Western Digital has announced the World Economic Forum has named two of its smart factories in Asia to the Global Lighthouse Network, a community of companies that have succeeded in the adaptation of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) at scale. Of the 90 total sites within the World Economic Forum’s Lighthouse network, Western Digital is the first company to receive this distinction for an intelligent factory in Malaysia. Additionally, the company’s Thailand facility is the first in the country to be recognised as an end-to-end (E2E) Lighthouse for accelerating digital transformation and augmenting human performance at scale.
“Today’s recognition by the WEF Lighthouse Network is an honor and a testament of our leadership efforts in 4IR with both technology innovation and workforce engagement,” said David Goeckeler, CEO, Western Digital. “In a world that is increasingly technology-enabled and technology-dependent, we understand that the responsibility we have to the future of industry has never been more critical. As the world’s leading data infrastructure provider, and we are committed to enabling sustainable growth and transformation across our facilities around the world to deliver value to our customers, employees and partners,” added David.
Western Digital applied the technology innovations it enables for customers each day – artificial intelligence, robotics, automation, advanced analytics and the Internet of Things – to achieve transformational change at its facilities in Penang, Malaysia and Prachinburi, Thailand.
With an increase in flash memory demand of more than 2X, stringent quality requirements and the need to optimise costs, Western Digital’s factory in Penang, Malaysia embarked on lights-out manufacturing journey based on Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies. By automating production and logistics, they were able to deliver 32 per cent factory cost improvement and transition to build-to-order with intelligent planning system, thereby reducing product inventory and order lead time by 50 per cent.
In Prachinburi, Thailand, with rapidly growing demand, rigorous quality requirements and cost pressure for hard disk drive (HDD), Western Digital leveraged connectivity and advanced analytics technologies to transform a capacity-saturated manufacturing site into 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 per cent, avoiding 30 per cent in procurement and production costs and reducing product return rate by 43 per cent.
“Increased global concern for environmental impact has made sustainability a must-have to maintain business viability,” said Francisco Betti, Head of Shaping the Advanced Manufacturing and Value Chains, World Economic Forum. “The selected Sustainability Lighthouses make it clear that by realizing the potential of 4IR technologies in manufacturing, companies can unlock new levels of sustainability in their operations and explore a win-win solution: greater operational competitiveness while simultaneously making commitments to environmental stewardship, leading in a cleaner, more sustainable future as a result,” added Francisco.