Olam

Taoufik Arif

Our World is Changing, and Our Industry is Evolving:

During the last two decades, most of the companies were focusing on increasing their operation efficiency through the deployment of operational excellence programs, by implementing Lean and Six sigma tools and methodologies, resulting to a good business improvement. However, with new business requirements such as, new customers and consumers’ expectations e.g. mass-customisation, E2E supply chain transparency, omni-channel purchasing and distribution, the increasingly competitive landscape, social media influencers, and disruptive new business models, resulting into major shifts in the way we source, make, and deliver our products and services, it is becoming essential to complement the existing programs with a digital transformation to cope with new business requirements.

Smart Factory is an Enabler to the New Business Needs:

The advances of digital technologies, in the last ten years, opened new opportunities for industry, especially in manufacturing, providing new capabilities with affordable cost. More Connectivity, to generate and leverage data from everything, with the use of Industrial IoT platforms, Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES), and Cloud computing. More Analytics and Intelligence, to process data to make optimum decisions, with the use of Machine learning and AI. More Cyber-physical Systems, to blend digital and physical activities, with the use of Augmented Reality, Manufacturing flow virtualisation and robotic process automation. The combination of these new technology capabilities can enable designing “Smart” factories leading to Agility with excellence in customer service, Reliability with consistent product quality and high asset productivity, and Cost competitiveness with maximum throughput and optimum resource. The key design features of a Smart factory can be articulated as following–1-Connected, with E2E data and Information are available in real-time. 2-Intelligent, with real-time autonomous control & optimisation of manufacturing operations. 3-Collaborative, with agile interactions between workers and machines. 4-Virtualised,with virtual twin (data model) of relevant manufacturing operations.

"The organizational engagement, from business leaders to factory shop-floor, is essential to successful Transformation"

Deploying Smart Factory with Value in a Rapid and Durable Way:

Different approaches can be applied to deploy a Smart factory, starting from designing and integrating all the key features into a new green field factory serving as a “Lighthouse”, to a step-by-step design and deployment of the features in the existing factories. Both ways have pros and cons, the Lighthouse approach leads to bold results, but requires more resource and competencies with high technology risk; the Step-by-Step approach leads to continuous learning and improvement with sustainable solutions but may take more time. For companies with large industrial footprint, I’d recommend the step-by-step approach as the highest value resides in “converting” the existing asset to Smart factories.

A simple step-by-step framework, I’ve personally applied, in large F&B organizations, under the name of–Start–Scale– Sustain, with a very good results in value, cost, and time. Start, to catch-up faster, by identifying opportunities, piloting digital solutions, and demonstrating the value, very important to have an agile execution in this phase. Scale, to leverage value at scale, once the value is demonstrated in the Start phase, build standard industrial solution to avoid scaling-up the “prototype”, which might be less reliable, plan the roll-out with follow-up metrics, and deploy the solution across the company. Sustain, to build for long term, as the Smart factory design and deployment is a long journey it is essential to build internal competencies, to maintain and evolve the new solutions. Develop the technology eco-system of partners, it is challenging and risky to rely on “in-house” resource only, the technology is rapidly evolving and partnering helps delivering faster while allowing internal competence to be built. Finally, in Sustain phase, the organisation engagement, from business leaders to factory shop-floor, is essential to successful transformation.