Surviving and thriving - opportunity for competitive advantage - ACT NOW

In the state of disagreements on the economic outlook and uncertainties for the industrial sector, many manufacturers will further adapt to the ‘wait and see’ approach and likely soon will be deferring both re-structuring and investment decisions. Amongst global analysts however, there is a consensus that it is critical to maintaining investment. Historical evidence points to those who invest (wisely) – even in a downturn – and in so doing often gain a long-term competitive advantage that their rivals struggle to match.

As analysis points out that,

“digital technology can help cut costs…, make companies more agile and therefore better able to handle the uncertainty and rapid change…” - HBR

The same analysis finds that companies who do NOT invest in digital transformation are likely to fall dramatically behind their competitors5, noting;

“Companies that have neglected digital transformation may find that the next recession makes those gaps insurmountable.”

Unfortunately, digital transformation is not a service/product you can buy from the shelve and those who are on the 4.0 journey will let you know that the technologies are the enablers only. The business objectives will need to be clear en leadership with operations must drive the digital transformation.

Condition-based Maintenance (CbM) for operations that aim for Predictive maintenance is a classical example. Technology is commonly the enabler at optimum when AI/ML is embedded within the workflows and become the centre of decision intelligence for the operations and deliver the final impact.

A good strategy invites culture for breakfast - Judie Phillips

Some other considerations are when you map the journey are;

1. Your digital foundation needs to be built, reuse what you have like is a quick win, where digital activities are required to success the full digital transformation. In the scenario where existing data are not present, the building blocks include a minimum threshold of digital maturity in resources, systems, organization, and culture. You should consider each of those in the digital road-map.
2. In the space of THINGS, a Digital Twin is the digital representation of physical assets. Their basic form is accurate, up-to-date and accessible asset information. You can consider what (legacy) information your organization already has stored in historians DB's and from your eco partner network like vendors BIM Databases and what returns you can expect from the investment in the digital twin. These are likely to be significant.
3. Reviewing the map on action #2 you have to consider which available information can be (re)used as the basis for a digital twin and labeled as “trusted,” which information may need verification or updating, and what additional information is needed. Efficiency gains related to using trusted information may pay for validating non-trusted information and adding new information.
4. Sophisticated aspects of digital twins (keep an eye on the ROI) such as simulation or 3D modeling are closely related to each other. They should at least be consistent with the basic digital twin and with each other. Ensure that the Platform you use to upload, develop and maintain your Twins do have tools that can be easily used by your operational workforce and empower them to use the system in benefit of there own workflows.
5. The quality of the outcomes from the digital twin model is directly related to the project, asset, and operational performance. It is highly recommended to in-source data governance but in case in-house data governance to safeguard the value of the digital twin is not feasible, EDGE or even cloud service solutions your IT architecture will be needed to support safe and efficient collaboration across disciplines and across the value chain and the network of the internal and external eco-systems.

Closing note: Working on mindset and culture are essential ingredients during the digital transformation and specific qualities like X shaped profiled leadership will easy the path. To restore the optimal fit between individual and group characteristics, job demands, and organizational environments the leadership fit predicts organizational outcome.