Industry 4.0 and the related new technologies, such as the ‘Internet of Things (IoT)‘, ‘cyber-physical systems’ and ‘additive manufacturing’, will drive radical performance improvements in terms of cost and customer excitement. The new technologies have actual game-changing potential. Savings of between 15 and 50 percent per cost line can be achieved on the operations side. Leaders need to act now. The challenge is to define a powerful operations concept that is forward looking and ensures measurable short-term benefits. This is the future of DigitalOps.
We need to understand what is only hype, what brings value and how to digital transformation. Few companies have organized themselves well and have systems and structures in place to manage the future of operations but they are lost as far as understanding what is only fashion versus what brings real value and hopefully a competitive advantage to their companies. They are designing and developing their operational performance by accident. We need to ask ourselves how to organize a continuous transformation towards a future-of-operations target picture, how to be reactive to technology disruptions in an agile way and how to gain access to required technologies.
These steps are necessary to fully leverage technology and value-chain opportunities to become an industry leader in operational performance.
Anticipation and understanding of relevant technologies. Understanding technology is key to anticipating the future operating business model. Top management needs to install intelligence for identifying and exploring relevant technologies, as well as develop information about practical application and maturity stage per technology.
Identification of possible technology applications to enhance the operating model. Identifying relevant applications in the company’s operations is a straightforward approach. Every relevant technology is analyzed for potential applications. For each function in the operations, whether it is R&D, processing, maintenance or other, a long list of applications is acquire. This step is essential, since it bridges technology intelligence and the subsequent step of operations strategy.
The digital technologies now becoming fully available for industrial companies are going to re-intensify the efficiency race that is already taking place in all manufacturing industries. By being proactive today, companies ensure that they will stay ahead, at least in this race, which will enable them to match their competitors on cost. The best way to be proactive on this is to start the digital transformation in a targeted way.
Feel free to contact E-SPIN for any project and operation requirement toward digitalops from infrastructure to security testing and protection.
