Ambuja Cements & ACC Invest Under Plants of Tomorrow Program
Ambuja Cements and ACC, Holcim Group companies, have decided to further invest in Industry 4.0 under its ‘Plants of Tomorrow’ program.
This transformative program, which aims to make cement manufacturing more efficient through better plant optimization, higher plant availability and a safer working environment, is part of parent company Holcim’s Strategy 2022 – ‘Building for Growth’, which was launched globally in July 2019.
Neeraj Akhoury, CEO India Holcim and Managing Director & CEO of Ambuja Cements Ltd said, “As an industry leader we are looking at ‘Plants of Tomorrow’ as a big opportunity and responsibility to place India on the map of global cement manufacturing. This path-breaking project will lead to transformative outcomes not just in terms of operational and financial gains but also make cement manufacturing in the country environmentally sustainable and create a safe work environment for our colleagues across all our plants.”
The four-year program implemented by Holcim aims to create a global network of over 270 integrated cement plants and grinding stations in more than 50 countries by applying automation technologies and robotics, artificial intelligence, predictive maintenance and digital twin technologies to the entire production processes.
The “Plants of Tomorrow” initiative which will transform cement manufacturing in India is simultaneously implemented in other key markets for Holcim in Switzerland, France, Germany, United Kingdom, United States, Canada, and Russia.
Both companies have already implemented tools such as Distributed Control System (DCS), Tool Location System (TLS) and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) to increase plant efficiency and uptime.
The companies have also introduced the Internet of Things (IoT) across the manufacturing value chain by leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning through the project EDGE to facilitate rapid deployment of predictive models and seamless connectivity with plant data sources.
Digital Eye is another technology utilized by both companies to digitally monitor factory and plant operations using drones and video analytics to operate effectively and increase safety.
