Smart Factory Implementation in Morrocan Phosphate Industry

Abstract

Nowadays, the phosphate industry in Morocco is expecting a crucial round of its development cycle, which is mainly dominated by the digitization challenge. The concept of smart factory is reminiscent of a new way of organizing the production of goods, taking smarter decisions based on environmental variables and optimizing available resources. As for the phosphate industry in Morocco, building smart factories to upgrade the manufacturing processes constitutes a key element in its drive for innovation, growth and sustainable profitability. To successfully build smart factories, phosphate-manufacturing entities should consider some issues with care. This includes fostering IT and data-driven culture among leadership and employees, ensuring security, reliability and stability of IT infrastructure; maintaining the integrity of production processes and IT-controlled processes as well as enhancing IT and data skills and know how. However, there is still a journey to carry out the implementation of smart factories; given the large-scale, systemic transformation, the move requires alongside the lack of Enterprise Reference Model confirmed to fit with the issues of Moroccan phosphate industry. In this paper, we propose a reference model built around three overarching principles: (1) Culture of smart people 4.0, (2) introducing agile organizations, and (3) upgrading IT infrastructure. The paper then makes a case of the transition to smart factory using the proposed model in a pilot entity located at Safi. The results showed that the smart factory implemented yield a range of benefits, such as increased process efficiency, product quality, sustainability, and safety and decreased costs.