The Next Stop is Digital, Are You on The Right Track?

Most manufacturing companies have adopted a Lean strategy for a considerable length of time at this stage. There are many aspects to this. Ultimately, the focus is on adopting principles and developing a culture which focuses on eliminating waste and driving efficiencies – and adding more value to the customer. The next stop is Digital, but how do we get there?

Many commentators would say that you should Lean a process before Digitising it. The last thing you want is to Digitise an inefficient process. It is hard to argue with that. But is that a somewhat simplistic view. Maybe it’s not a two-step process – Lean and then Digitise. There are so many terms and buzz words doing the rounds. We need a Digital Strategy. We need to Digitally Transform our business and not be left behind. Do we need a grand plan with a detailed roadmap or should we just get stuck in and go for it and get some quick wins? Where does one start?

Assessing Your Current State

In many instances it useful to get a handle on your “Current State”. One tool to determine this is a Digital Maturity Assessment. This can help identify the level you are at across your different functions and capabilities.? You will most likely identify some significant digital gaps in and around a number of core systems you may already have. You may also uncover some manual processes (e.g., how you interact with these systems) , and some inputs to our outputs from these systems may then feed into or from paper-based or manual systems.

Demystifying Digital

Before going any further, lets try and explain the differences in some of the terminology:

·??????? Digitise- this really is moving from paper-based systems to a digital format. This could be as simple as using Excel and Word.

·??????? Digitalisation – this is more to do with the use of digitised information to simplify or optimize a specific process or workflow, and ultimately make it more efficient.

·??????? Digital Transformation – using digital technologies to create new business processes or even business models.

Leaning into the Digitalisation Process

Our experience would be that many companies operating in a regulated environment are initially focusing on the Digitise and Digitalisation piece. Some of their processes are really concerned with ensuring compliance and regulation. In that sense, the regulators expect a certain process and certain outcomes, so the focus here is on digitising to optimise and save time and yield efficiencies. In this case, do you lean first and then try and progress to the digital and digitisation phase? You certainly don’t ignore lean, but should they go more hand in hand rather than in sequence?

Conclusion

Applying Lean principles to your Digital and Digitisation processes gives you a great chance of success. It will ensure that you consider the Process, People and Technologies aspects. It will really help uncover the issues with the current process (which you certainly don’t want to bring forward in your new system or digitally supported process) and should also help identify the “edge” cases that can cause a lot of frustration and add a lot of remediation costs when you have to modify the new digital solution. It should also support a Digital Continuous Improvement and Agile approach – which can bring some wins as you progress towards your optimal solution.

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If you would like to learn how?Dataworks?can help you on your Digitisation journey get in touch today on?051 878555?or email us at?[email protected]