CASE STUDY
This is why our Digital Transformation began with IT-OT foundation-setting. On the business applications front, we are carrying out“ SAP S4H Upgrade and RISE Migration”, to consolidate our 55 global entities onto a single, unified platform. Our“ Intelligent Manufacturing” will be supported by SAP S / 4H, SAP Integrated Business Planning( IBP), Innovent Warehouse Management system and various other solutions. This is helping us in creating an end-to-end integrated process landscape across the enterprise, including manufacturing and supply chain.
Secondly, on the manufacturing applications front, our ISA-95 based structured approach is creating a layered architecture.
Thirdly, special efforts in the area of enhancing the IT-OT infrastructure in factories are essential. Deploying IoT enabled sensors and applications requires an adequately sized networking, data transmission and ingestion capabilities. We have already made significant progress regarding this aspect.
Infusing intelligence in manufacturing: Benefits
Intelligent manufacturing is a never-ending journey towards continuous improvement. We are constantly striving for it.
Intelligence, not scale, is becoming the defining competitive advantage.
At RAK Ceramics, we have arrived at this conclusion not as a theoretical exercise, but through the practical reality of operating 23 manufacturing plants across the UAE, India, Bangladesh, and Europe, while serving clients in more than 150 countries. Managing that complexity at pace requires a fundamentally different kind of integrated IT-OT intelligence.
Foundation for intelligent manufacturing
One of the most common mistakes manufacturers make when embarking on an AI journey is jumping to individual use cases and applications deployments. For instance, solutions for predictive maintenance, predictive quality, demand forecasting etc. – without first building the data and digital platform – will not be able to provide AI applications with something meaningful to work on. AI is only as powerful as the quality and connectivity of the data beneath it.
One of the most immediate benefits of embedding integrated Business Intelligence( BI) – Operational Intelligence( OI) in manufacturing is operational transparency. In the past, when our global systems were operating in a siloed manner, decision-making depended on lagging reports and manual aggregation. Decisions were delayed due to incomplete and late information. Moreover, the recent supply chain disruptions and broader geopolitical pressures, made the cost of information lag very clear.
Our ongoing digital manufacturing efforts are yielding benefits and will continue to grow. For a business that manages hundreds of SKUs across four product lines – Tiles, Sanitaryware, Tableware, and Faucets – integration and intelligence are not luxuries. They are operational necessities.
Our intelligent manufacturing architecture goes beyond data visibility. The vision is to convert data into predictive and prescriptive action across manufacturing operations, maintenance and quality. When fully realised, it will allow our plant managers to anticipate equipment failures before they occur, adjust production schedules www. intelligentcio. com
INTELLIGENT CIO MIDDLE EAST
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