Operationalizing Analytical Insights

The key to dealing with disruption is agility. The key to agility is having a strategic approach to harnessing data flows in real time using today’s digital tools.

TAKEAWAYS:
● Analytics must be as adaptable and agile as our businesses need to be.
● First define the needed outcomes — then map the data needed to get those outcomes.
● Digital tools, including AI, are essential to creating an agile Industry 4.0 operation. 

Agility is essential for manufacturers to deliver a solution that suits consumers and brands. Indeed, Industry 4.0 describes an agile manufacturing ecosystem that works with a lot size of one, a digital thread that defines the entire supply chain and manufacturing process.

The numerous disruptions of the last five years (trade war, pandemic, components shortages, geopolitics, etc.) have proven just how important it is that the industry achieve this agility. And while many companies, particularly those in Electronic Manufacturing Services (EMS), have talked a good game, few have built agility into their business or operational strategy.

In fact, the opposite could be true. Over decades, the EMS industry sought to drive economies through scale and an increasing dependence on low-cost labor, all while moving inventory out of the supply chain. This has created rigid manufacturing footprints that thrive on little change and have little ability to adapt at speed. These just-in-time supply chains have proved brittle, not allowing for the just-in-case scenarios we’ve seen recently.

We’ve also had a decade of talking the talk around Industry 4.0, while very few are walking the walk! In short, few have seen a measurable digital dividend as yet. We need to use digital tools to create a more agile work environment that is less dependent on labor and hence more efficient, adaptable, and reliable.