M4.0 Technology as a Catalyst for Enduring Change
Emerging technologies are creating new opportunities for manufacturers – including a greater role for women in operations.
TAKEAWAYS:
● It is now essential to balance cost and process optimization with improvements in safety, resilience, and quality.
● Women are increasingly becoming a vital part of the manufacturing workforce, and their unique perspectives are essential in guiding digital transformation strategies.
● The focus on safety, resilience, and quality in digitalization efforts aligns with creating a more inclusive and appealing work environment.
In manufacturing, emerging tech is fast becoming mainstream. From digital twins and data analytics to cloud computing and generative AI, more and more companies are using digital solutions to transform their operations, supply chain and customer experiences. Emerging tech has moved from the edge to the mainstream, and it’s reshaping the industry’s future.
It’s affecting everyone too. Domestic or international, established or startup – manufacturers of all shapes, sizes and locations are seeing their business model upended by this rapid shift in the digital landscape. Yet, broad discrepancies remain in exactly where firms are on that journey.
For example, while many manufacturing companies continue to wrestle with shopfloor connectivity and data gathering, others are well down the road of leveraging insights and AI to automate and improve decision-making. For some, the cloud and Internet of Things have been the limit of their digital ambitions so far; yet, elsewhere, robotics and nanotechnology are already taking hold.
In certain cases, there are even disparities in the technological sophistication of different plants within the same organization.
A Dualistic Approach
What’s crucial, therefore, is that leaders take time to clearly and honestly understand how far along the digital transformation path they are. Why? Because this will enable them to identify issues, pinpoint what and where to improve, and figure out how to keep pace with technology’s fast expanding capabilities.
For Hiral Rao, who leads the EY Digital Manufacturing and Mobility Cloud platform, the best way to do so is with a “dualistic approach.”
First and foremost, this means focusing on short-term challenges, such as boosting the connectivity of data models to create a single, reliable source of truth across the organization and building less siloed relationships with technology providers.
But, at the same time, it means having one eye on the future – what the long-term impact of Industry 4.0 on the organization will be. How will it change their risk management, for example? Where are they going with automation? How will technologies like AI and machine learning fit in? And what skills do they need to train and recruit their workforce?
The views reflected in this article are the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of Ernst & Young LLP or other members of the global EY organization.
