Future-Proofing Global Value Chains: Country Preparedness and Beyond

Case studies

Total number of case studies

299

Sectors

21

Locations

59

Topics

9

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
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
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 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
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
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
With a 2.5X high-mix volume growth in last three years, increasing quality requirements and the need to contain costs, Sandisk 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
Sandisk - Penang
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 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
Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Ltd. (CATL) - Ningde
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
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
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
In order to capture greater energy consumption granularity, when and where it happens in the plant, the Lexington smart factory leveraged IoT connectivity with power meters and predictive analytics to optimize energy cost. This has led to a 26% energy reduction (GWh), 30% net CO2 reduction, 20% water use reduction, and a Superior Energy Performance 50001TM certification by the US Department of Energy.*Calculation based on EPA Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator
USA | Technology
Schneider Electric - Lexington - Sustainability

Future-Proofing Global Value Chains: Country Preparedness and Beyond

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