Schneider Electric reported June 29 that its El Paso (U.S.) and Beijing (China) manufacturing sites have been awarded two new Global Lighthouse Network designations by the World Economic Forum.

WEF’s Global Lighthouse Network highlights facilities and value chains that achieve exceptional performance in productivity, supply-chain resilience, customer centricity, sustainability and talent. The latest cohort emphasizes how artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming manufacturing and supply chains, enabling smarter, more resilient and more sustainable operations. Schneider Electric’s El Paso, Tex., and Beijing sites are reported to exemplify this transformation by combining digital innovation, operational excellence and measurable business impacts.

“This recognition from the World Economic Forum reflects our continued commitment to transform our supply chain through the combined power of people, digital, and sustainability,” says Mourad Tamoud, Schneider Electric’s chief supply chain officer at Schneider Electric. “El Paso and Beijing demonstrate how we can leverage advanced technologies including AI to deliver greater customer value, while accelerating decarbonization across our operations and ecosystem.”

El Paso engineers to order

The El Paso plant was recognized as the first engineer-to-order (ETO) lighthouse in Schneider Electric’s global network and the first U.S. site to receive this distinction since 2021. This recognition highlights the site’s leadership in customer centricity enabled by digital tools and AI-driven solutions that enhance agility, customization and responsiveness.

This plant is Schneider Electric’s largest U.S. manufacturing facility, where it produces low- and medium-voltage electrical solutions that enable the safe distribution of power from the grid across industrial, commercial and residential applications. By digitizing complex ETO processes end-to-end, it improved operational visibility and execution precision, while managing increased product customization. Amid rapid growth in data center demand, the site increased on-time delivery from 61% to 97%, reduced lead times by up to 35%, and eliminated $43 million in backorders by deploying IoT and advanced AI solutions in its ETO value chain. The site also uses analytics and connected systems to align engineering, manufacturing and supply-chain operations, ensuring faster and more reliable delivery of tailored solutions.

Scalable sustainability in Beijing

The Beijing plant was recognized for its sustainability leadership by demonstrating how its technologies and innovations can drive value-chain decarbonization. By integrating ETO and discrete manufacturing, it delivers sulfur hexafluoride (SF₆)-free products supported by Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure software.

While experiencing 30% business growth, increased insourcing and stricter sustainability requirements, the facility implemented an end-to-end decarbonization strategy, which supported expansion while reducing its environmental impact. By deploying more than 50 use cases, such as SF₆-free product design, supplier decarbonization programs, AI-enabled energy optimization and SF₆ circularity initiatives, it achieved measurable results by all emission scopes.

These initiatives enabled a 65% reduction in Scope 1 emissions, elimination of Scope 2 emissions, and a 43% reduction in Scope 3 emissions, while improving energy efficiency by 36%. Through green logistics transformation and ecosystem collaboration, the plant is also extending decarbonization beyond its operations to address emissions by its value chain.