Plants of Tomorrow

An industrial vision of the future for web and Augmented Reality

Holcim Ltd’s “Plants of Tomorrow” initiative is one of the largest introductions of Industry 4.0 technologies in the building materials industry. For the launch of the campaign, we created a web 3D application where the “cement plant of the future” can be interactively explored.

Holcim Ltd. has a global network of over 270 cement plants in more than 50 countries, which will be modernized step by step and prepared for a technologized and sustainable economy over the next few years. Our 3D model of such a future plant already shows and informs about these plans in the areas of automation technologies and robotics, regenerative energy generation, artificial intelligence, predictive maintenance and digital twin technologies for the entire production process. Individual topics can be selected via hotspots to learn more about the specific initiatives in each case.

In addition to the optimization for all common web browsers and mobile devices, the Plant of Tomorrow can also be placed on one’s own desk using Augmented Reality and a compatible smartphone or tablet to make it possible to experience the future today.

to the Plants of Tomorrow web application

3D models on the web and mobile devices are more common today than they were a few years ago, but they still pose some optimization and compatibility challenges. Our Plant of Tomorrow was created from existing construction data, which we prepared, refined and extended with additional objects. Among them are also illustrative representatives for abstract and digital measures, such as a smartphone app for plant maintenance. UI elements designed especially for this application in the style of the new Holcim corporate identity complete the overall picture.