Digital Transformation During Lockdown
The pandemic affecting much of the world is causing immense change in our daily lives. These changes are reverberating across the economy and manufacturing sectors everywhere. While it’s expected that many companies will be negatively impacted by these events, it also offers an opportunity to drive greater emphasis on Digital Transformation, so that these same companies are prepared to boomerang out the other side more capable than before. In fact, a few customers have recently told us that current events have revealed gaps and shortcomings within their current systems that they will be looking to resolve in the coming months.
As we work from home, deal with constantly changing supply chains, increased demand in a broad swath of previously stable products, and the potential need for retooling – now is the time to enhance efforts towards digitizing manufacturing, with the end goal of producing more, reducing costs and empowering workers with technology to do their job better.
What does that look like? Well, that will vary depending on your organization’s current stance and availability to explore digital transformation during lockdown. Are you at capacity just to keep stores stocked? Are you shifting lines from one product to another? Are you experiencing severe reduced capacity due to lack of demand? Is there a need for remote tools? Each offers and perhaps requires a different approach, but not everything needs to be done at once – what area offers the desired impact right now? Our Asset to Enterprise portfolio is perfectly aligned to deliver an “expand as you go” methodology, allowing you to focus on immediate needs knowing your systems and data can be extended further. Now may be the opportune time to explore your digital transformation during lockdown.
Digital Transformation Opportunities for Organizations At Capacity
Organizations already producing at capacity may want to explore a Manufacturing Execution System to reduce downtime risks, improve throughout, and reduce scrap. It may also be necessary to explore predictive maintenance technologies to detect machine failures in time to prevent lost production time. Do you have an asset maintenance strategy? Can you acquire spare parts if needed during current conditions? Management may also have a desire for big picture views of their facilities to better handle real-time market shifts.
Retooling & Product Changeover Digital Transformation
Much of the current market demand caught industries off guard, and they may be in need to retool for completely different products or shift production from a previously high demand product to something different. Manufacturing Execution Systems also play a major role here in helping track recipes and production throughput. Change management could be critical to properly managing PLC and other system code changes during changeover, to make it easier to switch back when needed, as well as providing centralized development tracking for remote teams.
Take Advantage of Digital Transformation During Reduced Capacity
Not every industry has been affected the same way. Some may be in shutdown status until this is over. Organizations looking to ramp back up to normal as the world recovers will want to use this time wisely. Similar to past swings that affected one or a few industries, the companies that took the time to invest in their systems have experienced immense gains afterwards, outpacing their competitors. Now might be a good time to explore Windows 10 migrations, upgrading Platform systems and implementing improved processes to reduce maintenance impacts, improve energy usage, expand actionable information access and so much more.
Remote Working & Cloud Based Tools
The need for remote working tools is something that everyone now has in common. While many organizations are still learning how to utilize the cloud for industrial automation, we have a variety of applications ready to go, with more that will be available in the near future. Our cloud based applications are backed by Microsoft data centers around the world, providing security and trust in our capacity to provide service. These tools support remote development, engineering, asset utilization and data analysis & dashboarding.
If your company is in need of software technologies to enhance your digital transformation during lockdown, we would be happy to start a conversation regarding your needs and future plans. No matter what state you are operating under, our software solutions can drive transformations that offer impactful outcomes. In addition, we are currently offering all of our training classes as online instructor-led courses. You may find the schedule and availability on our training schedule.