WHO SHOULD READ THIS ARTICLE?
This article is meant for the decision-makers who see innovation as the engine for growth. People responsible for Product/Process Innovation, Automation and Digital Transformation or Smart Factory initiatives will find this article informative.
WHY DIGITALIZE?
New-age digital enterprises are rapidly changing the business landscape. Innovation is disrupting traditional businesses across the globe. Increasing customer expectations and demand for tailor-made personalized products are calling for the adoption of technology in every aspect of the enterprise. Buying decision process, and the platforms that the customers use are changing rapidly. Hence, squeezing operational efficiency out of existing assets and processes can no longer be the only driver of business transformation. To bring competitive differentiation in today’s agile, dynamic and interconnected markets, what enterprises need the most is “creative thinking” and “tools for expediting innovation”. Over the years, virtually every enterprise, however big or small, has incrementally optimized its operations through point solutions, resulting in several siloes of machines, systems and data. This hinders an enterprise’s ability to have a single holistic view of the extended enterprise and make informed decisions in real-time. For example, one can imagine the level of digitalization and automation required to accomplish a “batch of one” which forms the premise of manufacturing a personalized product in a mass manner.
WHAT IS THE ENTERPRISE DIGITAL TWIN
The Digital twin is known for a while now, and the general perception is that it is a digital replica of an asset. However, just maintaining digital twins of a few critical assets is not enough to bring about the continuous flow of information between vendors & plants, various sections of the enterprise and between the enterprise & its customers. An enterprise must break inter-department barriers, and integrate IT and OT systems across the entire supply chain. It is imperative that the enterprises bring about differentiation in their products and processes by adopting new technologies and forming a digital ecosystem of customers, partners and suppliers.
Moreover, post-sales product usage data must be fed back into product design for overall optimization.
Customer access, quality of products, cost-effective and sustainable production and assured supply of raw material, as well as skilled resources, are essential to the success of any business. Continuous changes in consumer demand, raw material price trends, availability of skills, quality of supplier parts and myriad other parameters must be captured, analyzed and acted upon promptly. This is possible only with the use of technology. The first step is to bring real-time visibility into overall operations of the entire extended enterprise. Automatic data collection and analytics will result in actionable intelligence along with its financial impact. One may argue that existing ERP systems already offer such financial visibility of every decision in realtime. However, these systems are at the mercy of people entering accurate data at the time of transaction which is a challenge. Ability to make informed decisions that are based on accurate real-time information and eventually automate the decision making process via self-learning bots will give the enterprise the necessary competitive edge. There is no other way than progressively delegating this inhuman task to AI and smart machines.
Lack of digital resources and complex technologies are the biggest challenges that the industry is facing today. The sheer speed at which such innovation has to happen makes the traditional software development completely ineffective. Disruptive innovation needs disruptive tools. Next generation model-based, drag & drop, low-code enterprise platforms such as Contineo encapsulate the complexities, obviate the need for highly skilled resources and accelerate the pace of innovation. Contineo is an IoT application enablement platform geared with AI analytics that lets you integrate existing systems and implement multiple parallel initiatives, which ultimately weave the digital fabric of the entire enterprise. It also empowers non-IT business users to carve out new value from the data and also build a customer-centric organization with strong governance and compliance. Several ready-to-use I4.0 solutions such as Vibration Analytics, Asset Maintenance, OEE, 5S audit, Video Edge Intelligence, Asset Tracking, etc. further expedite the digitalization journey.
COLLABORATE AND CO-CREATE
Implementing a “digital enterprise” involves several initiatives such as supply chain orchestration, eBMR for traceability, optimization of production planning, predictive analytics, robotic automation, prescriptive maintenance, data-driven products & services, energy optimization, RPA, mass customization, what-ifsimulation, smart machines, autonomous inventory, knowledge retention through ML clusters, etc. The solution scope may require collaboration between multiple subject matter experts and technology providers such as IoT device vendors, automation/robotics consultants, data science or deep learning algorithm experts. Contineo has a well-crafted channel partner program and a strong eco-system of global partners with the relevant industry expertise.
SUMMARY
Technology is no longer treated as an expense but increasingly viewed as an investment and prioritized over cost optimization initiatives. Enterprise Digital Twin is a virtual model of the extended physical enterprise facilitating real-time actionable insights. Contineo, a model-driven low-code platform enables the domain experts to quickly build such digital replica, analyze inefficiencies and optimize various processes in a unique way, spearheading the enterprise ahead of the competition.
So are you thinking of going Digital too?
Or want to partner with us?
Visit www.contineo.world Or drop a line at [email protected]
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