CEAT Limited’s Halol Tyre Manufacturing Facility has been designated by the World Economic Forum as an ‘Advanced Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) Lighthouse’. CEAT is the first tyre company globally and the first auto ancillary company in India to be recognised for adopting advanced fourth-industrial revolution technologies to digitally transform operations and become a part of the prestigious Global Lighthouse Network.
The Global Lighthouse Network is a World Economic Forum initiative in collaboration with McKinsey & Company. It is a community of manufacturing sites and value chains that are world leaders in the adoption and integration of the cutting-edge technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR).
This is the first CEAT facility to receive the coveted recognition. The award was presented to Anant Goenka, MD, CEAT, at the Global Lighthouse Network Ceremony of the World Economic Forum on the 16th of January, 2023, in Davos.
CEAT has been working towards digitalization of its process and workplace across its factories with a focus on improving operational efficiency. As part of this, CEAT deployed 4IR technologies such as Advanced Analytics, Machine learning, Virtual reality and Industrial IOT to ensure 100% coverage of operator touchpoints. On the people front, digital capability building of managers and shop floor workforce was done through hackathons and designing applications along with the team. As a result, CEAT achieved significant improvements in productivity, yield and energy consumption.
Commenting on the certification, Mr. Anant Goenka, Managing Director, CEAT Limited, said, “We are honoured to receive the Lighthouse certification for our Halol plant. We embarked on our Industry 4.0 journey in 2020 and, since then have seen substantial improvements in our operational efficiencies through digital technologies. Some of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) technologies deployed include Advanced Analytics based cycle time optimisation, IoT-enabled intelligent control for energy reduction, digitally enabled root cause analyser for yield improvement and ML-powered visual analytics. We improved productivity by digitalising 100% of the operator touchpoints. All of these initiatives have resulted in reducing the plant operating cost by 25% and a growth in our global and OEM sales.
This global award is a testimony to our preparedness to adopt industry-leading digital technologies in the workplace. As the first tyre company globally and the first auto ancillary company in India to receive this prestigious recognition, we feel immense pride in setting global benchmarks in a fast-evolving industry. We aspire to continue leveraging the 4IR capabilities and achieve more milestones, such as a further reduction in GHG emissions to 50% by 2030, among other key targets.”
Commenting on CEAT’s entry into the Global Lighthouse Network, Mr. Francisco Betti, Head of Shaping the Future of Advanced Manufacturing and Value Chains, World Economic Forum, said, “In this next chapter of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, they are setting the pace across industries. Lighthouses are demonstrating how to scale advanced technologies across entire manufacturing networks and beyond towards suppliers and customers or new functions, such as procurement, logistics, and research and development.”