Emirates Global Aluminium Advances Industry 4.0 With New Digital Platform

Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), the largest industrial company in the UAE outside oil and gas, has launched one of the region's first digital manufacturing platforms. This initiative aims to unlock additional value through Industry 4.0 applications. Developed in collaboration with Microsoft, the platform is a significant step in EGA’s Digital Roadmap.

The platform integrates hardware, software, processes, and people across EGA’s global operations. Built using Microsoft Azure hybrid cloud, it leverages artificial intelligence on a large scale to enhance industrial process efficiency, quality, and safety. The infrastructure combines public and on-premises hybrid cloud processing, previously used in defence and space projects.

The digital manufacturing platform reduces the unit cost of AI-based image and video analytics by over 80 per cent. It also increases processing speeds up to 13 times compared to EGA’s previous solution. Currently, the platform processes over 2.9 petabytes of real-time data annually, equivalent to streaming more than 32,000 movies at 4K resolution.

Strategic Vision

Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, CEO of EGA, stated, "EGA’s bold aspiration is to become a digital lighthouse for the region and the global aluminium industry. The digital manufacturing platform transforms our operations by harnessing AI at scale, unlocking significant opportunities for further Industry 4.0 applications."

Digital Transformation Strategy

Carlo K Nizam, Chief Digital Officer of EGA, noted that their digital transformation strategy has two parallel tracks: implementing high-impact digital solutions for immediate business impact and building important digital foundations for company-wide transformation. The digital manufacturing platform is one of these key foundations.

Microsoft Collaboration

Christoph Berlin, General Manager and Partner Architect at Microsoft Azure, remarked that this announcement marks a key milestone in their strategic collaboration with EGA. He highlighted that the new platform is an example of using Microsoft’s Adaptive Cloud Framework to modernise OT in a cloud-first era.

Future Prospects

Earlier this year, EGA announced the groundbreaking for the region’s first 100 percent renewable energy-powered industrial data centres at its Jebel Ali and Al Taweelah sites. The digital manufacturing platform will be hosted on these data centres in the future.

With inputs from WAM