Over the last year, Sydney Alabaster, an engagement manager based in New York, has spent two months at a time traveling to roughly 10 countries and 20 manufacturing plants before returning home to briefly reset and gear up to do it all over again.
Sydney has adapted to this breakneck pace of life with the enthusiasm only a self-described “huge nerd” for manufacturing and supply-chain operations could muster—it’s a necessary part of her secondment as a Fellow with the World Economic Forum’s Global Lighthouse Network (GLN) initiative.
In the role, she assesses aspiring Lighthouse factories for their applications of advanced Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) technologies to achieve impact across productivity, supply chain resilience, sustainability, and frontline talent.
Here, Sydney discusses her role as a GLN Fellow, how her consulting background contributes to her success, and what she’ll be able to apply to client work once she returns to the firm in August following her secondment with the WEF.
Let’s start at the beginning, how did you learn about this opportunity?
Sydney: About two years ago, I was connected with the colleague who previously held the position. When he described it to me, I knew that it was exactly what I wanted to do. So I hustled. Every time there was an opportunity to contribute to a white paper or analysis, I would raise my hand.
Ultimately, it came about through talking to people at McKinsey who were doing interesting work in manufacturing and supply chain—and who were passionate about sustainability and talent. It’s the work I hoped I would do when I joined the firm, because I strongly believe digital transformation in the industrial sector has potential to make positive impact on the world.
Can you tell us more about the day-to-day? What are you looking for when you tour a facility?
My role with GLN is unique because I’m responsible for organizing and leading site visits, a required step for all production sites seeking to join the Network. I have had the opportunity to travel to nearly 60 production sites across 25 countries around the world.
As a site assessor, I have the privilege of spending an entire day with the sites’ operational team, touring the facility and seeing their advanced solutions in action. I learn about their IT/OT architecture, how technology is integrated, how workers are mastering new digital skills, and how environmental stewardship is made central. And I’m meeting with whomever the site deems necessary—from the plant manager and frontline workers to the CEO or a representative from the Ministry of Economy.
Once a site visit is complete, the GLN team (including Fellows from industry-leading companies) presents the applications to an independent expert panel who make the final decision on whether a site is awarded. Given the amount of time we spend at the sites, we become advocates for them—a part I really love, since it’s hard to be unbiased after meeting their teams and learning about their journeys.
So, after a few world tours with GLN, what kinds of experience and skills will you be able to apply when you return to the Firm?
It’s interesting, going in I was able to apply a lot of what I’d learned as a consultant, especially in helping convey the transformation journeys at these sites through their application—describing what they’ve accomplished, and what others can learn from them. The consultant approach to breaking stuff down into its component parts and highlighting the most essential and compelling information is very applicable here, and I’ve been able to draw on that frequently.
When it comes to what I’m going to bring back to the firm, I would say it’s mostly the perspective I’ve gained in working with companies at the leading edge of operational performance. These factories see digital as a way to build on lean fundamentals and as an enabler to overcoming unique local challenges. From there, Lighthouses codify assets to scale across their networks and build up capabilities within their workforce. Through this experience, I’ve seen first-hand many examples of sites doing this effectively, and I’ll be able to bring this learning to clients who may have the impulse to throw gen AI or whatever exciting new technology at a problem.
On top of that, I’ll bring back a renewed conviction of the potential for digital to enable decarbonization of hard-to-abate sectors like metals and mining. I’ve visited sites that have successfully overcome hurdles like aging equipment and harsh operating conditions to achieve ambitious sustainability goals, which gives me a lot of hope.
The Global Lighthouse Network is a World Economic Forum initiative. The initiative was co-founded with McKinsey & Company and is counseled by an advisory board of industry leaders. Learn more here.