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 Pharma major Dr Reddy's Laboratories on Tuesday announced that the World Economic Forum (WEF) has recognised its largest manufacturing facility in Bachupally, Hyderabad, as part of its global lighthouse network.

Lighthouses are factories leading the way in Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0 or 4IR) technologies to drive impact in productivity, workforce engagement, sustainability, and supply chain resilience.

"The journey of our facility started four years ago with digitisation of infrastructure and processes. Two years ago, we initiated Project 'OpsNext' and deployed six of the eight Industry 4.0 technologies, 40+ business impact linked use cases and heavy investment in people capabilities," the Hyderabad-based firm said.

It claimed that the initiatives yielded significant business results - 43 per cent manufacturing cost improvement, 30 per cent reduction in production lead time, 41 per cent energy consumption reduction, and significant dip in quality deviations.

The company stated that it aspired to have the most efficient pharma operations in the world. "Our productivity improvement and digitalisation efforts are key to staying competitive, meeting business imperatives and achieving our ESG goals for environmental stewardship (100 per cent renewable energy by 2030, carbon neutrality in direct operations by 2030) and for patients (reaching over 1.5 billion patients by 2030, 25 per cent of launches to be first-to-market by 2027)."

"The successful inclusion of our 25-year-old site in Hyderabad as a 'Digital Lighthouse' factory is a big milestone in our productivity improvement journey. We have seen significant financial and operational impact from the journey. We are in the process of scaling and replicating this to the rest of our manufacturing network," said Sanjay Sharma, global head of manufacturing, Dr Reddy's.

"Dr Reddy's aspires to be the most efficient pharma operations in the world. Our productivity improvement and digitalisation efforts are key to staying competitive, meeting business imperatives, and meeting our ambitious ESG goals. Building such 'factories of the future' is integral to innovation and to build healthcare of the future. One of the most important outcomes is that our top talent and young leaders want to be a part of this aspirational journey. This collaborative and cross-functional effort truly helps us fulfil our purpose of 'Good Health Can't Wait'."