Today, Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ: WDC) announced that the World Economic Forum named its facility in Shanghai SanDisk Semiconductor (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. to the Global Lighthouse Network, and designated it as a Sustainability Lighthouse for its breakthroughs in efficient operations. This marks Western Digital's third global advanced factory featuring smart manufacturing to be named a Global Lighthouse, and one of the leading end-to-end (E2E) Lighthouses in Shanghai.
The Global Lighthouse Network is a community of production sites and value chains that are world leaders in the adoption and integration of the cutting-edge technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). Lighthouses apply 4IR technologies such as artificial intelligence, 3D-printing and big data analytics to maximize efficiency and competitiveness at scale, transform business models and drive economic growth, while augmenting the workforce, protecting the environment and contributing to a learning journey for all-sized manufacturers across all geographies and industries. The Global Lighthouse Network is a World Economic Forum initiative in collaboration with McKinsey & Co, factories and value chains that join the Network are designated by an independent panel of experts.
Western Digital's SDSS Facility in Shanghai is a large packaging and testing facilities for advanced flash products in the world. The site doubled its petabyte (PB) output between 2017 and 2021 while reducing its environmental footprint per PB to achieve corporate ambitions. The site transformed from a traditional manufacturing model to intelligent, digital and automated production across processes through applying 4IR technologies such as automation, digital twin, Internet of Things (IoT), a big-data-driven management system, lights-out manufacturing and machine learning. The innovations have improved the facility's productivity, operational efficiency, supply chain resilience and sustainability to meet Western Digital's commitment to sustainable development.
By leveraging digital twin and IoT, the facility established a powerful data center that integrates data from all regions, enabling digital connection upstream and downstream the manufacturing chain to automate advanced production model and smart manufacturing. The resulting data collection, learning and analysis has improved its manufacturing efficiency and reduced energy consumption and pollution. The site boasts a globally leading water recycling system, which reduced water consumption by 62% per petabyte. Compared to traditional energy consumption methods, the site reduced energy consumption by 51% per petabyte1. To encourage colleagues to innovate and improve engagement, Western Digital initiated a 4IR Innovation Studio equipped with 3D printing capabilities, robotics, computer vision, a sensor suite, and AR/VR kits, allowing employees to collaborate and explore, and turn their ideas into reality.
"Member of the Global Lighthouse Network - a unique global community of like-minded peers - are exploring synergies and collaborating to share insights and best practices on how to unlock not only efficiency, productivity and growth, but also new levels of sustainability and workforce engagement, to lead towards a cleaner and more inclusive future of manufacturing." said Francisco Betti, Head of Shaping the Future of Advanced Manufacturing and Value Chains, World Economic Forum.
"We are honored to be recognized by the Global Lighthouse Network, and earn the Sustainability Lighthouse designation in China – a first for China," said CK Chin, Vice President and General Manager, Western Digital. "This designation recognizes our innovation in 4IR technology applications, as well as our efforts and investments in sustainable development in the China market. We are committed to benefiting global users with our rich portfolio of leading data storage solutions and working with our clients and partners to achieve sustainable growth and enterprise transformation, enabling them to create what's next."
With its long-held core value of sustainability, Western Digital is actively pushing its smart plant network strategy around the world to improve the sustainability of its facilities. Two of its factories in in Penang, Malaysia, and Prachinburi, Thailand, were named to the Global Lighthouse Network by The Forum last year, and the smart factory in Penang was also selected as a Sustainability Lighthouse.
1Quoted from World Economic Forum's official announcement: https://cn.weforum.org/press/2022/10/deng-ta-gong-chang-zai-quan-qiu-shuai-tui-feng-xian-xia-chi-duan-ti-gao-sheng-chan-li-cu-jin-ke-chi-xu-fa-zhan-yi-ji-jian-she-ju-you-ren-xing-de-gong-ying-lian
About Western Digital
Western Digital is on a mission to unlock the potential of data by harnessing the possibility to use it. With Flash and HDD franchises, underpinned by advancements in memory technologies, we create breakthrough innovations and powerful data storage solutions that enable the world to actualize its aspirations. Core to our values, we recognize the urgency to combat climate change and have committed to ambitious carbon reduction goals approved by the Science Based Targets initiative. Learn more about Western Digital and the Western Digital®, SanDisk® and WD® brands at www.westerndigital.com.
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