Global Lighthouse Network 2025

Designing data flows to enable people and material Based on information from Lighthouse applications, the volume of ingested and stored data increases by two to three orders of magnitude during digital transformation.27 Keeping it organized and streamlined is not easy – especially as an increasing number of tech vendors create exponential new nodes in the factory data value stream. The efficient integration and management of technology is now essential. Designing tech-heavy processes to be integration- light was a guiding principle for Continental in the Czech Republic and Agilent in Malaysia. The volume of ingested and stored data increases by two to three orders of magnitude during digital transformation.To enable customization of material logistics, Continental, a producer of electronic parts for the automotive sector, collaborated with a start-up on a unified fleet management platform for their autonomous mobile robots (AMRs). Integrated across five suppliers, the platform acts as a central hub, where each new supplier module can be independently managed, enabling route optimization and planning in mixed zones (where human-operated vehicles may come across AMRs) and seamless system-wide upgrades, such as a collision avoidance system across multiple vehicle types (see Figure 8).28 Agilent in Malaysia took a similar approach to Continental in another domain. To scale-up production of parts at high risk for supply disruption, the site developed a low-cost and open-source 3D printing platform that integrates with IIoT sensors and an AI vision system for real-time quality control. The printer-agnostic platform integrates with ERP to automate printer job setups based on the production schedule, which is essential for frequent new product introductions (NPI). This platform, known as the additive manufacturing production system (AMPS), has turned the site into a centre of excellence (CoE),29 achieving an 83% reduction in cost of 3D printed parts and 75% reduction in manufacturing lead time.30 These approaches not only redesigned processes to solve the needs of today, but designed data platforms capable of handling the technologies of tomorrow – be it new types of AMRs or new and unknown product and part requirements – with flows optimized for frequent upgrades and integrations, making growth less costly and difficult. Lighthouses do not deploy advanced digital tools in a system burdened with waste – just as it would not make sense to deploy AGVs to manoeuvre in suboptimal line layouts Instead, they ensure the digital tools they deploy leverage data that mirrors the physical systems it is collected from. EXAMPLE EXAMPLEContinental Agilent Global Lighthouse Network: The Mindset Shifts Driving Impact and Scale in Digital Transformation 15