Sometimes, it feels like the progress toward Industry 4.0 is too cumbersome, too complicated and just too slow. Truth be told, it feels like half the companies are around half the way there.
Sure, that sounds like slow progress, but it’s a solid start. And what we need to do is understand how important it is to have gotten started and how companies can incrementally shift the needle and accelerate to the digital nirvana where we can all see a dividend from transformation—be that in terms of efficiency, automations, agility, quality or all the above!
Every journey starts with a single step.
I talk to a lot of manufacturing companies every week, and the story has been the same for a few years, perhaps even a decade. Digital transformation is hard, and it’s an overwhelming task.
Recently, the topic has bubbled back to the top of many companies’ priority lists, and I think this has happened for a number of reasons.
One reason is the hype around artificial intelligence (AI). Not surprisingly, everyone has been talking about it as a gamechanger for the industry and as something that just might make the journey to Industry 4.0 a little less painful. After all, much of the concern around digital adoption was around the sheer volume of data and our ability to derive meaning from that data. AI gives us the ability to rapidly learn from that data and use it to create insight and drive better decision making.
Another reason might be where we are in the demand cycle. An election year has combined with higher interest rates and the bullwhip effect to create softness in demand and a lack of general consumer confidence.
In my view, we shouldn’t be too concerned about this because the election is over, interest rates are starting to fall (albeit slowly) and, most importantly, the underlying trend is more—not less—electronics in our lives. I’ve noticed this softening in demand has led people to think more about improving efficiency and less about increasing capacity.
What is the digital dividend?
If you consider the potential for the use of AI in a digital manufacturing environment, the dividends are clear and substantial. Companies could deliver better quality outcomes more economically and grow manufacturing capacity with the same or even fewer people.
While softening demand may have taken the edge off the talent shortages talked about extensively in 2022 and 2023, I think there is little doubt that this will remain an issue. The outcome should not be people losing their jobs; it should be better paid, more interesting and more sustainable jobs!
What AI may actually also offer is a better chance of predicting demand while creating a more connected supply chain, where that demand is met with the right supply in the right location. So, with this in mind, we should see better jobs, better quality, better productivity, greater supply chain predictability and less risk for everyone involved, from shareholder to operator. That’s the digital nirvana we’ve talked about.
How do we reach digital nirvana?
To those who have started and are halfway along the journey, continue and embrace that journey. Measure and celebrate your successes, and learn from your failures. For example, perhaps you are able to improve yields, reduce escapes and manage more machines and lines with the same number or even fewer people.
To the half who don’t know whether to start, talk to as many people as possible and try to find a project that will allow you to flex your digital muscles with the lowest risk and highest dividend. That could be a supply chain project, an inspection solution to fix a specific problem or an automation project that reduces dependence on hard-to-find skills. Quantify the cost and measure the outcomes, creating a template for future projects and perhaps even a tiger team to manage, measure and drive these projects.
Most importantly, for all on this journey, is the involvement of the entire business and even your entire manufacturing ecosystem. Transformation of any kind depends on getting buy-in up and down the organization and up and down the value chain. You’ll need everyone onboard and singing from the same sheet of music to make this thing happen!
It’s all about connectivity.
At the end of the day, it’s all about connectivity. And when I say connectivity, I mean connecting people, as well as machines and data sources.
I recommend that companies keep connecting, keep talking, keep sharing their successes, and be open about their failures! If we do this, we could all have the opportunity to do what we do a little better and a little more competitively. And as we know, a rising tide lifts all boats. What’s good for one company is probably good for the entire industry.
Forbes
In the context of the Industrial Revolution, applying technology to operating mechanisms in each organization is extremely necessary, and is also an inevitable trend to minimize workload while still ensuring efficiency and enhance its competitive position in the market. Furthermore, applying management software into a business will also help build an organization with a clear system, promoting consistency, transparency and accuracy. Tasken eOffice, researched and built by Opus Solution – a business consultant in Vietnam – is an internal work management system as well as the management of automated, online, user-friendly approval processes, allowing businesses to operate more effectively on the path of digital transformation.
