Building adoption programmes to make digital stick Solutions aren’t just for the workforce, they are with the workforce. The most advanced sites source more ideas for continuous improvement from their frontline than across the rest of the company – but only when they intentionally invest in the upskilling and engagement of operators, who can make or break the speed of transformation. Since every workforce is different, Lighthouses do not take a one-size-fits-all approach to adoption. Instead, they give sites just enough structure to ensure local requirements are met and resources are sufficiently allocated to drive sustainable change but maintain flexibility and autonomy to personalize and customize at the site level. Localized adoption programmes typically involve a few elements. At Coca-Cola, in Singapore, adoption focused on driving employees’ continued engagement and commitment to the transformation effort. The site engaged with the workforce through monthly “show & tells” with equipment vendors and other third parties, 21 “Sway” digital newsletters that provided plant-wide transformation updates and success stories and hands-on experiences with AGVs, co-bots and virtual and augmented reality through their on-site innovation lab. The site also sends top talent to participate in the internal short-term assignments (STAR), where shopfloor associates join the transformation team for three months to be part of a specific digital project, collaborating in the design, development and execution of a solution. They eventually become ambassadors upon returning to operations.48 Cultivating change agents is critical as they function as conduits between frontline and management in both directions. From leadership to the frontline, they deliver key messages, addressing questions and supporting the education of frontline peers. Conversely, they relay frontline ideas, feedback and sentiment to transformation leadership – shaping the transformation approach to fit local contexts. For Lighthouses, these change agents participate in and support technology demos, deliver incentives and awards, lead ideation sessions or speak in town halls. They are the glue that makes change stick. Closely tied to user adoption is model adoption. It is not enough for solutions to work once – they must demonstrate ongoing value to operators, otherwise they will be discarded and become more waste. Cultivating change agents is critical as they function as conduits between frontline and management. To help younger operators manage a growing portfolio of automation equipment, Schneider Electric in China introduced Gen-AI enabled augmented reality (AR) glasses to seamlessly collect operator feedback. By inputting extensive equipment data and manuals into the model and continuously improving it with maintenance technician-chosen actions, the AR glasses display potential causes and corresponding solutions for fault codes, reducing time for new technicians to master equipment from 18 to nine months. The key was the ability for operators to interact with model recommendations to improve model accuracy and transfer years of knowledge from experienced operators into the underlying model.49EXAMPLE EXAMPLEThe Coca-Cola Company Schneider Electric Global Lighthouse Network: The Mindset Shifts Driving Impact and Scale in Digital Transformation 23

Global Lighthouse Network 2025