This conference presents the innovation and total revamping of our factories to our employees, with the five partners who are building it alongside us in the room. It follows a series of very successful meetings across the partner group and marks the point where the transformation program becomes joint work: the path from 500,000 to 1,000,000 tons per year by 2030, built on automation, the digital thread and the new Sudair smart factory.

Day one is ours alone. For the first time in Kirby’s history, the people who run Kirby and the people building its future technology are together in one place for a week, and the Kirby family hears the story first: eight talks, one story, from the global picture to the machines.

From Tuesday the conference splits into two working sections for the specialists who will run these tools. Section 1, Group A — Engineering: the digital thread from estimation to fabrication; the Trimble proof-of-concept series, and the Kirby Estimation Module (KEM) working session with Cylix. Section 2, Group B — Manufacturing: the smart factory; HGTech automation and machine integration, cranes and material handling with Henan Mine Crane, the new paint lines with Antai, and the digital twin with Cylix and HGTech.

Thursday everything converges: the partner teams work the integration blueprints together in the morning, management leads strategic breakout sessions in the afternoon, and the conference closes with the milestone register, announced and signed with every partner.