Global Lighthouse Network 2026

Executive summary The Global Lighthouse Network (GLN) continues to showcase leaders across the manufacturing and supply chain ecosystem making measurable impacts on people, planet and performance. Having expanded from 16 factories to 223 sites across more than 30 countries and 40 industries, the Network remains at the forefront of holistic, scalable performance transformation. In 2025, two new award categories were introduced: customer centricity and talent, alongside the existing pillars of productivity, supply chain resilience and sustainability. This report highlights three major themes fundamental to the success of all Lighthouses: operational resilience in a new era of disruption, adopting AI to build cognitive networks and scaling- up from pilots to enterprise-wide impact. Operational resilience in a new era of disruption This year’s Lighthouses are redefining resilience for a new era. Confronted by persistent volatility, from geopolitical instability to tariffs and inflation, Lighthouses have moved beyond risk mitigation to actively shaping strategy in the face of disruption. Their investments focus on three priorities: building foundations for network agility and scale, empowering people to thrive in a digital world and amplifying impact through collaboration and purpose. They distinguish themselves by mastering critical trade-offs – balancing speed and standardization, autonomy and visibility, connectivity and cybersecurity – to anchor every decision in business value. Adopting AI to build cognitive networks Lighthouses are moving beyond pilots to enterprise- level deployment, with analytical AI and machine learning now embedded in nearly 62% of their top-5 use cases and generative AI (GenAI) embedded in 23% – up from 9% in 2024. By focusing on vertical, domain-specific applications, they are overcoming the “GenAI paradox”, turning experimentation into tangible performance gains. As they evolve from “smart factories” to “cognitive networks”, Lighthouses are pioneering hybrid human-AI workforces and intelligent agent ecosystems that enable agile, autonomous decision-making. Scaling-up from pilots to enterprise-wide impact Adoption alone does not guarantee impact. The goal is to claim the enormous advantages that come from scale; but this remains one of the toughest challenges in operations. Even within GLN, only a select few have rewired operations enterprise- wide. Those that succeed follow the same blueprint that made their Lighthouse pilots successful: strategic roadmaps, agile operating models, talent, technology and data, ecosystem collaboration and adoption programmes. The 2025 Lighthouse cohort placed particular emphasis on three enablers – well-defined transformation roadmaps, agile teams and global ecosystem partnerships – as levers to accelerate innovation, embed agility across networks and turn localized success into sustained enterprise-wide impact. Lighthouses are illuminating the way out of the “scaling slump” identified in earlier GLN reports, aligning their transformation approach with the maturity of the enterprise.1 They employ three scaling-up archetypes: 1) Centre of excellence 2) Workforce capability building 3) Technology integration Each combines structural, cultural and technological elements that drive expansion and continuous innovation. In an age defined by disruption, Lighthouses remind us that transformation is not a destination but a capability, one that turns volatility into advantage and vision into value. The next era of operational progress will belong to those who act with purpose, scale up with discipline and keep people at the centre.This white paper celebrates eight years of GLN as the leading learning community for achieving world-class operational performance at scale. Global Lighthouse Network: Rewiring Operations for Resilience and Impact at Scale 4