Digital Transformation Without Borders

Today’s manufacturing companies are participating in a worldwide market that is no longer constrained by the boundaries of the past. Connected technologies and software have eroded these conventional boundaries and redefined how companies operate. By removing technological and process borders, manufacturers are now able to connect people across geographies, functions and disciplines in a far more seamless way.

More than a year on from the initial global lockdown, the shared experience has highlighted the benefit of digitalisation in connecting people and enabling continuity in physically challenging circumstances. It’s also shown that there’s no going back, as the new behaviours and attitudes around technology are sticking. Digital is now the default expectation.

The key question for industrial executives is how their company defines its own value chain and explores the range of possibilities that now exist in this new global context.

Breaking Down Barriers

Across industrial sectors, technology is superseding physical experience. From meetings and exhibitions through to training and maintenance work, in-person is now an option rather than a necessity. In virtual workplaces, manufacturers are more acutely aware of the limitations of people and are embedding technology to bridge the previously insurmountable distance factors, enabling outcomes to be reached without normal frictions.

The world is becoming smaller as a result. Manufacturing companies can use smart technologies to connect workers across geographical limitations – not only across countries, but even within large facilities where time would be lost in transit. For example, in heavy industries such as mining, where workers are commonly positioned in remote or edge locations, operatives are adopting smart phones and AR headsets to ‘see what their colleague is seeing’ and be able to offer instruction and share expertise. Work that may previously have taken days or weeks to complete due to logistical factors can now be done in a fraction of the time, often without the need for unnecessary downtime or putting workers into hazardous environments.

These technologies are also enabling executives to make more informed decisions around resource allocation across their distributed operations. For instance, the use of real-time data and predictive modelling can help better understand future needs and proactively address them. These technologies are innately scalable with the pervasiveness of smart devices in industrial environments allowing companies to realise benefits in efficiency, cost saving and resilience.

Aligning Technology with Business and Culture

Advances in technology run parallel to changes in society and demography. Consequently, manufacturing businesses are in the process of adapting to the newer generations of digital-native employees entering the workforce. These generations bring their own set of digital skills to the workplace, but there’s also a need to ensure continuity and knowledge-transfer with those leaving the workforce. The newer cohorts are also more accustomed to a different way of learning and upskilling, preferring to gain knowledge and expertise ‘on-demand’, which needs to be factored into the transition.

Executives now need to consider what role these capabilities play across their value chain in aligning with their business goals and desired outcomes. In the past, ‘hands-on’ knowledge from operators may have relied on experience and even ‘gut instinct’. However, entrenched knowledge can lead to variance – take as an example two plants producing similar goods where things have historically been “done differently”. This divergence can potentially present an issue from the end customer’s perspective, bringing the need to standardise on quality and product experience.

Manufacturers want to ensure consistency across their products; this can be achieved by capturing and codifying knowledge and expertise. For example, in pharmaceutical manufacturing, line workers may be intuitively aware of the impact of temperatures and humidity on the product and take corrective action where these conditions become immoderate. New workers coming into environment wouldn’t have the same instinctual knowledge and so such measures need to be installed as a matter or process using IoT and sensor technology to spot emerging issues. These measures create greater predictability of outcome and reduce risk of recall.

The business impact of a consistent approach is to not only increase revenues through improved quality and efficiency, but also to reduce the costs and potential liabilities. Operations also benefit from improved flexibility by allowing factories to easily access the knowledge they require to adapt lines in response to changing or emerging demand.