Holcim brings AI powered TAC to 35 plants of ACC, Ambuja Cements

The Indian arm of Swiss building material company Holcim on Tuesday said has deployed its artificial intelligence enabled Transport Analytics Center (TAC) in 35 plants of ACC and Ambuja Cements to optimize its logistics for road safety, enhanced efficiency and sustainability.   

The plants currently track over 20,000 trucks through various data sources like ERP, In Vehicle monitoring system (IVMS), NFC, RFID and others for advanced analytics and artificial intelligence applications, a statement said.  

Holcim claimed that success in India has helped TAC to go global. It now supports 55 countries worldwide tracking 1.4 billion km of material movement annually from its centre in Mumbai, India.  

Globally, transportation accounts for around a fifth of the world’s emissions and going farther with less is an essential part of ACC and Ambuja Cement’s Net-Zero pledge, the statement added.  

“TAC has proven to be a great catalyst in achieving our net zero goal. It is also a testament to our digital expertise in creating cutting edge digital solutions for our drivers and communities. I am happy to see that our Logistics, IT and Digital teams are not only ensuring driver’s safety and logistics efficiency but also pushing the boundaries of innovation to reach zero harm and reduce overall emissions.” Neeraj Akhoury, CEO of Holcim India and Managing Director and CEO of Ambuja Cements said.  

TAC was implemented in 2018 in India to monitor road safety key performance indicators (KPI) which helped both the companies to achieve nearly 75% safe kilometres (up from 69% in 2020) without any safety violations and a 60% reduction in offsite incidents.  

In the journey along with ACC and Ambuja, TAC provided data analytics on a daily basis to the Driver Management Center (DMC) in all the 35 plants for focused intervention in the form of training and coaching the drivers to improve their driving behavior.   

On the other hand, it enables transporters’ engagement in the process and ensures drivers' participation with a structured reward and recognition program. The technology and process are still a benchmark in the Indian cement industry.   

TAC also provides analytics on freight, distance, turnaround time, route adherence, leads and direct dispatches. The recent addition of the TAC KPI Tree application in India provides all the logistics KPIs from ACC and Ambuja to the customer level at a click of a button. This helps companies to drive efficiency improvement and monitor its impact with great ease.  

Additionally, TAC through its proprietary digital tool enables transparent tracking of its transportation emissions, including those of its third-party suppliers, to continuously reduce its environmental footprint in line with its scope 3 emissions target.  

On its net-zero journey, Holcim set itself its industry’s first scope 3 emissions reduction target, with the aim to reduce its Scope 3 emissions related to transportation and fuels by 20% in 2030. With TAC, Holcim is accelerating its scope 3 emissions reduction target, the statement added.