Tata Steel Kalinganagar honoured at World Economic Forum 2020

Tata Steel Kalinganagar has been honoured at the World Economic Forum (WEF) 2020 for its recent admittance into the Global Lighthouse Network.

The network is a small but growing group of global corporations that are showing leadership in applying fourth industrial revolution technologies to drive financial and operational impact.

Tata Steel's CEO & MD T V Narendran, who represented the company at the WEF 2020 held in Davos, accepted the award at the World Economic Forum, a Tata Steel release said.

In July 2019, TSK became the first and only Indian manufacturing plant to be included in the WEF's Lighthouse Network, when 10 new factories, including TSK, were added to the Global Lighthouse Network. Tata Steel's IJmuiden plant in the Netherlands is already a member of this network, it said.

"It is a proud moment for all of us as Tata Steel Kalinganagar (TSK) joins the prestigious Lighthouse Network of the World Economic Forum. TSK has the distinction of featuring several firsts in the Indian steel industry.

"At Kalinganagar, we not only have state-of-the-art equipment and utilities but also drive higher productivity through automation and digital interventions. As we increase our capacity at TSK to 8 MnTPA, we will continue to implement the best technologies and innovate across the value-chain to drive operational excellence," Narendran said.

A whitepaper titled Global Lighthouse Network: Insights from the Forefront of the Fourth Industrial Revolution published by the Global Lighthouse Network in collaboration with McKinsey & Company said that Tata Steel's greenfield steel plant in Kalinganagar "is helping to set a new standard in the speed at which a factory can achieve full capacity from complete nascency".

It additionally improved time to market by 50 per cent, due to significant investments in digital and analytics solutions, as well as capability-building to develop the digital skills of a relatively junior and inexperienced team, the paper added.

Commissioned in 2016 and spread over 3,000 acres in Kalinganagar industrial complex in Jajpur district of Odisha, TSK attained production levels at its rated capacity in less than two years and is the largest single-location greenfield steel project in India.