Construction and real estate / Cement
Holcim: Improving production processes and equipment operation
- Company
- Holcim
- Country
- Switzerland
- Adoption stage
- In operation
- Source published
- Date basis
- The date the source was published. It can differ from the date adoption started.
- How the source was checked
- Read the full source text
The work problem
When equipment in a cement plant stops suddenly, the whole production plan is thrown off. When demand forecasts miss, inventory and distribution cost rise together. Holcim said it would address both production and logistics with AI.
Technology and data
Plants of Tomorrow is an Industry 4.0 programme that bundles technologies from AI to robotics to modernise plants worldwide. The equipment-side tool is Holcim M-Predict. It watches equipment performance in real time with smart sensors and machine learning. The logistics and sales tool is Holcim Foresight. It pulls in thousands of external data points such as weather, GDP forecasts and market trends to forecast sales and inventory and to optimise vehicle and network utilisation. In Spain it runs Holcim+, an AI assistant that takes orders over a messenger.
Results
Holcim said its AI models predict equipment failure and the point at which maintenance is needed up to 90 days in advance. It explained that it applied AI at more than 100 plants. It said it is running 38 large-scale AI projects across four areas: production, logistics, commercial and administration. Holcim Foresight is in use in more than 30 markets, with a plan to extend to all markets by the end of 2026. In Spain it said 89 percent of customers order through the AI assistant.
Limits and open questions
Delivering a recurring EBIT effect of CHF 200 M a year from AI by 2028 is a target, not a result. Failure prediction accuracy and per-plant effects are not in this source.
Sources
- Unlocking AI for NextGen Growth at Holcimholcim.com, Accessed
Compiled from public sources. These are not results from ATF Works customers.