- The World Economic Forum welcomes 17 new members of the Global Lighthouse Network, a community of 189 industry leaders pioneering the use of cutting-edge Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies in manufacturing.
- 13 sites receive designations as Fourth Industrial Revolution Lighthouses for achieving step-change impact in performance through technology-enabled transformation.
- Five sites are designated as Sustainability Lighthouses for their use of advanced solutions to reduce their environmental impact.
- Learn more about the Global Lighthouse Network here and read its latest report here . Follow the Annual Meeting here and on social media using #WEF25.
Geneva, Switzerland, 14 January 2025 - The World Economic Forum announces today that 17 innovative industrial sites have joined the Global Lighthouse Network, expanding the community to 189 leading production facilities and value chains that harness digital technologies at scale to achieve exceptional performance in productivity, supply chain resilience, customer centricity, sustainability and talent.
In today's rapidly evolving landscape, marked by supply chain disruptions, new technologies and a global climate crisis, sustaining gains from operational transformation is a constant challenge. The growing Global Lighthouse Network and its diverse members showcase how to effectively leverage AI and other advanced Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) technologies to achieve and maintain performance gains in production sites and value chains. By adopting cutting-edge approaches, the awarded sites improved operational efficiency, reduced environmental impact and enhanced resilience and responsiveness to market changes.
The members of the latest cohort - made up of 13 Fourth Industrial Revolution Lighthouses and five Sustainability Lighthouses (one of which was already a Factory Lighthouse) - are located in the United Arab Emirates, China, Germany, India, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, United States and newcomer Morocco, home to the first Lighthouse site in Africa. This diverse group is united by their shared commitment to holistic performance excellence and will leverage the Global Lighthouse Network as a platform for exchanging best practices across industries and geographies.
"Across our Global Lighthouse Network, digital technologies are revolutionizing production ecosystems," said Kiva Allgood, Head of the Centre for Advanced Manufacturing and Supply Chains, World Economic Forum. "From AI-driven control towers to zero-code workflows, Lighthouses exemplify sustainable innovation, setting benchmarks millions can follow to drive transformational change across the entire ecosystem."
AI is transforming industries and redefining the possibilities of modern production. Amid this rapid evolution, the awarded Lighthouses have shown how to implement and deploy its potential effectively. In the most recent cohort, 77% of the top five use cases across all Lighthouses were enabled by analytical AI and 9% leveraged generative AI (genAI).
The latest cohort of Lighthouses has observed an average 53% boost in labour productivity and 26% reduction in conversion costs attributed to various digital solutions such as AI, machine learning, advanced analytics and more. For the value chains flowing through Lighthouse sites, these approaches delivered 50% reductions in new product introduction times, realized 30%-50% reduction in Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions, as well as an average 30% reduction in material waste and 25% in energy and water consumption. The network's latest report - Global Lighthouse Network: The Mindset Shifts Driving Impact and Scale in Digital Transformation - explores how companies have achieved these impacts.
"Empowering the frontline and fostering inclusive digital cultures is at the heart of success for Lighthouses," said Fernando Perez, Senior Partner and Head of Operations Innovations, McKinsey & Company. "Whether it's through AI-led training programmes or local community initiatives, these pioneering sites are building resilient, future-ready workforces and demonstrate that investing in people is as crucial as investing in technology. It is the powerful combination of both that drives meaningful change that extends beyond factory walls to make positive impact across production ecosystems."
In an era when industrial activities contribute to 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions, the urgency to bridge the gap between sustainability commitment and action has never been more important. Sustainability Lighthouses are responding to supply chain risk and demands for lifecycle sustainability by taking a close look at their product portfolios and value chain stewardship. They are deploying advanced approaches to improve their sustainability, including data platforms for comprehensive visibility and intelligence, tools for rapid product design and circularity solutions to reduce lifecycle emissions.
"Our sites are pioneering initiatives that blend environmental responsibility with operational excellence. By integrating sustainability practices, advanced energy management systems and circular economy principles, we've significantly reduced emissions and waste while boosting productivity. These efforts are not just about compliance; they reflect our deep commitment to creating a sustainable future for our industry and our planet," said Mourad Tamoud, Chief Supply Chain Officer, Schneider Electric.
Factory Lighthouses
The latest cohort of Factory Lighthouses provides a blueprint for accelerated deployment of AI solutions that bolster productivity, enhance problem-solving capabilities and foster innovation. The new Factory Lighthouses are:
- 1. Agilent Technologies (Shanghai, China): To meet growing customer demands for higher lab productivity - more applications in a single instrument - the site leveraged 4IR technologies to overcome product customization and lead time challenges. By merging digital and engineering expertise, the site implemented 50 use cases focusing on in-house development of tailored and cost-effective AI solutions. This digitized engineering know-how enhanced adaptability, precision and speed across its design-to-production cycle, improving productivity by 56% and lead time by 31% with customer satisfaction on delivery exceeding 96%.
- 2. Aramco (North Ghawar, Saudi Arabia): North Ghawar Oil Producing Complex's history began with the start of Saudi oil production in 1938 and today manages assets dispersed over 12,500km. To meet increasing demand while reducing both operational costs and emissions, the complex launched a 4IR strategy. It pioneered oil-producing intelligence, boosted existing asset reliability and upskilled young talent by leveraging over 65 solutions, including advanced analytics, AI-powered digital twins and Aramco large language model (LLM) genAI. As a result, oil production increased by 8.44% while Scope 1 and 2 emissions reduced by 8.21% per barrel of oil equivalent.
- 3. Beijing Shougang Cold Rolling Co., Ltd (Beijing, China): To meet the challenge of stricter quality standards for high-end automotive manufacturing and increasingly diverse stock-keeping units (SKUs), the site deployed 67 4IR use cases, 61% of which utilized AI. This enhanced end-to-end process accuracy, resolved customer quality challenges and eliminated key quality and throughput constraints. As a result, high-end sales increased by 36%, customer complaints decreased by 55%, product defects dropped by 35% and production line efficiency improved by 21.2%.
- 4. CEAT Limited (Sriperumbudur, India): To support global expansion, CEAT needed to manage three times more SKUs, faster order fulfilment, coupled with new product launches at twice the speed with productivity improvement in assembly process. To achieve this, CEAT deployed over 30 digital solutions, including operational research models for reducing turnaround time, advanced analytics for predictive control and machine learning-based design. These solutions improved labour productivity by 25%, reduced dispatch turnaround time by 54%, accelerated product ramp-up by 30% and cut Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 47%.
- 5. CITIC Dicastal Morocco (Ameur Seflia, Morocco): "Lightweighting" trends are reshaping the automotive sector, by driving intense competition for high-quality auto parts with smaller environmental footprints. In response, CITIC Dicastal Morocco deployed over 40 digital use cases for high-precision, flexible production and efficient use of materials. The site deployed advanced algorithms for casting and machining, an AI-generated content-enhanced vision inspection system, and a process control to manage natural gas quality volatility in furnaces - a local challenge. This led to a 17% improvement in overall equipment effectiveness, a 27% increase in labour productivity, a 31.1% reduction in defects and a 53% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions.
- 6. Foshan Haitian Flavouring & Food Co., Ltd (Foshan, China): To maintain its cost advantage and produce soy sauces with consistent flavour, Foshan Haitian implemented digital transformation to address rising consumer demands for diverse products and manage increasingly complex orders. The site deployed over 50 digital use cases, nearly half powered by AI to optimize operations. Despite a 54% increase in SKUs and a 64% rise in small-batch orders, these efforts reduced raw material waste by 33.6%, cut product defect rates by 39.1%, and shortened order lead times by 38.7%
- 7. Guizhou Tyre Co., Ltd (Guiyang, China): Guizhou Tyre faced the challenge of meeting highly customized orders (over 60% of all orders) for heavy load operations, which required strict design, verification and reliability standards. To speed up product design and ensure consistent and stable output, the site implemented over 40 4IR solutions to improve agility and productivity in manufacturing. These solutions, which included AI-enabled design, advanced data analytics and flexible automation, resulted in a 57% reduction in defects, a 68% increase in labour productivity and a 34% reduction in inventory levels.
- 8. United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) (Tainan, Taiwan, China): To enhance profitability in a rapidly changing chip market, UMC focuses on production of specialized semiconductors, which have higher value but also greater process complexity. UMC's largest production and R&D site in Tainan adopted agile strategies to deploy over 48 4IR use cases, such as a machine learning model to shorten design kit delivery time by 57% and an AI defect analysis system helping raise yields to 97%. This led to higher customer engagement with specialized product ratio up to 53% from 13%, contributing to a 75% gross margin gain.
- 9. Valeo Interior Controls (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd Front Camera factory (Shenzhen, China): To maintain leadership in the autonomous driving market and assure product quality, flexible production and optimal costs, Valeo's Shenzhen factory implemented 42 4IR use cases, including AI-powered solutions and 14 advanced algorithms such as genAI-enabled troubleshooting and fully automated "lights-off" workshops. These innovations reduced finished goods defect rates by 45.9%, cut lead times by 34.5%, increased productivity by 60.2% and lowered unit energy consumption by 27.1%, ensuring high-quality, cost-efficient production.
End-to-End (E2E) Value Chain Lighthouses
The latest cohort of E2E Lighthouses has responded to surging demand with advanced technologies that not only provide enhanced visibility but also streamline complex processes and improve design and planning efficiency. The new E2E Lighthouses are:
- 1. Agilent Technologies (Penang, Malaysia): Faced with rising demand, material price volatility and a rapidly expanding portfolio (including four mergers and acquisitions and 2,500 new SKUs since 2018), Agilent's Penang site embraced digital transformation to enhance its high-mix, low-volume manufacturing processes. Deploying over 40 solutions, such as AI in supply chains, 3D printing and zero-code workflows, the site achieved a 40% productivity improvement, a 32% reduction in manufacturing costs and a 48% cut in delivery lead time. Its "Everyone-Can-Digital" initiative upskilled 88% of its workforce, leading to a "Great Place to Work" designation for four consecutive years and reducing attrition to 3.5% compared to the 9.4% industry average.
- 2. Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) (Al Taweelah, UAE): Operating one of the world's largest aluminium smelters in an industry marked by raw material and freight cost volatility, EGA undertook a 4IR transformation to further increase its cost-competitiveness, agility and flexibility, as well as enhance safety and sustainability. In three years, the site implemented over 80 use cases and upskilled over 20% of its workforce, injecting advanced AI into a traditional and labour-intense industry. The site used deep learning computer vision and LLM to optimize frontline operations, reducing operational downtimes by 50% and non-productive time by 18% - raising overall equipment effectiveness by 12%.
- 3. Hindustan Unilever Limited (Tinsukia, India): To adapt to the surge in "Instant delivery E-Commerce" via shorter runs and wider product variety, Unilever Tinsukia, operating in a remote region with limited resources, implemented over 50 digital use cases improving end-to-end supply chain agility through machine learning-driven planning, AI-enabled changeovers and a green digital twin. This helped reduce planning frozen periods from 14 days to one, enabling a threefold increase in unique SKUs and cutting the time for sustainable packaging trials by 84%. Additionally, the site supported local community development by fostering digital skills through an Industrial Training Institute and a digital-Braille lab, strengthening its social impact alongside its digital transformation.
- 4. Midea General Refrigeration Co., Ltd (Chongqing, China): Facing a surge in customized orders - from 31% to 87% - from 42 industries, Midea Chongqing deployed 79 digital use cases powered by machine learning, augmented reality and simulation. This enabled a "Batch Size 1" make-to-order delivery model, optimizing product configuration, intelligent design, agile production and adaptive quality assurance. These measures reduced configuration lead times by 81%, design lead times by 45% and after-sales failure rates by 31% while accommodating a 180% increase in custom orders.
Sustainability Lighthouses
This cohort, five Lighthouses have been awarded the additional designation of Sustainability Lighthouses for their industry-leading reductions in Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, and their advancements in promoting a circular economy. The first three, Ferrovial, Novelis and Nucor, were awarded through a partnership between the Global Lighthouse Network and the Circularity in the Built Environment initiative . The fourth, Schneider Electric (Wuxi, China), was already a Factory Lighthouse and was awarded the supplementary designation this year. The new Sustainability Lighthouses are:
- 1. Ferrovial SE (London, UK): The Kilo Apron Development Substructure is Heathrow Airport's largest and most complex civil project of the past 10 years. To prioritize sustainability, since 2017 the project incorporated various innovative technologies and techniques, including drones, hydro-treated vegetable oil (HVO), hybrid excavators, low-carbon concrete, design for manufacture and assembly, and three-dimensional building information modelling. This helped achieve a 67% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions and a 63% reduction in Scope 3 emissions.
- 2. Novelis (Uhrichsville, US): Novelis' recycling facility achieved 97% recycled aluminium content, significantly reducing its reliance on energy-intensive primary production. This was achieved through advanced scrap segregation, procurement strategies and digital tools, earning GreenCircle certification. Scope 3 emissions from bauxite mining and primary aluminum production make up 85% of Novelis' carbon footprint. With a greenhouse gas intensity of only 1.1 metric tons of carbon dioxide per metric ton of aluminium - far below the industry average of 5.8 metric tons - the site contributes 25% of Novelis' North American sales and advances its goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.
- 3. Nucor Corporation (Sedalia, US): The steel industry contributes 7%-8% of global carbon dioxide emissions. In January 2020, Nucor launched a $250 million electric arc furnace mill in Sedalia, Missouri, achieving zero Scope 2 emissions via a 75-megawatt power purchase agreement with Evergy Energy. Additionally, Scope 1 emissions were reduced by nearly 60% through the pre-heating of scrap steel with waste heat and an innovative micro mill technology.
- 4.Schneider Electric (Wuxi, China): Schneider Electric's Wuxi campus, an electronics manufacturing centre, reached net-zero Scope 1 and 2 emissions in 2022, eight years ahead of its 2030 target. Sustainability initiatives included AI-powered eco-design, a closed-loop carbon-dioxide tracking platform with suppliers, and machine learning models to optimize energy efficiency and the development of circular economy solutions with customers. This led to a 90% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions, a 65% reduction in Scope 3 emissions and a 15% reduction in water use.
- 5.Siemens AG (Fürth, Germany): Siemens Fürth aims to achieve net zero by 2026, four years ahead of the company's corporate target. Based on the foundation of extensive energy metering and a cross-department sustainability team, the site deployed multiple solutions including an on-site repair centre for product lifetime extension, electromagnetic filtering for power quality enhancement and end-to-end product carbon footprint management. This has led to energy savings of 12% in absolute terms and 64% per volume, even as overall throughput increased by 145%.
About the Global Lighthouse Network
Launched in 2018, the Global Lighthouse Network brings together and celebrates the success of the world's leading industrial sites which achieved exceptional performance in productivity, supply chain resilience, customer centricity, sustainability and talent. This global community of influential innovators, deploying over 1,000 solutions in multiple industries, includes 189 sites, 25 of which are Sustainability Lighthouses. The network now spans over 30 countries and 35 sectors.
The Global Lighthouse Network is a World Economic Forum initiative. The initiative was co-founded with McKinsey & Company and is counselled by an advisory board of industry leaders which are working together to shape the future of global manufacturing. The Advisory Board includes Foxconn Industrial Internet, Johnson & Johnson, Koç Holdings, McKinsey & Company, Schneider Electric and Siemens. Sites and value chains that join the network are designated by an independent panel of experts.
About the Annual Meeting 2025
The World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2025, taking place in Davos-Klosters from 20 to 24 January, convenes global leaders under the theme, Collaboration for the Intelligent Age. The meeting will foster new partnerships and insights to shape a more sustainable, inclusive future in an era of rapidly advancing technology, focusing on five key areas: Reimagining Growth, Industries in the Intelligent Age, Investing in People, Safeguarding the Planet, and Rebuilding Trust.
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