The World Economic Forum (WEF) has added three Indian manufacturing facilities to its Global Lighthouse Network, a community of over 100 manufacturers that are showing leadership in applying fourth industrial revolution technologies to drive impact in productivity, workforce engagement, sustainability, and supply chain resilience.

The production facility of U.S.-based confectionery and snacks major Mondelez in Sri City (Andhra Pradesh) and the manufacturing units of domestic pharmaceutical majors Dr. Reddy’s and Cipla in Hyderabad and Indore, respectively, are the three facilities that are part of the 11 new additions to the Global Lighthouse Network announced by WEF last week.

According to WEF, despite facing business challenges from severe price erosion and rapidly evolving quality expectations, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories re-embarked on large scale digitalisation to sustain and grow in the generics pharma market. Its 25 year old manufacturing site in Hyderabad deployed 40+ 4IR use cases by operating in "garage mode" and leveraging industrial internet of things (IIoT) & democratised platform for advanced analytics. As a result, it improved manufacturing cost by 43% while proactively enhancing quality and reducing energy by 41%, WEF notes.

In the case of Cipla, WEF says that the company deployed digital, automation and analytics solutions to 22 Indian sites in parallel. Its Indore oral solid dosage facility led this journey by implementing 30 4IR use cases thereby improving total cost by 26% and enhancing quality by three times, while reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 28%, WEF says.

Mondelez’s Sri City facility got selected by WEF after the company deployed end to end digitalisation, predictive analytics, artificial intelligence and advanced automations to increase labour productivity by 89%, reduce manufacturing costs by 38%, and sustain 50% female workforce - thus, making it a benchmark manufacturing site for Mondelez globally.

WEF's Lighthouse network currently has 114 factories spread across a diverse range of industries including healthcare, electronics, pharmaceuticals, and automotive.

WEF also designated four factories in the existing network as Sustainability Lighthouses to recognize their commitment to environmental sustainability. Hindustan Unilever’s Dapada (Dadra & Nagar Haveli) factory is among the four Sustainability Lighthouses.

Tata Steel, Renew Power, Schneider Electric are the other three companies whose Indian manufacturing facilities already figure among the WEF’s Global Lighthouse Network.

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