The Art of Possible: Reimagining the factory with digital twin technology

A conversation with The Marsden Group and Accenture

There is no denying that the manufacturing industry has changed more in these last few months than in recent memory. The disruption caused by the global pandemic has forced us to solve big problems in new ways; connect to the world virtually; and find new growth, resiliency and efficiencies through innovation.

During this extraordinary time, it has become abundantly clear that technology has a huge role to play across every industry and around the globe. We now live in a new world that has completely shifted how manufacturers manage their employees, engage with their customers, build new products and most urgently, optimize their operations to maintain business continuity.

The case for digital transformation has never been more urgent. But digital transformation is not about technology. It is about changing the nature of your business. It is about changing how you innovate. It is about thinking differently and bigger to solve today’s big challenges.

I call this the Art of Possible.

One powerful capability that epitomizes the Art of Possible—accelerating how our businesses not only recover, but thrive, in today’s disruptive times—is digital twins. We now live in a new world of remotely operating everywhere, simulating everything, and automating anywhere. These capabilities are a must-have, especially today. Not just in terms of having remote access and visibility into your production, but also having that digital control over optimizing and automating your production processes. Be it a use case for product quality or operational efficiency, or a way to measure OEE and OLE, digital twins are truly transforming manufacturing.

One company, in particular, that is leading the way here is Unilever. In partnership with The Marsden Group and hosted on Azure, Unilever is breaking new ground with remote manufacturing operations enabled by digital twins to reimagine their factories. Their fully connected factory machines and equipment are delivering tons of data — everything from temperatures to production cycle times — that helps the company make real-time changes to increase output, use materials more precisely and help limit waste from product that doesn’t meet quality standards.

Manufacturers all around the world are calling us, asking how they can replicate this kind of success. I am pleased to announce that together with The Marsden Group and Accenture, we are doing some powerful work to make it easier for manufacturers to innovate with digital twins. Together, we are packaging up our learnings, our IP, our technology expertise, and our business process expertise to help you become the next success story.

I had the rare opportunity to sit down with Andy Pratt, CEO at The Marsden Group, and Tracey Countryman, Industry X.0 Global Manufacturing & Operations Managing Director at Accenture, to discuss this work more in-depth. We will show you how and where to get started with digital twins, what business outcomes you can expect to receive, what pitfalls to avoid, and how to bring your company along to create the culture shift needed for new ways of working. Our three companies are coming together to help you execute a targeted vision and then scale—from one plant to hundreds.

It is exciting!

Digital twins set the stage for where we go next. And I could not be more proud to partner with The Marsden Group and Accenture to reimagine the future. I invite you to enjoy our discussion. Get started today by downloading our eBook: Enhance Innovation and Agility with Digital Twins.