Holcim Philippines embrace drones and digitalisation for maintenance

Holcim Philippines has started to harness advanced technology as part of its regular maintenance programme in plants and manufacturing sites. Drones inspect the La Union facility in Bacnotan, allowing the operator to take notes of maintenance actions to be taken. Using drones for regular and periodic maintenance has eliminated health and safety risks from having people conduct visual inspections in remote spaces. The drone also allows for higher frequency of checks and reduces equipment downtimes required for such inspections.

The use of drones is one of several digitalisation initiatives that Holcim Philippines has undertaken. The company has accelerated these efforts as part of its innovation drive to raise business, safety and environmental performance to further improve efficiency and safety of manufacturing operations.

In 2022 Holcim Philippines implemented over 70 projects to raise manufacturing performance through automation technologies under the Holcim Group’s ’Plants of Tomorrow' programme. Focussed on automating production processes and predictive maintenance, the Philippine projects are designed to generate optimisation gains and savings.

Holcim Philippines is also following the same approach in maintaining facilities with software that projects the state of equipment for 90-day periods based on data provided by sensors. The information is critical in helping the company plan maintenance activities and conduct early intervention to prevent operational disruptions.

The company is also currently deploying predictive tools in ensuring product quality with software that projects the strength development of its cement for different time periods. This enables the company to make adjustments on its products faster instead of waiting for several days to implement adjustments.

Holcim Philippines Senior Vice President for Cement Industrial Performance, Eung Rae Kim, acknowledged the people behind the digitalisation initiative. “Upon seeing the benefits for the plants and the simplification of their job, our people immediately embraced this shift and are actively looking for ways to apply digitalisation in other areas,” he said.