ACG Joins World Economic Forum's Global Lighthouse Network

ACG, a global integrated supplier and service provider to the pharmaceutical industry, celebrated the inclusion of its capsule manufacturing facility in Pithampur, India, into the esteemed Global Lighthouse Network (GLN) by the World Economic Forum.

“When ACG embarked on its journey to digital transformation, I recall how Industry 4.0, AI, and ML were emerging concepts," said Karan Singh, managing director of ACG Group. "The focus was directed toward deploying these technologies to enhance productivity and transform the way we operate; aiming to ultimately enhance accessibility to affordable medicines. With an ambitious and dedicated team, we forged a collective commitment to raise the bar of excellence in delivering high quality capsules worldwide.

“Six years into the journey, I am filled with pride as my team paves a path for leading advance manufacturing and securing a position in the World Economic Forum's prestigious community of Global Lighthouses. This certification is a testament to our commitment to excellence and creating new benchmarks of facilities that are operating on the leading edge of technological innovation. In time to come, we envision taking the learnings and success from this facility to scaling global operations collectively to make it better for our partners, customers, regulators and eventually the pharmaceutical ecosystem.”

WEF’s Global Lighthouse Network is a community of manufacturers that shows leadership in using Industry 4.0 technologies to transform factories, value chains, and business models for compelling financial and operational returns. The GLN has experienced exponential growth since its inception, expanding from 16 to 153 lighthouses. This initiative is a collaboration between WEF and McKinsey & Co. with an independent panel of experts designating factories and value chains that join the GLN.

"The Global Lighthouse Network exemplifies the power of digital transformation. Lighthouses are pioneering a path to unprecedented global impact, strategically weaving innovation throughout their expansive network, sculpting both a sustainable future and an era of transformative and lasting change," said Kiva Allgood, head, Centre for Advanced Manufacturing and Supply Chains, World Economic Forum.

The certification comes after robust audit of 25+ use cases for the facility, that have not only led to manufacturing of superior quality products but also, transformed operations creating new benchmarks for timely production. ACG’s Pithampur factory exemplifies accelerated deployment of GenAI, addressing the evolving skill sets of employees in manufacturing through a remarkable Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) and policy interfacing with Gen AI.

ACG’s Pithampur factory had incorporated green features during the design and layout stages, marking a pioneer achievement as they were certified gold by LEED in 2014.

“Build the Future, ACG’s enterprise-wide digital transformation program is based on four strategic pillars - transforming operations, building smart connected products, enhancing customer experience, and developing digital led business models. Under the ambit of build the future, ACG has been actively developing and implementing state-of-the-art solutions, powered by digital technologies ranging from Industrial IoT, machine learning, deep learning, generative AI, cloud computing, to digital twins, industrial robotics, and extended reality," explained Balajikasiram Sundararajan, chief digital officer, ACG Group.