FMCG major Hindustan Unilever (HUL) announced on Wednesday that one of its manufacturing units has joined the Lighthouse Network. Lighthouse Network is an initiative by the World Economic Forum, in collaboration with McKinsey & Company, which highlights factories and value chains achieving sustainability and productivity breakthroughs.

HUL’s Dapada factory manufactures homecare products including Surf Excel, Rin, and Vim. This is the first FMCG manufacturing site in India which has been accorded this status.

This site started its digital journey in 2018 and is known to be the first Unilever dedicated homecare site globally to be recognised as an E2E lighthouse factory, paving the way for rapid digital transformation in South Asia.

Sanjiv Mehta, President of Unilever South Asia and Chairman and Managing Director of Hindustan Unilever, said: “The WEF recognition is a testament to our sustained focus on making the Supply Chain future fit as part of our ‘Reimagine HUL’ agenda. This is the first time an FMCG factory in India has been awarded this status, and I hope more will follow as Unilever increasingly digitises its supply chain function. I would like to thank all our employees in Dapada who have leveraged the factory’s transformation and transitioned to this new, digital way of working.” 

“Using Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) technologies like augmented reality, big data and analytics, and IoT, the Dapada factory deployed artificial intelligence/machine learning-led solutions to accelerate the pace of innovation and speed of response to consumer demand,” said Willem Uijen, Unilever’s Head of Supply Chain for South Asia and South East Asia.

An independent expert panel at World Economic Forum has recognised HUL’s Dapada factory for implementing a series of advanced 4IR use cases. 

Published on March 30, 2022