{"id":139384,"date":"2026-09-15T13:37:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T12:37:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/me\/?p=139384"},"modified":"2026-09-15T14:04:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T13:04:14","slug":"why-intelligence-will-define-manufacturing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/me\/2026\/09\/15\/why-intelligence-will-define-manufacturing\/","title":{"rendered":"Why intelligence will define manufacturing"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Nikhil Chaturvedi, Chief IT & Digitalisation Officer at RAK Ceramics, explains how integrated IT-OT environments, AI and real-time data are reshaping the factory floor.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For decades, manufacturing success has been measured by tonnage, throughput and plant capacity. Scale has been paramount. The more we could produce, and the more cost-effectively we could produce it, the stronger our position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the industrial landscape is shifting in ways that make sheer scale inadequate. In today\u2019s environment, marked by geopolitical dynamics, extreme supply chain volatility, energy cost pressures and accelerating sustainability regulations, the manufacturers that will lead are those that turn data into intelligent decisions faster than anyone else. Intelligence, not scale, is becoming the defining competitive advantage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At RAK Ceramics, we have arrived at this conclusion not as a theoretical exercise, but through the practical reality of operating 23 manufacturing plants across the UAE, India, Bangladesh and Europe, while serving clients in more than 150 countries. Managing that complexity at pace requires a fundamentally different kind of integrated IT-OT intelligence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Foundation for intelligent manufacturing<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

One of the most common mistakes manufacturers make when embarking on an AI journey is jumping straight to individual use cases and application deployments. Solutions for predictive maintenance, predictive quality and demand forecasting, for instance, will not be able to deliver their full potential without first establishing the data and digital platforms that give AI something meaningful to work with. AI is only as powerful as the quality and connectivity of the data beneath it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is why our digital transformation began with establishing the IT-OT foundation. On the business applications front, we are carrying out an SAP S\/4HANA upgrade and RISE migration to consolidate our 55 global entities onto a single, unified platform. Our intelligent manufacturing environment will be supported by SAP S\/4HANA, SAP Integrated Business Planning, Innovent Warehouse Management System and various other solutions. This is helping us create an end-to-end integrated process landscape across the enterprise, including manufacturing and supply chain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secondly, on the manufacturing applications front, our structured ISA-95-based approach is creating a layered architecture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thirdly, specific efforts to enhance IT-OT infrastructure within factories are essential. Deploying IoT-enabled sensors and applications requires adequately sized networking, data transmission and ingestion capabilities. We have already made significant progress in this area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Infusing intelligence into manufacturing<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Intelligent manufacturing is a continuous journey towards improvement. We are constantly striving towards it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the most immediate benefits of embedding integrated Business Intelligence and Operational Intelligence into manufacturing is operational transparency. In the past, when our global systems operated in silos, decision-making depended on lagging reports and manual aggregation. Decisions were delayed because of incomplete or late information. Recent supply chain disruptions and broader geopolitical pressures have made the cost of information delays particularly clear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our ongoing digital manufacturing efforts are already yielding benefits, and these will continue to grow. For a business that manages hundreds of SKUs across four product lines, tiles, sanitaryware, tableware and faucets, integration and intelligence are not luxuries. They are operational necessities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our intelligent manufacturing architecture goes beyond data visibility. The vision is to convert data into predictive and prescriptive action across manufacturing operations, maintenance and quality. When fully realised, it will allow our plant managers to anticipate equipment failures before they occur, dynamically adjust production schedules based on demand signals and identify efficiency losses in real time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recognition and the next steps<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We have been recognised as the UAE Industry 4.0 Leader by the Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology and received the International ICT Award for Intelligent Manufacturing Implementation in 2024. These are validations of progress, but not endpoints.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The recognition matters less than what it represents: a manufacturing environment where technology is integrated into every layer of production, from digital glazing systems to robotic palletisers and from the world\u2019s largest energy-efficient sanitaryware kiln to real-time ERP connectivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With AI-powered ERP, we are positioned to progressively introduce intelligent automation across the enterprise, reinforcing supply chain resilience and working capital efficiency at the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sustainability is no longer a reporting obligation. It is a strategic imperative and, increasingly, a commercial differentiator. In 2024, RAK Ceramics achieved ISO 50001 certification for energy management across our tiles, sanitaryware and tableware operations, a significant milestone that reflects both commitment and capability. We achieved a 95\u201398% efficiency rate in our Effluent Treatment Plant and reused 206,025 tonnes of waste to formulate 100% of our recycled product range.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sustainable performance at this scale is increasingly being supported by intelligent systems. For instance, AI-driven energy optimisation will allow manufacturing operations to identify consumption anomalies, model the impact of schedule changes on energy demand and automate equipment adjustments to reduce waste in real time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Predictive maintenance is also set to reduce the cost of reactive repairs and unplanned downtime. Our commitments to the UAE Net Zero 2050 strategy and UAE Energy Strategy 2050 will be supported by these intelligent manufacturing solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Intelligent manufacturing is a team effort<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It is a cross-functional and collaborative effort. The roles of manufacturing and technology leadership have evolved profoundly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For most of the past two decades, the CIO\u2019s mandate was to keep systems running, manage infrastructure, maintain reliability and control IT costs. That mandate no longer reflects what manufacturing leadership needs from technology leadership. At RAK Ceramics, the manufacturing and technology functions are working collaboratively towards enterprise-wide value creation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Technology decisions now encompass platform selection, data architectures, AI solutions and integration between IT and OT applications. These decisions will help determine competitive positioning for the next decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, the manufacturers that define the next era of the industry will not necessarily be those with the most factories or the largest production capacity. They will be those that use integrated IT-OT environments and infuse intelligence into their operations to make every factory, every process and every decision work better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At RAK Ceramics, that transformation is already underway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nikhil Chaturvedi, Chief IT & Digitalisation Officer at RAK Ceramics, explains how integrated IT-OT environments, AI and real-time data are reshaping the factory floor. For decades, manufacturing success has been measured by tonnage, throughput and plant capacity. Scale has been paramount. The more we could produce, and the more cost-effectively we could produce it, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7289,"featured_media":139386,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[139,809],"tags":[3211,21956],"class_list":["post-139384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry-expert","category-more-news","tag-ai","tag-rak-ceramics"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7289"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139384"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":139391,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139384\/revisions\/139391"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}