Manufacturers are experiencing a period of drastic change as digital transformation rises throughout the sector as part of Industry 4.0. By Hannah Waugh.

This digitalisation trend adds pressures to traditional businesses, but also offers exceptional opportunities that will optimise production and increase efficiency. These changes revolutionise activities, processes, competencies and models through a mix of digital technologies with an accelerating impact across not only businesses, but society and cultures.

Sparked by a shift in new demands from customers, Industry 4.0 is the name for the current trend of automation and new technologies in the manufacturing sector. The revolution brings changes in all areas of life and existing business models. For example, it won’t just be me who uses Amazon’s Echo Dot – ‘Alexa’ – to carry out mundane tasks such as turning on music or making phone calls out of sheer laziness and convenience. This is an example of the shift and a starting point for automisation and its effect on society and the way we all operate.

Industrial manufacturing organisations have realised the necessity in improving flexibility and reducing time to market, while at the same time ensuring the quality of products is not sacrificed.

With present and future shifts in mind, many organisations recognise the need for industrial transformation and have already taken steps to future proof their activities. Indeed, 63% of manufacturing organisations surveyed by The Economist have already initiated major digitalisation strategies to either parts of or the whole organisation.

Manufacturers are finding the need to launch products faster, despite the challenge of rising product complexity that they face – a problem that manual labour and processes cannot keep up with. Where possible, manual processes and standard tasks are being replaced with technologies and automated systems to better use human skill sets to cope with product complexity and to meet customer expectations and requirements.

As customer expectations reach a new high, manufacturers are trying to balance demand for individualised and bespoke products while still presuming to pay the price of a mass-produced product. Automated and electronic technologies take some of the pressure off by reducing the time spent carrying out procedures or manual tasks – they are taken care of and efforts can be put elsewhere.

The Economist reports that of the companies they spoke with who had already initiated digital transformations, 83% had reported a current increase in revenue and 81% reported a cost reduction as a direct result of implementing said transformations.

Being under such scrutiny, all product and quality processes must be traceable and available to access when getting audited or for reference. This change of pace can cause an adminastrive headache! It is therefore essential to ensure that as a manufacturer, you have a system in place to control documentation, procedures and processes in an easy to access, centralised format. And of course, increased digitalisation across industries brings a need for increased security to protect against potential risk of any information being accessed without authorisation.

Key ways in which a digital transformation can play a part in the revolution of Industry 4.0 is in intelligent information management, new ways of collaborating and workforce engagement. The aim is to streamline and automate documentation processes in that the creation, distribution to all relevant people and review of important documents can be done electronically and most importantly, efficiently. This allows an element of enhanced corporate control in that management can circulate documents and updates and get acknowledgement through one centralised, electronic system, migrating the need for manual or paper-based systems – a huge time and cost saving advantage.

Risk prevention is improved as this digitalisation movement introduces technologies that are able to proactively predict risk rather than reactively deal with problems after they occur. As an organisation, if you are able to avoid and prevent potential risks to aspects like your supply chain or your production processes you will be able to focus on growth strategies and your customer experience much more confidently, with the peace of mind that an automated, electronic solution is serving your business needs.

Digital transformation is a journey with multiple connected intermediary goals, in the end striving towards continuous optimisation across processes, divisions and the business culture during an industrial movement where building the right bridges in function of that journey is the key to long-term success.

Hannah Waugh is the Marketing Co-ordinator for Ideagen.

www.ideagen.com