Industrial Transformation Blog

Forty-five percent of companies globally are executing an Industrial Transformation (IX) program, according to recent LNS Research survey data.  Before we can really understand the journey companies undertake, we need to know where they’re headed.  That requires a solid definition: what is Industrial Transformation, and how should companies execute it?  LNS Research defines Industrial Transformation simply as:

A proactive and coordinated approach to leverage digital technologies to create step-change improvement in industrial operations.

LNS’ Industrial Transformation Framework, has at its center, the Operational Architecture (OA) process where organizations align people, process, and technology at the convergence of IT and Operational Technology (OT). Ideally, OA efforts occur after a company defines its strategy and determines how technology should drive Industrial transformation.

LNS Research spends a great deal of our time exploring and writing about Industrial Transformation (IX), including best practices around people, processes, and technology. However, many small and mid-sized businesses (SMB) are not ready for the scope and impact of IX projects – they’re already behind in technology adoption, and don’t have the personnel or budget required to take on a full-blown IX project. These companies however must still compete against larger, resource-rich organizations that are moving ahead with the latest technologies and are seeing step-change improvements in their operations thanks to the new Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) solutions. So, how can SMBs compete?

It’s been several years since an early wave of innovators began investing in digital technologies to improve quality. In fact, quality improvement and improved quality monitoring are one of the top use cases for Industry 4.0. The ranks of digital, IT, operations, product development, and quality leaders focusing their digital energies and resources on quality improvement is quickly growing .

The manufacturing industry has had a reputation for being late on technology adoption ever since the steam engines brought the first industrial revolution forward. Even today, while the consumer market has seen the likes of Uber, NeXT, and Spotify leverage latest technologies like Big Data, machine learning, and sentiment analysis to provide products with cutting-edge technology, the manufacturing industry is several steps behind. Even among the manufacturers who are ahead in the technology adoption curve, a good percentage of them have had trouble scaling pilot projects into financially successful projects across the organization.

LNS Research was recently briefed on the late-January release of ETQ Reliance 2019. A lot has changed at ETQ since the private equity firm TCV acquired it in August 2017. Much of the management team has changed, with seasoned industry veterans replacing long-time ETQ insiders, exceptions being the former head of ETQ Cloud, Joseph Randazzo, and ETQ co-founder, Morgan Palmer. The new leadership has brought a new philosophy, including a broader perspective on the value, role, and contributors to quality and quality technology.

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technology has become one of the supposed underlying drivers of Digital Transformation in manufacturing, along with predictive analytics and enhanced data presentation tools like augmented reality (AR)/ virtual reality (VR). Most of the focus has been on how the vastly increased amount of information and data about manufacturing processes in IIoT equipped plants will drive analytics and AR/VR visualization tools to accelerate decision making at what is generally considered “level 3, 4 or 5” systems.

The Digital Twin market is evolving fast – yes, it affects strategies of independent software vendors and automation vendors. But, it also has significant implications for field service providers, engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC), and process licensors. It’s quite surprising to see how many different types of companies could be or are already involved with Digital Twin.

A January ritual for the high-tech industry is the Consumer Technology Association’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. It’s where nearly every company in the consumer sector debuts its latest wares, from the latest TVs to wireless headphones and AR/VR hardware for gamers, to the latest smart home providers. They all trek to Sin City to show how their company is pushing the tech envelope. Many manufacturers pay little attention to CES since it is, after all, a consumer electronics event. If your company is stamping out metal parts for file cabinets, mixing up adhesives used to bond materials in the construction industry, or a state or local agency doing road maintenance, you might think CES isn’t relevant to you; you are wrong.

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