ACG's capsule manufacturing facility secures place in WEF's Global Lighthouse community

The company that says it is the largest of its kind, is celebrating the inclusion of its capsule manufacturing facility in Pithampur, India.

The WEF’s Global Lighthouse Network (GLN) is a community of manufacturers that shows leadership in using Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) technologies to transform factories, value chains and business models, for compelling financial and operational returns.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution or 4IR, also called Industry 4.0 is the next phase in the digitization of the manufacturing sector, driven by disruptive trends including the rise of data and connectivity, analytics, human-machine interaction, and improvements in robotics.

The GLN is a community of manufacturers showing leadership in using 4IR tech to transform factories, value chains, and business models, for compelling financial and operational returns.

Remarkably, ACG says, the GLN has experienced exponential growth since its inception, expanding from 16 to 153 lighthouses. This initiative is a collaboration between WEF and McKinsey & Company with an independent panel of experts designating factories and value chains that join the GLN.

Karan Singh, managing director of ACG Group said: “When ACG embarked on its journey to digital transformation, I recall how Industry 4.0, AI and ML were emerging concepts. 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 advanced 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.”

The certification comes, ACG says, after a robust audit of more than 25 use cases for the facility, which it says have not only led to the manufacturing of superior quality products but also, transformed operations creating new benchmarks for timely production.

The company says its Pithampur factory exemplifies the 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.

Known for its many accolades, ACG says its Pithampur factory had incorporated green features right during the design and layout stages marking a pioneer achievement as they were certified gold by LEED in 2014.

Balajikasiram Sundararajan, Chief Digital Officer, ACG group said: “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 digitally 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, and cloud computing, to digital twins, industrial robotics, and extended reality.

He further added, “These solutions have helped us to better serve our global customer base by solving critical customer-centric business problems. This prestigious Global Lighthouse recognition from the World Economic Forum further inspires us to continually explore innovative ways of leveraging digital technologies to re-imagine our entire value chain starting from our suppliers to our customers.”