In the space of 2 years, the number of Google queries for the term "digitization" has more than doubled. In the wake of the health crisis, companies around the world have become acutely aware of the importance of accelerating this digital transformation, without which their competitiveness would suffer. While the theory is relatively simple to understand, the practice is a little more complex. Some business sectors have a long way to go, and therefore have a lot of work to do to move away from "all paper".
However, digitizing cannot be defined as simply switching from paper to keyboard. In fact, digitizing a business involves using digital solutions whose primary aim is to optimize processes, and enable employees to concentrate on high value-added missions.
Such a transformation cannot be achieved overnight. To avoid rushing things, here are 5 ideas to help you successfully complete your digitalization project.
Digitization: where do we go from here?
Digitizing industrial know-how must enable existing processes to be improved. Therefore, before starting the project, the first step is to precisely define :
> Why you need to digitize know-how industrial
In other words, what are the concrete reasons for going digital? For example, you may have identified weaknesses in your processes: production costs that are too high, difficulties in keeping up with operator skills, too much time spent on managing schedules, and so on.
Identifying sufficiently painful reasons will help to involve stakeholders in the project.
> What are the objectives of this digitalization?
Once you've identified the "why", the next step is to set the objectives you want to achieve. These must be sufficiently SMART Our objectives are: specific (one objective for one problem), measurable, attainable, achievable, and defined in time. For example:
- Reduce the number of breakdowns by 50% over the first 6 months.
- Spend half the time preparing team schedules as soon as the solution is implemented.
Communicating the digitization project
When modifying processes that have been in place for many years, you may be confronted with the phenomenon of resistance to change. In fact, a significant number of projects involving changes in work habits fail. This is often due to a lack of communication within teams.
So it's vital to create cohesion around the project as early as possible.
The first people to convince are usually the members of management, without whom the project cannot be carried out. You can demonstrate how such a change will have a positive impact on the company. positive impact on costs of the company.
Nor should we overlook the importance of employees in the success of the project. Indeed, they are often the first to be affected by the digitization of their industrial know-how. The success of this project therefore also depends on the change managementwhich you should not hesitate to initiate before deployment.
Take stock of existing processes
We now know what the objectives are for the digitization of industrial know-how, and how stakeholders support them. So it's time to take stock of existing processes.
To digitize industrial know-how, you need to know what it is. This isn't the easiest step, but it's crucial to the rest of the project. In concrete terms, it involves identify and detail all the industrial know-how we want to digitize.
As a reminder, know-how is defined as "Competence acquired through experience in practical problems, in the exercise of a trade" (Larousse).
The aim of this inventory is to list and describe the resources and knowledge required to complete a process. For example: to make a perfume bottle, we need X machines, which require Y operators with Z skills. We can also assess the current degree of digitalization of each industrial skill. This makes it possible to define the priority actions to be implemented.
Defining specifications
Digitalization also means digital data management, which raises a number of questions that need to be considered in advance. Drawing up a set of specifications is essential to provide answers to these questions, while at the same time setting the right course. technical scope. This will provide details of the technologies best suited to the company's objectives.
Data management is also important to consider. In particular, you'll need to define who will have access to the data, where and how it will be stored, how it will be secured and so on.
Planning the digitization project
At this stage, we have a clear vision of the current situation. The next logical step is to plan the digitization project.
To avoid getting bogged down, it may be a good idea to start with a use case that allows you to rapidly demonstrate initial resultsand can be easily deployed on a large scale.
The planning phase also involves bringing together the right people. As a general rule, the project is supported by a multi-disciplinary team that includes senior management, the CIO (Chief Information Officer), IT (Information Technology) and OT (Operational Technology) profiles. Including technicians and operators is also a good way of managing change.
Depending on the complexity of your specifications, you may wish to call on the skills of a specialist. external service provider specializing in industry 4.0 challenges. Such a player will be able to support you, from the definition of the roadmap to the large-scale deployment of your new digital tools.
In a nutshell
The digitization of industrial know-how is accelerating in many sectors. In the industrial sector, it is now synonymous with productivity, thanks to the optimization of business processes. However, going digital requires a clear vision of what already exists, and of the objectives to be achieved. This transition cannot be achieved without strategic thinking, communication (lots of it!) and quality support.
