Emirates Global Aluminium
Assembly Line
Emirates Global Aluminium: An interview with Carlo Nizam, Chief Digital Officer
EGA’s digital transformation is driven by a dual-track strategy, designed to deliver both short-term impact and long-term scalability. Carlo emphasizes that the digital factory is the heart of this transformation, executing practical use cases that deliver measurable results. “The digital factory delivers quarterly waves of use cases, which are implemented in agile sprints. Each wave involves multiple business areas, from supply chain and marketing to operations, HR, and finance,” Carlo says. This approach allows the company to demonstrate tangible results quickly while working toward more complex, large-scale initiatives. Since its inception, EGA’s digital factory has delivered over 100 million USD in impact, with more than 80 use cases, ranging from AI applications for real-time quality checks to predictive tools for market movements.
For example at EGA, AI-powered cameras are being used to enhance operational efficiency and ensure precision in critical processes. One such application is in the Smart Cranes system, which oversees the replacement of anodes; large carbon blocks essential for electricity conduction during smelting. EGA’s real-time vision AI model helps supervisors monitor compliance during the 9 million crane tasks performed annually by over 5,000 operators. Integrated with the industrial operations mobile platform, the AI system generates alarms in case of non-compliance, enabling immediate corrective action.
In the carbon anode facility, AI cameras are also revolutionizing quality control. Previously, only 2% of the anodes produced were manually inspected for defects. With the installation of cameras at the inspection station, EGA now uses a neural network machine learning model to analyze nearly 4 million images each year. This system automatically inspects 100% of anode surfaces, detecting defects in real time with greater accuracy than the human eye, significantly improving the quality of the aluminium produced.