The World Economic Forum has officially recognized the Sandvik Coromant production unit in Gimo, Sweden as an advanced Industry 4.0 facility. The plant has been selected as a “lighthouse” site, namely one that comprehensively deploys a wide range of Industry 4.0 technologies and use cases at scale, while keeping humans and sustainability at the heart of innovation.

Through its announcement, the World Economic Forum is acknowledging the strides that the world’s best manufacturers are making towards leveraging the technologies of Industry 4.0 into modern production. Each lighthouse is selected from a survey of over 1,000 manufacturing sites based on their success in adopting Industry 4.0 technologies and demonstrating tangible benefits.

According to the World Economic Forum’s announcement, the Gimo facility of Sandvik Coromant “has created a digital thread through its production processes that has significantly raised labour productivity. One example is its ‘touchless changeover’ which allows design patterns to be changed automatically, even during unmanned shifts.”

Nadine Crauwels, President of Sandvik Coromant, says: “Having our Gimo production unit listed as a lighthouse not only demonstrates true performance and increased competitiveness, but just as important, it shows sustainability at the heart of innovation.”

Opening doors for knowledge sharing

The World Economic Forum’s aim is to build a network of manufacturing lighthouses that address the problems confronting industries in both advanced and emerging economies when it comes to investing in advanced technologies.

Earlier work by the World Economic Forum identified that over 70 percent of businesses investing in technologies such as big data analytics, artificial intelligence or 3D printing are not able to take the projects beyond pilot phase. To aid the learning and adoption of technologies by other companies, Sandvik Coromant and the rest of the lighthouses in the network have agreed to open their doors and share knowledge with other manufacturing businesses.

Read the World Economic Forum press release on the announcement of its latest lighthouse sites

• Published:10 Jan 2019