Case Details
China Resources Building Materials Technology Holdings: Scaling Digital Transformation from a Lighthouse Factory to a Lighthouse Network
China Resources Building Materials Technology Holdings, a subsidiary of China Resources Group, was one of the leading manufacturers of building materials including cement, aggregates, and concrete in China. In 2023, after years of digital transformation efforts, its Tianyang Factory was recognized by the World Economic Forum as the first “Lighthouse Factory” in the global building materials industry. This recognition reflected the successful deployment of digital transformation applications across areas such as advanced process control, predictive maintenance, smart logistics, and AI-driven safety systems, which significantly improved productivity, reduced costs, and drove sustainability initiatives.
The case traces the company’s digital transformation journey and examines how it refined and implemented initiatives to drive organizational change alongside technological deployment across multiple areas. The case provides students with an opportunity to analyze the challenges and opportunities involved in expanding digital transformation from a single “Lighthouse Factory” to a network of smart factories and extending digital innovation across its value chain. From a managerial perspective, students are expected to derive insights into how digital leadership could enable transformation and empower innovation in traditional sectors such as manufacturing.
Learning Objective:
1. Explore the role of digital leadership and apply the DELTA Framework to assess challenges and opportunities in enabling sustained digital transformation and fostering a culture of innovation within a traditional, asset-heavy manufacturing sector.
2. Assess the critical organizational and change management initiatives necessary to support technological deployment in the digital transformation.
3. Understand the key technical components deployed in the Lighthouse Factory and evaluate their impact on core operational performance metrics.
4. Evaluate how digital transformation can extend beyond internal manufacturing processes to drive innovation and integration across the broader value chain.
5. Analyze challenges and operational requirements for scaling a discrete digital transformation initiative (a "Lighthouse Factory") into an integrated network of smart factories.