Thinking about it, Smart Manufacturing and Teams

Quick wins and or success in the long run 

In the blog written by my business partner James Hall he talks about the performance of teams and a possible shift in the utilization of teams in industries.

I want to look at industrial teams from a different angle.  While I was researching the topic of Smart Manufacturing and Industry 4.0, I saw an analogy between what happens on the software and machine side and what needs to happen on the human side as well.

For an organisation to have develop any kind of capability there is always a relationship between People, Processes and Technology.   I think of them as making up the three legs that hold up a stool. All three have to be at the same length and, if you change one, you have to work on the other two as well.

It is generally accepted that implementing new technology will have an effect on your people and on the way in which you do business. I question though, if the effect of new tech is addressed appropriately across the board. My gut feeling is that in quite a number of cases People are left behind and treated as an afterthought.

Now the idea of Smart Manufacturing (also referred to as IIOT or Industry 4.0) is about harvesting the data which exists on the manufacturing floor and making use of it by creating meaningful relations between data sets.  Connecting machines and data has the power to improve situational awareness and decision making in surprising ways.  New mechanisms of data management allow us to break silos of information and connect the dots to create unprecedented awareness of what is going on. Suddenly people can make decisions based on facts and statistics, not just on their experience or a gut feeling.  Relationships between departments such as manufacturing and logistics will change.  In consequences the other legs of capability, People and Processes will also have to change.  Some of those changes will be demand a great deal of employees and partners.

Here is where I would like to come back to my analogy from above.  I would expect a new way of collaboration between the people who actually build things and those support them.  This means the breakup of data silos and the “teaming of machines”.

Following my analogy of the 3-legged stool, I would recommend that those who wish to pursue the advantages of Smart Manufacturing must actively create a team-approach to support their people.  It is vital the companies take advantage of the momentum of innovation by providing an incentive to the workforce. Get it right and:

• life gets easier,
• people become more productive and
• much of the guess work disappears.

During my research I came across a few trends and behaviors. I looked at the motivation of manufacturers for digitizing their enterprise. Amongst them a couple of reasons came up surprisingly often:

• The desire to optimize order processing from sales to production
• A suspected lack of accountability and transparency of hours booked by personnel

Of course, there are many more. What is common to a lot of SM initiatives is the focus on short term gains. The idea is to smart small and take the low-hanging fruit offered by new means of digitization.

I would argue that a thorough analysis of a production line would reveal a number of additional data sources that would prove beneficial, even if there is currently no sensor or data source available. Creating useful and meaningful relationships to produce actionable data is the homework one needs to do up front.

Starting with a short-term goal to scratch an itch is a good move and will bring quick wins but you’re thinking should never end there. Digitization is not a buzzword or a fashion trend, it is a serious attempt to conduct process optimization by studying the data available.  The medium- to long-term strategy and vision formulating the end state keeps the eye on the ball providing the necessary direction and guidance to achieve more than harvesting low hanging fruit.

There is also a risk that, if a company concentrates only on the short term low hanging fruit from SM, and fiddles with the Technology, it will miss the important logical consequence that it must also change its Processes, and most critically, its People.  The start of the SM road may appear simple and it may be simple but it also requires some long term thinking.

If you are interested to hear more, contact us at lpelz@pelzconsulting.com or JHall@pelzconsulting.com .