzhou


Johnson & Johnson Consumer Health - Bangkok

Facing agility, profitability, and cost to serve challenges, J&J Bangkok site adopted 4IR technology such as collaborative supply chain  control tower, computational fluid dynamics, AI energy optimization, advanced data analytics on logistics. The value chain delivers 47%  revenue growth with 25% inventory reduction, and it reduced 43% end-to-end supply chain lead time, 42% productivity improvement, 20%  carbon footprint optimization.

THAILAND | HEALTH

Johnson & Johnson Consumer Health - Bangkok

Janssen Latina has been deploying 4IR solutions that deliver faster, competitive and agile launches of new products and quality release,  led non conformances reduction by 30% and product release lead time optimization by 84% while reducing energy costs by 10% and  logistics labor costs by 72%

ITALY | HEALTH

Johnson & Johnson Janssen - Latina

Facing growth of its product portfolio complexity by 70%, rising quality expectations from customers and labor shortages, LGE re-designed an old factory in Changwon into a digital lighthouse plant leveraging flexible automation, digital performance management, and artificial intelligence to improve productivity by 17%, field quality by 70% while reducing inventory by 25% and energy consumption by 30%.

REPUBLIC OF KOREA | OTHER

LG Electronics - Changwon

Target domestic high-end product segments and oversea market expansion, Midea Hefei Laundry widely deployed artificial intelligence and IOT technologies across end-to-end value chains to form a faster response and higher efficiency supply chain, resulted in lead time reduction by 56%, customer report defect rate reduction by 36%, labor productivity improvement by 45%.

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | OTHER

Midea - Hefei

Due to consumer expectations with higher product complexity, Midea Jingzhou, as a 30-year-old factory, adopted flexible automation, IOT and artificial intelligence at scale to transform the manufacturing system, increased labor productivity by 52%, reduced production lead time by 25% eliminated 20% utility consumption per unit reduction.

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | OTHER

Midea - Hubei


Procter & Gamble - Guangzhou

In order to meet 45% increased eCommerce demands, P&G Guangzhou leveraged AI, flexible automation, and digital twins to integrate  multi-systems across value chain to serve omni channels consumers. This increased the responsiveness of their supply chain with 30%  reduction of inventory, 15% reduction of logistics cost and 99.9% on time delivery within 3 years.

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | CHEMICALS

Procter & Gamble - Guangzhou

With the ambition to accelerate its digital transformation, Sanofi embarked 2 years ago in a digital & analytics transformation of its  procurement operations and built 4IR products, such as should cost modeling, smart tender analytics, supplier performance analytics. They  delivered 10 % savings while achieving 13% org efficiencies and transformed the way they work.

FRANCE | HEALTH

Sanofi - Paris

Facing changing customer demands and a 54% business growth, Schneider Electric implemented 4IR technologies such as IIOT  Infrastructure, predictive/prescriptive analytics and AI deep learning. This has resulted in reduction of field failure by 48% and lead time by  67%, while manufacturing efficiency improved by 9%.

INDIA | TECHNOLOGY

Schneider Electric - Hyderabad

Global Procurement is the main contributor to TEVA's ambitious Gross Margin Improvement Program and contributes to the Free Cash  Flow target, delivering 3x historical COGS savings by end of 2024. To achieve this Global Procurement implemented 4IR technologies  within 1.5 years, increased labor efficiency by 30%, upskilled its workforce and optimized cross-functional processes to break down silos;  and is leading the way for 4IR at Teva

NETHERLANDS | HEALTH

Teva - Amsterdam

Driven by the need to accelerate the pace of innovation and speed of response to consumer demand while augmenting cost  competitiveness in an increasingly challenging market, and acting on sustainability goals, Unilever Dapada deployed digital, automation  and AI-ML across its end-to-end value chain to shorten product development lead time by 50%, reduce manufacturing cost by 39% and  energy by 31%.

INDIA | CHEMICALS

Unilever - Silvassa

Facing challenges such as labor shortage, highly customized products requirements, and extreme climate conditions, in the very competitive industry of display panels, AUO fab 3 invested in customized automation and developed a digital analytics and AI platform to improve productivity by 32% and advanced product yield by 60%, while reducing water consumption by 23% and carbon emissions by 20%

TAIWAN, CHINA | OTHER

AUO - Taichung

Faced with rising customer demand for product diversity refrigerators and capacity constraints in a 15 year old factory, Arçelik’s Factory 6 leveraged mature in-house resources to deploy over 30 advanced use cases in 2 years to unlock flexible production through automation and data driven digital systems, and achieve a low-cost transformation with 1.19 year ROI while increasing unit capacity 43%)

TÜRKIYE | OTHER

Arçelik - Eskisehir

Facing increasing manufacturing process complexity and demand for extreme high product quality, CATL Ningde leveraged AI, advanced analytics and edge/cloud computing to achieve, in 3 years, a defect rate per billion count at the speed of 1.7s per cell, while improving labor productivity by 75% and reduce energy consumption by 10%

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | AUTOMOTIVE

CATL - Ningde

Faced with automotive OEMs rising expectations on smaller batch size and higher quality, CITIC Dicastal deployed flexible automation, digitalized lean, and AI to build a digital manufacturing system to improve flexibility at batch size one production and reduce manufacturing cost by 33%

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | AUTOMOTIVE

CITIC Dicastal - Qinhuangdao

Facing the risk of closure due to its lack of competitiveness compared to its sister plant in a low cost country, De’Longhi Treviso plant invested in digital and analytics to become more agile (reducing MOQ by 92% and leadtime by 82%), more productive (improving labor productivity by 33%), and achieve high standard quality (improving field quality by 33% and obtaining Food and Beverage industry certification)

ITALY | OTHER

De'Longhi - Treviso

Faced with strong competition from low-cost regions, Flex in Althofen deployed 4IR technologies to meet higher regulatory and quality standards and improve operational efficiency and agility, unlocking access to a new high-margin and longer lifecycle medical business, ultimately resulting in 50% revenue growth and 93% profit growth.

AUSTRIA | TECHNOLOGY

Flex - Althofen

To overcome customer service challenges of increasing customization and shorten lead-time, Foxconn Wuhan leveraged advanced analytics and flexible automation at scale to re-design its manufacturing system and upskill its labor force, leading to a 86% increase in labor productivity, and reducing machine efficiency loss by 40%, quality loss by 38% and order lead-time by 29%.

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | TECHNOLOGY

Foxconn - Wuhan

Facing lack of skillful workers, unstable quality performance and large fluctuations in demand, Foxconn Zhengzhou leveraged flexible automation to significantly improve labor productivity by 102%, and utilized digital and AI technologies to reduce quality defects by 38% and improve OEE by 27%

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | TECHNOLOGY

Foxconn - Zhengzhou

To meet increased customers’ expectations for diversified products, faster delivery and higher quality of service, Haier new washingmachinefactory in Tianjin integrated 5G, IIoT, automation and advanced analytics to enable faster product design, more efficient andflexible operations and data driven energy optimization

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | OTHER

Haier - Tianjin

Henkel’s Toluca in Mexico, a 1970’s factory characterized by low-mix, high-volume production, set out on a 4IR transformation journey centered on people, skills and data transparency and availability to reduce processing costs by 15% energy consumption by 14% and enhance plant OEE up to 90% 

MEXICO | CHEMICALS

Henkel - Toluca

In the context of fierce competition in the panel industry, and faced with increasing quality requirement from customers and severe decline in gross profit, Innolux fab 8 invested in advanced automation, IoT technology and advanced analytics to improve process capability by 40%, yield loss by 33% and in return unlock niche product production

TAIWAN, CHINA | TECHNOLOGY

Innolux - Kaohsiung

Faced with high complexity, cost pressure and the overall inefficiency of operating in the joint reconstruction market, J&J DePuy Synthes deployed “Advanced Case Management” – a 4IR program leveraging open API architecture, AI & Machine learning algorithms and a suite of digital tools – across the entire hips and knees value chain in North America to streamline operations, transform the customer experience and strengthen its leading position in the market

USA | HEALTH

Johnson & Johnson MedTec - Bridgewater

Focused on delivering a faster and more personalized customer experience to strengthen its leadership in the market, J&J Vision Care deployed end-to-end 4IR technologies like AI and adaptive process control to offset the increasing complexity of the value chain while driving a 28% reduction in cost per deliveries and 53% carbon footprint reduction

UNITED KINGDOM | HEALTH

Johnson & Johnson MedTec - London

To respond to an increasing demand and mix of product, LS Electric has transformed one of its plant in Cheongju Korea with advanced automation, machine learning-powered inspection and advanced process control, enabling mass customization and lowering production cost by 20%

REPUBLIC OF KOREA | OTHER

LS Electric - Cheongju

Protolabs is a digital native company which embarked on a transformation journey taking it from a prototype provider to a production supplier by strengthening its digital thread connecting customers and production, and as a result outperforming competitors by reducing production lead-times down to as low as 1 day and generating a gross margin 20 points of percentage better

USA | TECHNOLOGY

Protolabs - Plymouth

To compete with growing demand and rising complexities from the multi-category and small-batch heavy machinery market, SANY Beijing extensively deployed advanced automation, AI and IoT technologies to boost labor productivity and upskill their capabilities. As a result, the factory achieved a 100% expansion of its output and 76.7% reduction in the production lead time within 2 years

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | TECHNOLOGY

Sany Group Co. Ltd - Beijing

Motivated by the need to access new levels of efficiency and sustainability, the 70 years old world’s biggest oil processing and crude stabilization plant has harnessed the power of data, advanced analytics and automation to transform its manufacturing processes, achieving 21% increase in product quality, 14.5% reduction in energy use and reducing GHG emissions by 3.8%

SAUDI ARABIA | OIL & GAS

Saudi Aramco - Abqaiq

Facing rising customer demand for more product segmentation, which increased complexity for the high mix low volume factory, Wuxi factory rebuilt their E2E value chain and introduced flexible automation, predictive analytics, digital twin to enable hybrid production of standard/configured/customized products under 1-piece order size with optimized full cost, and 8% decrease in energy savings annually

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | TECHNOLOGY

Schneider Electric - Wuxi

To seize the booming business in e-commerce and big-box channel requires superior E2E flexibility and premium quality performance, Unilever Taicang ice cream factory leveraged 4IR technologies to integrate consumers and suppliers, achieving 80% sales growth

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | CHEMICALS

Unilever - Taicang

With a 2.5X high-mix volume growth in last three years, increasing quality requirements and the need to contain costs, WD Malaysia, in the journey toward lights-out manufacturing, has transformed its factory in Penang deploying advanced automation, logistics digital twin optimization, intelligent planning and advanced process control, delivering 32% factory cost improvement and halving order inventory and lead time

MALAYSIA | TECHNOLOGY

Western Digital - Penang

With rapidly growing demand, stringent quality requirements and cost pressure for hard disk drive (HDD), Western Digital Thailand leveraged connectivity and advanced analytics technologies to transform a capacity-saturated manufacturing site to a digital operation system with real-time visibility in suppliers, production, logistics and customers and data-based insights and predictions, ultimately increasing factory output by 123%, avoiding 30% in procurement costs and production and reducing product return rate by 43%

THAILAND | TECHNOLOGY

Western Digital - Prachinburi

ChallengeUnderstanding the application potential of blockchain/distributed ledger technology in supply chains and reducing implementation challengesSolutionStakeholder survey to understand the maturity of the ecosystemDevelop a series of blockchain deployment use-casesInput into the blockchain deployment toolkitOutcomeNew insights into blockchain challenges and success factors in the UAEImproved insights for the blockchain deployment toolkitTo shape the deployment of blockchain technology and to provide decisionmakers with the awareness of challenges and success factors, C4IR UAE and the World Economic Forum co-produced new tools to shape the deployment of distributed ledger technology in supply chains. As part of its efforts to analyze the local blockchain landscape, C4IR UAE surveyed over 100 stakeholders from more than 60 various governmental and non-governmental entities across the country actively exploring or implementing blockchain. The primary purpose of the survey was to understand the maturity of the ecosystem and the relevant challenges and key success factors at hand. This was coupled with seven case studies showcasing the deployment of blockchain in the UAE. The resulting was a white paper offering insights into and thorough examinations of specific considerations for decision-makers during blockchain deployments. This fed into a global toolkit for decision-makers on blockchain deployment in supply chains.

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES | ICT, OTHER, SUPPLY CHAIN & TRANSPORTATION, TECHNOLOGY

C4IR UAE Inclusive deployment of Blockchain

As the role model of operation excellence manufacturing plant among group, Bosch Suzhou pioneered digital transformation at production, logistics, order/inventory management domains and achieved extra value added impact

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | AUTOMOTIVE

Bosch Automotive - Suzhou

In order to service local customers for 5G radios sustainably, Ericsson built a greenfield 5G enabled, digital native factory in USA in a record time; leveraging agile ways of working and a robust IIoT architecture and data foundation, the team was able to deploy 25 use cases at scale in less than 24 months

USA | OTHER

Ericsson - Lewisville

Confronted with fast growing market demand, scarce skillful labor force, and increasing product complexity, Chengdu extensively leveraged cutting-edge artificial intelligence & IoT technologies to enable worry-free production and drive operational improvements

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | TECHNOLOGY

Foxconn - Chengdu

Increased product complexity and labor shortages have led to quality and cost challenges at the Singapore Printhead manufacturing factory. At the same time, the country’s manufacturing focus has been moving toward higher-value work. Given these factors, it was imperative to transform our factory from being manual, labor-intensive, and reactive to a highly digitized, automated, and AI-driven one

SINGAPORE | TECHNOLOGY

HP Inc. - Singapore

Henkel is building on its digital backbone infrastructure to scale-up 4IR use cases and interconnect production systems across its Laundry and Home Care business. In highly competitive environment, the Montornès site is leveraging 4IR to boost profitability and augment consumer benefits

SPAIN | CHEMICALS

Henkel - Montornès

Operating with same fast-changing customer needs cost challenges of FMCG but subject to similar regulations of pharmaceutical environment, Helsingborg plant is leveraging 4IR technologies to increase its supply chain agility, improve gross profit and set new standards on environmental sustainability

SWEDEN | HEALTH

Johnson & Johnson Consumer Health - Helsingborg

To pursue growing e-commerce, small business channel & overseas market share, Midea adopted digital procurement, flexible automation, digital quality, smart logistics and digital sales breakthroughs to reduce product cost, shorten order lead time and improve end user response agility

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | OTHER

Midea - Guangdong

57-year-old plant with a demonstrated ability to transform its operations to remain competitive, Amiens embraced 4IR technologies end-to-end to cope with consistent volume increase while driving process optimization and cost reduction 

FRANCE | CHEMICALS

Procter & Gamble - Amiens

Despite a growing business in the sector, Lima Plant was experiencing lack of growth and reduction in savings and service level. From 2017 the site shifted strategy deploying 4th industrial revolution technologies at scale resulting in a more competitive, flexible and responsive production across the entire value chain

USA | CHEMICALS

Procter & Gamble - Lima, Ohio

Facing exponential asset growth and rising competitiveness from new entrants, ReNew Power, India’s largest renewables company, invested in 4th industrial revolution technologies to increase output & improve operational efficiency of their wind & solar assets, without incurring any additional capex, in turn increasing profitability of the company by 29%

INDIA | ENERGY & UTILITIES

ReNew Power - Karnataka

A greenfield refinery started up in a geographical area where many others have discontinued operations, designed to fully integrate on a 100k+ data point IIoT stack, advanced automation and predictive analytics solutions, that through process optimization have delivered $35m of profit uplift in the first 9 months of serviceA

TÜRKIYE | OIL & GAS

STAR Rafineri - Izmir

To reach stringent annual productivity goals the site had to go beyond classical operational excellence initiatives and implement a new Lean Digital Factory approach, deploying 10x scalable solutions of advanced automation, adaptive and predictive process control and workflow digitalization, ultimately achieving 140% of factory output with same resources 

GERMANY | TECHNOLOGY

Siemens - Amberg


Tata Steel - Jamshedpur

Facing operational KPI stagnation and impending loss of captive raw material advantage, Tata Steel Jamshedpur 110+ year old plant with deep rooted cultural & tech legacies deployed more than 200 4IR use cases across procurement and manufacturing to drive a step improvement in operational KPIs. These use cases are being scaled across their India production networkF

INDIA | MINING & METALS

Tata Steel - Jamshedpur


Tsingtao Brewery - Shandong

Facing upgraded consumer needs for personalized, differentiated and diverse beer, Tsingtao Brewery has rethought how to utilize smart digital technologies across value chains to empower 110+ year history traditional company to meet consumer needs

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | FOOD & RETAIL

Tsingtao Brewery - Shandong

In response to high-mix and low-volume business challenges, Wistron leveraged artificial intelligence, IoT and flexible automation technologies to improve labor, asset and energy productivity, not only in production and logistics, but also via supplier management

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | TECHNOLOGY

WIstron - Jiangsu

To realize the core mission “make SME easy to do business anywhere”, Alibaba Xunxi implemented end to end 4IR solutions to enable a new apparel C2M (Customization to Manufacturing) business model for SMEs, resulted in significant shorter order lead time and higher productivity in a dramatically customized and smaller order batch size

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | RETAIL

Alibaba Group - Hangzou

With volatile commodity prices and market conditions, DCP have been integrating the remote control of field operations with their planning, logistics and commercial systems to optimize in real time product margins

USA | OIL & GAS

DCP Midstream - Denver

Maubeuge 50 year old plant is another example of Groupe Renault ability to deploy 4IR technologies at scale across its production network to protect the plant competitiveness (best-in-class in the Alliance), specifically improving quality variability, increasing its flexibility to deal with the many LCV configurations, and improving efficiency of indirect labor

FRANCE | AUTOMOTIVE

Groupe Renault - Maubeuge

With a fast changing and raising demand of biologics products, Janssen has digitally connected the internal and external nodes of a complex, hyper regulated supply chain developing advanced process controls for both the logistics and manufacturing processes, to deliver faster to patients while reducing costs

IRELAND | HEALTH

Johnson & Johnson Janssen - Cork

Micron innovated to maintain its cost competitive edge, reduce its Capex needs, ramp-up faster new products and improve quality by implementing multiple 4IR use cases across automation, machine learning and advanced analytics with an impact of 100mln USD

TAIWAN, CHINA | TECHNOLOGY

Micron - Taiwan

In face of fierce industry competition and e-commerce rising complexity & speed, Midea Guangzhou leaped forward the intelligent technologies based transformation from pure automation to intelligence, from pure digital factory to E2E connectivity with suppliers, distributors centers, retail stores and massive customers, the company achieved 14% cost per unit, 56% order lead time reduction, and management efficiency improvement in past of 2 years 

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | OTHER

Midea - Guangzhou

Facing the challenge to reduce its product cost by 50% and absorb a volume growth of 160% with a product mix increasing by a factor 5, Novo Nordisk smartly invested in digitalization, automation and advanced analytics, building a robust company-wide IIOT operating system which is now being deployed across all other sites

DENMARK | HEALTH

Novo Nordisk - Hillerod

In an industry that is rich in data but often fragmented data, the Yanbu team is unique in being the first site in Saudi Aramco to have developed a fully integrated digital performance management system across 25+ systems that has driven yield improvements of ~14% and at the same time reducing energy consumption by 10% through the use of advanced data analytics

SAUDI ARABIA | OIL & GAS

Saudi Aramco - Khurais

Early adopter of digital technologies, this 60+ year old facility has leveraged 4IR to connect end-to-end assets, divisions and customers, delivering efficiency, growth and sustainability improvement

USA | TECHNOLOGY

Schneider Electric - Lexington

Driven by e-commerce booming in CPMG industry, Unilever Hefei site deployed flexible automation, digital & AI use cases at delivery, warehousing, production & E2E performance management to increase flexibility & agility for demanding customers

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA, PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | CHEMICALS

Unilever - Hefei

sAGCO is an example of how to leverage 4IR technologies to manufacture high complexity low volume products. Implementing digital solutions, they found the recipe to manufacture 9 different product families on one single assembly line with a batch size of one, leading to significant gains in flexibility and productivityto manufacture high complexity low volume products. Implementing digitalsolutions, they found the recipe to manufacture 9 different product families on one single assembly line with a batch size of one, leading tosignificant gains in flexibility and productivity

GERMANY | OTHER

AGCO - Marktoberdorf



Arçelik - Ulmi

This greenfield factory is a product of the Arçelik use caseThis greenfield factory is a product of the Arçelik use caseThis greefield factors is a product of the Arçelik use case laboratory where it was designed twice as fast as previous generation factories. Since coming into existence, automazion of low-value tasks has improved operational costs by 11%.laboratory where it was designed twice as fast as previousgeneration factories. Since coming into existence, automation oflow-value tasks has improved operational costs by 11%.laboratory where it was designed twice as fast as previousgeneration factories. Since coming into existence, automation oflow-value tasks has improved operational costs by 11%.

ROMANIA | OTHER

Arçelik - Ulmi



Baosteel - Shanghai

As a 40-year-old steel factory, Baosteel Shanghai was an early bird of digitization (early adaptor MES), and extensively implemented 4IR use cases (especially Artificial Intelligence & Advanced Analytics) to meet growing customer expectations on product quality and customization and to regenerate its industrial competitiveness in the digital era

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | MINING & METALS

Baosteel - Shanghai

TThis greenfield factory is a product of the Arçelik use casegeneration factories. Since coming into existence, automation ofThis site leverages digital manufacturing and advanced automation to move beyond lean, increasing its output by 6% and employee engagement by 45% without any additional capital expenditure investmentlow-value tasks has improved operational costs by 11%.laboratory where it was designed twice as fast as previousgeneration factories. Since coming into existence, automation oflow-value tasks has improved operational costs by 11%.

TÜRKIYE | AUTOMOTIVE

Ford Otosan - Kocaeli

To build world class product quality and customer satisfaction, Foton Cummins unleashes IoT and artificial intelligence potentials across end 2 end product lifecycle including design, production, quality assurance and after serviceTT

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | AUTOMOTIVE

Foton Cummins - Beijing

From better to best, GE Hino plant leaps forward next-step operation excellence by integrating digitalization with tradition lean best practice and to make Lean more effectiveness and efficiency

JAPAN | HEALTH

GE Healthcare - Hino

Preparing for the future made of sharp volume increase and cost reduction requirements, GSK set up a digital factory team who implemented a wide range of 4IR technologies (e.g., AI, VR, advanced analytics, smart automation) to tackle successfully the business challenges

UNITED KINGDOM | HEALTH

GSK - Ware

Early joiner of the digital revolution, the 60-year old plant Cléon in France managed to increase his productivity by 45% and reducing warranty costs by 20% adopting smart automation solutions and digitalization leveraging the local ecosystem (partnerships with start-ups and local universities).

FRANCE | AUTOMOTIVE

Groupe Renault - Cleon


Groupe Renault - Curitiba

Renault Curitiba is an example of how approaching 4IR technologies focusing on employee’s accountability and E2E connectivity, engaging workforce and developing an ecosystem across players, can support growth and lead to successful results without requiring major capital deployment

BRAZIL | AUTOMOTIVE

Groupe Renault - Curitiba

Haier Shenyang refrigerator represents the landmark of user-centric mass customization, demonstrates an integrated value chain with digital and intelligent innovation across sales, product design, supply chain and manufacturing, and empowers a scalable c2B delivery model of reduced cost, quicker time to market, more agility and higher quality

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | OTHER

Haier - Shenyang

Driven by consumer expectations in sustainability and quality, and necessity to improve cost competitiveness in a high labor cost market, Henkel has developed a unique scalable data platform connecting in real time 30+ sites and 10+ distribution centers

GERMANY | CHEMICALS

Henkel - Dusseldorf

Deployment of a digital thread across the value chain that optimizes the overall operations, synchronizes the market dynamics and ultimately enabling the mass customization model

JAPAN | TECHNOLOGY

Hitachi Ltd - Hitachi

From the brink of operations closure to a leading smart manufacturing site Infineon has leveraged data, advanced analytics and automation to create a significant impact across the site but also integrating with its supply chain network

SINGAPORE | TECHNOLOGY

Infineon - Singapore

Example of end-to-end connected value chain from suppliers to consumers in vision care to achieve 24% sales growth and 33% cost reduction. In addition, introduced flexible modular platform to introduce new products in record time. 

USA | HEALTH

Johnson & Johnson MedTec - Jacksonville

Example of lighthouse network extension: standardizing and expanding best practice of the existing lighthouse to roll out and establish a network of lighthouse sites, to drive a broad-based impact and unleash 4IR potential at scale within the organization

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | HEALTH

Johnson & Johnson MedTec - Suzhou

First example in Oil & Gas (O&G), a traditionally slow to innovate industry with deep seeded orthodoxies, of multiple, scaled 4IR use-cases connecting in real-time to 9 offshore vessels. As result MODEC turned into a distant market leader in offshore Operations & Maintenance and doubled their market share, transforming the way new clients are won and digital talent is cultivated in industry

BRAZIL | OIL & GAS

MODEC - Rio de Janeiro

Operating in a highly mature industry sector Micron felt the pressure to innovate to maintain its competitive edge; implementing multiple 4IR use cases across automation and advanced analytics with an impact of 100mln USD, that have now scaled across the Micron network globally

SINGAPORE | TECHNOLOGY

Micron - Singapore

New product introduction (NPI) factory has to deliver:▪Increased number of new product ramp ups (1/month, +50%)▪Faster transfer of new products and technologies to manufacturing network worldwide (3 months → <1 month)▪Doubled production volumes with the same resources

FINLAND | TECHNOLOGY

Nokia Electronics - Oulu

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REPUBLIC OF KOREA

POSCO - Pohang

Petkim, a pioneer global petrochemical industry, has become an industry and geography leader not only in business terms but in digital and analytics space, that focused on throughput and quality improvement, total digitization of asset management, and a major change story to transform a state-owned asset into digital power house

TÜRKIYE | CHEMICALS

Petkim - Izmir

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INDONESIA | MINING & METALS

Petrosea - Tabang

Young yet passionate greenfield team fully embraced 4IR technologies to tackle business challenges from its booming e-commerce via E2E, step-growing value chain competence

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | CHEMICALS

Procter & Gamble - Taicang

▪Slow growth at automotive industry in China recent years, SAIC makes C2B (Customer to Business) as strategy in order to increase product competitiveness▪To realize C2B, E2E connected value chain carried out: online order, intelligent engineering, digital twin production, digital supply chain & digital quality managementDi

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | AUTOMOTIVE

SAIC Maxus - Nanjing

▪Schneider Batam is the 1st Lighthouse Certified by Indo- nesia Ministry Of Industry as a part of Industry 4.0 Vision▪Batam is one of the 6 Pilot Smart Factory in Schneider global network out of 260 sites with own Digital transform- ation team with internal talents from operational background▪Executed the transformation using Ecostruxure (own IOT platform) and developed multiple solutions locally and 3 solutions transferred to other sites.

INDONESIA | TECHNOLOGY

Schneider Electric - Batam

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INDIA | MINING & METALS

Tata Steel - Kalinganagar

Driven by improving cost competitiveness, a local entrepreneurial team developed 4IR use cases inhouse with limited investment in only 16 months, and deployed them at scale to achieve 25%+ cost reduction

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES | CHEMICALS

Unilever - Dubai

Aspiring to become the provider of global best-in-class products, Weichai ignited digital transformation across its E2E value chain from production design, procurement, production, supply chain to aftersales service  

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | OTHER

WEICHAI - Weifang

Company founded with the idea to bring 4IR into an industry dominated by decades of old methodologies. To create value that would otherwise be impossible to achieve

USA | HEALTH

Zymergen - Emeryville



BMW - Regensburg

From operational excellence and lean manufacturing to the leading role in implementing Industry 4.0 in the BMW production system From operational excellence andlean manufacturing to the leading role in implementing Industry 4.0in the BMW production system

GERMANY | AUTOMOTIVE

BMW - Regensburg


Bayer - Garbagnate

Factory faced increased demand and relatively variable OEE with little visibility into performance root causes. Implemented focused transformation for specific use cases with dedicated support

ITALY | HEALTH

Bayer - Garbagnate

More Details. Bayer Pharmaceuticals, Garbagnate, Italy - Smart Factory

https://nraoiekc.blogspot.com/2019/11/bayer-pharmaceuticals-garbagnate-italy.html





Plant successfully conquered demand blast challenge (+200% from 2015 to 2017 due to market growth and government emission policy) substantially supported by ~30 4IR use cases

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | AUTOMOTIVE

Bosch Automotive - Wuxi

Consistently drive quality improvement and cost reduction to meet customer expectations, resulting in world class quality performance

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | OTHER

Danfoss - Tianjin

The whole organization is transformation from traditional EMS company to industrial internet company, pilot from own plants then roll out quickly

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | TECHNOLOGY

Foxconn - Shenzen

Unique mass customization production site, digital thread across value chains, best smart manufacturing plant within Haier group, Industry 4.0 landmark in China with more than 40K visitorsU

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | OTHER

Haier - Qingdao / Air conditioners

Site is of strategic importance from Global Orthopedics perspective, has a Global Innovation Centre focused on Material Science & Technology Innovation

IRELAND | HEALTH

Johnson & Johnson MedTec - Cork

Market demand shifting towards smaller lot sizes and higher level of customizationDigital transformation touches own operations as well as product portfolio15 internal top priority digital transformation projects in progress

GERMANY | OTHER

Phoenix Contact - Blomberg

Transformation driven by changing demand in product mix and desire to remain operational for the next 140 years

CZECH REPUBLIC | CHEMICALS

Procter & Gamble - Rakona

Di

ITALY | OTHER

ROLD - Cerro Maggiore

Sandvik Coromant in Gimo produces large volumes of cutting tools at very competitive cost. This is only possible through continuous improvement and smart automation.

SWEDEN | OTHER

Sandvik Coromant - Gimo

Clear change story, top leaders act as role models, clear performance mgmt. & incentives

SAUDI ARABIA | OIL & GAS

Saudi Aramco - Uthmaniya

50 year old plant seeking to improve competitiveness in order t remain competitive for the next 50. Did not want to go the way of Motoroal or Nokia. Clearly enunciated five priorities: plant operational every day, optimize efficiency, focus on people, and use smart technology to enable it

FRANCE | TECHNOLOGY

Schneider Electric - Le Vaudreuil

The site is leveraging I4.0 applications (e.g. digital quality system) to have achieved world class quality performance. It is digital factory landmark in China with more than 10K visitors in 2017

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA | TECHNOLOGY

Siemens - Chengdu

End-to-end at scale transformation with clear Digital roadmap Strong focus on providing AA as new tool to the organisation to improve EBITDA. Transformation supported by enabling programs like capability building program (225 people trained and 130 people certified), data& IT infra and ecosystem development programs

NETHERLANDS | MINING & METALS

Tata Steel - Ijmuiden

Greenfield site built to provide on- demand manufacturing leveraging the best of 4IR technologies

USA | SUPPLY CHAIN & TRANSPORTATION

UPS / Fast Radius - Chicago


Aramco - Yanbu

To maintain a competitive edge as one of the leading suppliers of fuels while minimizing its carbon footprint, this 1970s Aramco refinery underwent a five-year strategic Fourth Industrial Revolution transformation, implementing and integrating use cases at scale including an AI-based clean fuels optimizer, an AI-powered operation decision system and a digital twin dynamic model. As a result, on-spec fuel production has reached 99%, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have been reduced by 23% and operational availability has improved by 17%.

SAUDI ARABIA | OIL & GAS

Aramco - Yanbu



https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimvinoski/2019/07/29/are-you-afraid-of-being-left-behind-by-industry-40-the-world-economic-forums-global-lighthouse-network-can-help-light-your-way/?sh=1a60f10778ff

Ud. 30.4.2024, 1.4.2024, 7.2.2024,  27.1.2024

Pub. 26.1.2024














Monday, April 29, 2024

Yamaha - Industry 4.0 - Industrial Engineering 4.0

 


2024


High-speed Surface Mount Assembly


Yamaha Robotics SMT Section will team with its distributor ANS Elektronik to showcase innovations for high-speed surface mount assembly at SMTconnect 2024.

At the event in Nuremberg, Germany, June 11-13, experts from both companies will show visitors how advanced equipment from Yamaha’s 1 STOP SMART SOLUTION can raise productivity and quality control with automated features. These include the YRP10 printer, YRM20 mounter, YRi-V 3D AOI system, and new software including tools for inspection and troubleshooting.


The YRP10 printer is built on Yamaha’s ultra-rigid YR chassis for superior accuracy and repeatability. The printer’s cutting-edge features automate laborious procedures and ensure high speed, achieving cycle time of just six seconds and boosting accuracy by 20% to handle extremely small component sizes, spacing, and interconnect pitch.

https://goldlandsmt.com/product-item/yamaha-yg100rb-chip-mounter-high-precision-smt-equipment-for-advanced-assembly/


The YRM20 mounter is designed for efficient motion with fast and flexible component handling. Extensive automation of parts feeding, product changeovers, and nozzle management permits mounting up to 120,000 cph to meet customer demands for productivity and flexibility.


The YRi-V 3D AOI system appears with the latest upgrades including stopperless transfer for fast cycle time and sharp images, also leveraging the extra rigidity of the YR chassis. Camera options with up to 25Mpixel sensor and 5µm lens ensure high resolution and the 8-way projector provides shadow-free illumination. Also, new AI tools that help create component libraries simplify and accelerate programming.


The software area will showcase powerful capabilities including the latest YSUP software intelligent-factory tools that help operators schedule activities, handle exceptions, and keep production on target. In addition, YSUP Dashboard with award-winning automatic pickup-error diagnostics takes the guesswork out of troubleshooting. The advanced AOI software features, including new multi-component alignment checking that eases programming to inspect arrayed components such as LED light sources and position sensors.

https://www.industryemea.com/news/79776-yamaha-to-showcase-latest-generation-assembly-equipment-and-software-tools-at-smtconnect


https://global.yamaha-motor.com/business/smt/


https://global.yamaha-motor.com/business/smt/software/ifactory/


https://www.smtfactory.com/YSM40R-Yamaha-SMT-PCB-Automatic-Pick-And-Place-Machine-pd43840264.html

















Saturday, April 27, 2024

Xiaomi Corporation (MI) - Smart Factory - Industry 4.0 - Industrial Engineering 4.0

 



June 4, 2021


On May 20, 2021, the founder of Xiaomi Corporation Lei Jun announced: “Xiaomi is building the second phase of the smart factory, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2023. When it is completed, the factory will have an annual production capacity of 10 million high-end smartphones


On August 11, 2020, at the Xiaomi cooperation 10th anniversary, Lei Jun showed the Xiaomi smart factory to the public for the first time. With a total construction area of 18,600 square meters and an investment of 600 million yuan, applying the large-scale of automated production lines, 5G networks, robots, big data, cloud service platforms, and other technologies, the Xiaomi smart factory is a "black light factory" that can realize the entire factory production management process, mechanical processing process, packaging, storage, and transportation process, It can produce more than million smartphones per year.


Most of the equipment in the factory is independently developed by Xiaomi and Xiaomi Investment Company, and the degree of localization is extremely high.

Xiaomi is using Huiling Technology’s Z-Arm series robots arm assembling the mobile phones. The Z-arm series robot arm adopts an integrated drive and control design without an external control box, which greatly saves the equipment space, and its lightweight structure, flat and foldable arm can flexibly back and forth in some narrow spaces. It is very suitable for the light industry.

Over the years, Lei Jun and the subsidiary company of Xiaomi Group: Shunwei Capital, and Xiaomi Ventures have continued to work on the smart manufacturing industry chain, and it also set up an industry fund to support the growth and development of intelligent manufacturing.

Four years ago, Xiaomi began to conceive of the realization of completely unmanned production in the field of consumer electronics production.

 Lei Jun also told  the public that in the future, Xiaomi will make efforts to provide smart factory solutions to the entire manufacturing industry to improve production efficiency.


 https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/xiaomis-second-phase-smart-factory-completed-2023-hitbot-robotics/




Introducing Xiaomi Smart Factory | MWC 2023

Xiaomi

 2 Mar 2023   #ConnectedFuture

We're proud to introduce Xiaomi Smart Factory! A fully-automated assembly line that is capable of manufacturing over 1 million flagship smartphones in a lights-out plant.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6jb6PP4APc



Mi Mobile Factory Tour - How SmartPhone are Made in India? 


Time To UnBox


22 Dec 2022  #phone #Xiaomi #tamil

Mi Mobile Manufacturing Factory Tour - How Mobiles are Made in India?


#Tech #tamil #MI #Mobile #phone #manufacturing #Xiaomi


Recently we were invited to visit The Xiaomi mobile Manufacturing unit in Sri City, In this video we showed and explained the each steps that includes in MI mobile manufacturing process, also we had a chance to talk to Mr.Murali(President of Xiaomi India) ,so we asked him few interesting questions that generally on peoples mind about Xiaomi. 


How SmartPhone are Made in India,Mi Mobile Factory Tour,mi manufacturing plant in india address,xiaomi manufacturing plant in india,xiaomi factory location,xiaomi first manufacturing plant in india,mi manufacturing company in india,mi store,xiaomi manufacturing plant in chennai,xiaomi manufacturing plant.



How Smart Phones Manufactured 🔥, Xiaomi SmartPhone Factory Tour -  In Telugu 

VaasuTechVlogs
7 Dec 2022 




Xiaomi unveils its most advanced factory -  10 million flagship smartphone production capacity
Feb 18, 2024

The official opening of its smart factory in Changping, Beijing. It  has  a self-developed production line capable of churning out over 10 million flagship smartphones per year. 

 











Friday, April 26, 2024

Western Digital - Prachinburi Plant - Industrial Engineering 4.0 - WEF - McKinsey Light House Plant

Industrial Engineering 4.0 - Computer Aided Industrial Engineering: Work Systems Analysis in Industry 4.0

Rao, Kambhampati Venkata Satya Surya Narayana; Rathod, Aniket.  IIE Annual Conference. Proceedings; Norcross (2021): 49-54.

https://www.proquest.com/openview/d32ef32bbaa911d170e046479790c035/1  



8650+ Downloads/Reads so far. 
INTRODUCTION TO MODERN INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING. 
Free Download EBook (122 pages).  Download from:

https://academia.edu/103626052/INTRODUCTION_TO_MODERN_INDUSTRIAL_ENGINEERING_Version_3_0   



Western Digital - Prachinburi Plant - Thailand


Press Releases

Western Digital Enables Industry 4.0 Transition With High-Endurance Storage Solutions for Industrial-Grade AI, ML And IOT Applications

Smart Factories and IoT Devices Benefit from Reliable, Low-Power Storage Solutions Built to Thrive in Varied Environments


SAN JOSE, CA - September 19, 2019

https://www.westerndigital.com/en-in/company/newsroom/press-releases/2019/2019-09-19-western-digital-enables-industry-40-transition-with-high-endurance-storage-solutions


Western Digital Turned a Million Machines into Connected Data and Improved Its Utilization of Testing Slots and Reduced Maintenance Time and Cost

September 29, 2021


Western Digital started its Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) efforts seven years ago. 

The company decided to start by tackling testing processes, an operation that takes place only after manufacturing and assembly are complete.  


Testing times

Storage devices undergo exhaustive testing and stringent validation processes. Hard drives may undergo several weeks of testing.  Jackie Jung, Western Digital’s global operations VP of strategy and chief of staff leading the company’s 4IR efforts, came out with a question, “can we predict more so that we can test more efficiently?”

“Testing processes needed a rethinking”

Together with a group of domain experts, Jung began investigating different variables that could help predict hard drive health.  A few months later, the team had advanced algorithms crunching through more than 2,000 parameters that could reliably point to a hard drive’s health condition in real time. This allowed testing and optimization processes to be tailored for each drive produced. 

The team carefully integratde the algorithm-based testing into high volume manufacturing. Once in production, testing efficiency improved by a remarkable 15%.  

It was a data science home run and the beginning of a prodigious transformation of Western Digital’s manufacturing, supply chain, and operations. 


Hard data

Enterprise hard drives are where the ginormous data of the digital economy lives (think search engines, social apps, and the massive data of cloud-based services).  Cloud giants maintain so much data that they buy hard drives in the thousands, tens of thousands, and some even hundreds of thousands. “The world’s largest cloud companies can deploy a million drives”

Any quality issue for these titans is both a potential disaster to their services and a gargantuan headache. Imagine having to service 30,000 data center components. It’s not outlandish; it’s the brave world of hyperscale.  To ensure utmost reliability, the testing and qualification of enterprise hard drives is rigorous, exhaustive, and extraordinarily long. 


The sea of testers

Qualifying an enterprise-grade hard drive can take up to four weeks. With Western Digital’s manufacturing site in Prachinburi, Thailand, producing more than 100,000 enterprise hard drives every day, the factory depends on a huge amount of testing slots to keep operations from bottlenecking. 

Altogether, there are more than 1 million slots today and the number will be rapidly increasing. These slots are sprawled across automated machines the size of a bus. Some with more than 12,000 slots. If the slots were stacked on top of each other, they’d reach more than 40 miles high, far into the Earth’s mesosphere (where meteors burn up). 

Keeping this army of sophisticated machines as productive as possible is no small challenge. Even if only 0.5% of tester slots report an error, that’s still over 6,000 slots that need attention every day. 

A web of connected assets

Peter Pang knows every crevice in the belly of the HDD test slot beast. As the director of automation and test systems engineering at Western Digital, his team of engineers is responsible for everything from developing the test routines to working with hundreds of technicians to keep systems running. 

He also knew that the daily maintenance of these testers was labor-intensive and slowing things down. Whenever a slot would shut down due to a failure, a technician would frequently need to grab a 12-foot ladder, climb up, remove the slot, and take it to a lab to investigate the issue. 

So, Pang teamed up with manufacturing engineers, analytics teams and IT. Together, the cross-functional team turned the ocean of standalone testers into a web of connected assets. 

“We had to link standalone testers from different vendors and generations spanning 15 years”

Testers can now provide real-time data about hardware health and operational conditions. Slots can be addressed from a remote station without technicians having to leave their desk.

And, machine learning algorithms have learned how to pinpoint root cause issues and automatically perform self-healing operations. 

The amount of data collected every second by this bustling operation is staggering; the outcome impressive — a 6% improvement in hardware utilization or 78,000 slots.

“Being a smart factory is not about how much data is collected,” said Pang, “it’s about the quality of data and understanding what to do with it.”

Data science cavaliers

Since their first success, Jung and Western Digital’s senior director of data science, George Ng, have been at the heart of Western Digital’s Herculean transformation. The company has upskilled thousands of its factory workforce, multiplied productivity, and reduced emissions through data-driven logistics. 

https://blog.westerndigital.com/smart-manufacturing-million-machines-into-connected-data/



Western Digital - 2022 Story - pdf file - 31 pages

https://documents.westerndigital.com/content/dam/doc-library/en_us/assets/public/western-digital/collateral/company/western-digital-FY2022-ourstory-summary.pdf


https://www.linkedin.com/posts/western-digital_how-western-digital-turned-a-million-machines-activity-6849010597279924226-I5US/


https://www.linkedin.com/posts/western-digital_western-digitals-manufacturing-site-in-prachinburi-activity-6987547776167424001-OuOR/