Kevin Smith, Lead Technology Adoption Specialist for the Made Smarter Adoption programme, explains why SME manufacturers must evolve quickly.
Advances in technology have propelled the world through unimaginable societal change. If we think back to previous industrial revolutions, manufacturers who embraced steam powered technologies in the 18th century, didn’t just survive, they thrived.
The same can be said of those makers who embraced the opportunities of gas, electricity, automation and machinery, data, and the internet, and indeed those now exploring the benefits of AI and industrial digital technologies (IDTs).
The last five years have seen phenomenal change. The global pandemic, economic turbulence, environmental awareness and technological innovation have driven increasing investment in digital technologies and processes to make operations more productive and greener.
The Three Ds: Digitisation, Digitalisation and Digital Transformation
So, what is digital transformation? One way to think about it is to consider it as a journey, with milestones and many different paths which lead to the same destination.
However, even within a single company or industry, this journey can mean very different things.
Many businesses find themselves weighed down by paper-based processes, pre-digital technologies, ways of working and cultures. Such organisations cannot merely flick a switch and become digital overnight. But they also cannot wait years for large, costly and high-risk transformation programmes.
The key to success is breaking down the digital journey into quick iterative steps and creating a roadmap of how to get there.
Prerequisites
A successful and sustainable journey starts with preparation. For manufacturers, this means ensuring lean practices and principles are ingrained within their operations.
This means scrutinising every process, identifying bottlenecks and eliminating waste. By establishing this foundation, a business can introduce the concept of continuous improvement, constantly seeking better ways to do things and removing bad practices. This efficiency means a business can avoid digitising poorly performing processes and improve it even further.
Stage 1 - Digitisation
Data is the lifeblood of digital transformation. By harnessing historical and existing data, and by applying analytics, manufacturers can make data-led decisions.
The first step to accessing that data is digitisation, the process of taking analogue information and making it digital. This means using software to supersede paper-based processes.
But digitisation is more than just creating electronic versions of paperwork. It involves recording the existing knowledge of the workforce to pass it on to the next generation, while highlighting where improvements can be made.
Plus, it automatically generates a digital audit trail to provide a rich source of data previously unavailable. Digitisation lays the foundations for the next stage.
Stage 2 - Digitalisation
Technology is the cornerstone of a successful digitalisation. In manufacturing this encompasses a broad spectrum of activities to solve specific operational challenges.
The key to this stage is to pursue change through projects. This enables a manufacturer to focus on one thing at a time, always with one eye on the bigger picture.
With analogue information now digitised, cloud computing could be used to embed a robust infrastructure to enable the integration of operations.
For example, automation including robotics and process control technologies, could be introduced to replace manual tasks.
Sensors and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technologies could be deployed to connect machines across a factory shop floor, or even multiple locations, generating vast amounts of useful industrial data in real time. Even legacy tools and machinery could be connected, and their data harnessed for insights.
For those where data is already flowing through the business, implementing data analytics and emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) could be a focus.
The end goal is to bring together data, connectivity, automation and analytics to create what has become known as the ‘smart factory’.
Stage 3 - Digital Transformation
If we digitise information, digitalise processes, then digital transformation is about how you sew a digital thread through the whole business, including the supply chain, the customer, and the workforce.
It involves creating a strategy with objectives and goals, setting out a roadmap which includes measures of success, and breaking down that journey into manageable pieces to achieve it.
Crucially, the digital transformation journey is not a one-off event. It's a continuous process of learning, adaptation and evolution. It is also not just limited to the shop floor. In fact, the back office, HR, payroll, sales and project management, are more likely to be the primary focus of any investment before production, according to Make UK research.
That means manufacturing leaders must foster a digital culture within an organisation which empowers employees to embrace change and encourages innovation, collaboration and learning.
How Made Smarter can help
Successful digital transformation is not just a matter of implementing new technology.
In order to create meaningful, lasting change within your business, leaders need to consider the impact on their whole business.
Taking that first step can seem overwhelming. But every journey starts with the first step, and that’s what Made Smarter has been designed to help with.
For more information download the Digital Transformation whitepaper today.