Industrial Transformation Blog

Environment, health and safety (EHS) 4.0 digital transformation initiative isn’t an all or nothing proposition.Organizations need to assess their current foundation of people, processes and technology capabilities to determine the Digital Transformation readiness of their EHS business function. Each organization will have a unique starting point. For some organizations, it may be appropriate to shore up foundational EHS, safety, risk management system(s) before or in parallel with undertaking digitalization initiatives.  There is no one-size-fits-all approach.

Connected operations, connected assets, and connected products are all recognized as essential aspects of an Industry 4.0 “Factory of the Future” approach. What about the connected worker? Based on our most recent research on Industrial Transformation, Connected Worker strategies and solutions are a vital part of the Digital Transformation of industrial operations.

Is your organization ready for the journey to digitally transform its environment, health and safety (EHS) business function? LNS Research recently published research on the digital readiness of organizations to undertake Industrial Transformation (IX) programs. We define IX as a proactive and coordinated approach to leverage digital technologies to create step-change improvement in industrial operations, i.e., the Digital Transformation of industrial operations. Most industrial organizations are already well underway with IX: 45% of industrial organizations are already engaged, and another 23% of companies expect to launch programs within one year. 

Despite years of acquisitions and private equity investment, the environment, health and safety (EHS) software market is still fragmented, even at the top. A crowd of significant players compete for market leadership, or to at least deliver the returns expected by their financial backers. Although most will likely survive for the foreseeable future in one form or another, relatively fewer are likely to thrive long-term with a breakout performance.

2018 was a year of much change and progress in the world of environment, health and safety (EHS) management; especially the software and digital technologies that enable it. This made for an exciting year for EHS management research here at LNS. The primary focus was on expanding our market-leading EHS 4.0 research on the Digital Transformation of EHS management. We released our full agenda of research on topics such as Big Data and predictive analytics, the impact of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) on safety, integrated risk management, the connected industrial worker, and the convergence of safety, quality, and risk in plant operations, among others.

The concept of effective integration of environment, health and safety, and quality (EHSQ) management systems has received much attention in the past few years. Though, not surprisingly, the idea of EHSQ integration has not translated into widespread implementation - after all, it’s hard to break down long-standing organization and technology silos, and bring teams, processes, and technology together for the greater good of the organization.

But, several forces have come together to create the opportunity, if not the obligation, for EHS and quality business leaders to look at the possibilities and develop an integration strategy to strengthen both domains and add more value to the business.

The #MondayMusings Industrial Transformation blog series provides insight and analysis for executives from the previous week’s briefings, events, and publications @LNSResearch.

Wolters Kluwer | Enablon recently hosted the Sustainable Performance Forum (SPF) in Chicago for its customers, partners, and solution experts. The event was part of the environment, health, and safety (EHS), risk, and sustainability software vendor’s global series of customer conferences.

More so than ever, the environment, health, and safety (EHS) business function is expected to contribute to sustainable, profitable growth of the enterprise. This is part of the natural evolution of the goals for EHS management over recent decades. Leading companies have shifted their focus away from mere compliance to proactive risk mitigation, Operational Excellence, and shareholder value.

On Wednesday, June 13, LNS Research co-presented the webcast, “The Connected Worker: Modernize Safety Risk Management” with Gensuite, a Cloud-based EHS management software provider. The presentation examined how safety and health leaders can use digital innovations to enable the connected worker, improve safety, and mitigate risk.

Digital Transformation is a widespread trend across industry. Our research shows that about two-thirds of industrial organizations have already implemented Smart Manufacturing and Industry 4.0 technologies, or plan to soon. This trend is only accelerating. To date, most companies have focused digitalization investments on using asset- and operations-related data to improve core operational areas such as asset reliability, energy management, and production efficiency.