How can the manufacturing sector embrace digital technology?

The Made Smarter Review's findings about the manufacturing sector

The Made Smarter Review – a 2017 independent review of industrial digitalization, led by Professor Juergen Maier, Co-Chair of the Made Smarter Commission – serves as a good overview of where the manufacturing industry is in its digital journey.

It concluded that 'industrial digitalisation is a massive opportunity for UK industry – and the wider economy. But the technologies that underpin it are also highly disruptive, requiring business to be innovative, agile and adaptable.

'Industry and government will need to work in partnership to provide the infrastructure and ecosystems that can enable manufacturing businesses and their supply chains to maximise these opportunities and be competitive.

'Get it wrong, and we risk further de-industrialising our economy, and becoming ever more reliant on imports.'

More specifically, the review points to three areas that prevent the UK from progressing:

1)      a lack of effective leadership – this fails to inspire 'current and future workers with a vision of how they can secure high-quality jobs in a thriving part of the economy'.

2)      poor level of adoption – this is highlighted among SMEs that perceive risks around cybersecurity and lack the common standards for connecting different technologies, leading to an 'ineffective and confused landscape of business support'.

3)      under-leveraged innovation assets to support start-ups/scale-ups – although 'the UK is a leader in research and innovation', the assets are not focused enough, leading to a disadvantaged state.

What do current industry statistics say about the UK's manufacturing outlook?

McKinsey Digital[1] nicely sums up the scale of the emerging opportunity in technology for manufacturers at the end of 2018: 'This new wave of technology and innovation offers companies opportunities not only to drive a step-change in productivity and efficiency, but also to capture strategic business value by establishing competitive advantage in the way they operate their entire 'make to deliver' value chain.'

But perhaps projected statistics do a better job of underlining the potential benefits of planned and managed implementation of digital technologies.

The World Economic Forum’' Digital Transformation Initiative[2] estimates '$100 trillion of value that digitalization could create over the next decade' for 'digital enterprises', with over 130 initiatives in 12 industries related, directly or indirectly, to manufacturing.

Meanwhile, the Made Smarter Review[3] estimates that the 'positive impact of faster innovation and adoption of [industrial digital technologies] could be as much as £455 billion for UK manufacturing over the next decade.'

Preparing for digital transformation with digital readiness

The Made Smarter Review suggests that many manufacturers are still in the preparation stage of their digital transformation, which begins at assessing digital readiness.

In this context, 'digital readiness' relates to the maturity of a business in optimizing its use of digital technologies to expand and achieve its organizational, operational, social and financial objectives.

Accurately accessing the digital readiness of your business will provide crucial insight to inform your digital transformation strategy. For many businesses, it’' a case of 'where do we start?'

PAS 1040:2019, Digital readiness – Adopting digital technologies in manufacturing – Guide, has been developed to support the UK's industrial strategy – with a view to helping increase the pace of adoption of digital technologies in the UK manufacturing sector – by offering guidance intended to inspire business leaders interested in digital transformation.

What are the benefits of using PAS 1040:2019?

The guide, sponsored by Innovate UK, helps businesses of all sizes to plan their digital journeys, in order to understand where they are today and to assess progress along the way. It also looks at the key factors, including leadership, culture, processes and value that are involved in improving this over time.

The guide focuses on four areas informed by the main challenges that businesses face.:

• getting ready for digital transformation – what are the factors that drive improvement for each business?;
• measuring digital readiness internally and externally for each level on a scale from 1 to 9;
• selecting digital readiness tools - helping you to decide what works best for your business; and
• recommendations for using the tools – from shaping a vision and goals through to monitoring progress and results.

It is noted that an increase in adoption of digital technologies could deliver up to 25% productivity improvements[4] for UK businesses over the next decade.             

Meanwhile, manufacturers that postpone their digital transformation programmes by another year risk falling behind their competitors in are areas of productivity, collaboration and innovation.

To accelerate your digital journey, start today by downloading your free copy of the PAS:

https://www.bsigroup.com/en-GB/industries-and-sectors/manufacturing-and-processing/pas1040/