I was interviewed by the Intelligent Enterprise Leaders Alliance for their latest publication recently.  Industry 4.0 is the next frontier of smart manufacturing with an emphasis on advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence. In the interview we discussed the smart way to embrace industry 4.0. The full interview is reproduced below.

Targeted, Tactical, Transformative: The Smart Way to Embrace Industry 4.0

Interview with

Lisa Anderson
Founder & President, LMA Consulting Group Inc.

In what areas of manufacturing do you see the fastest ROI from automation investments?

The quickest ROI from automation investments will come from targeted, high-impact areas. Predictive maintenance is prime, delivering a quick return on investment as companies switch from preventative maintenance to targeting what’s going to break just before it breaks. This way, you minimize unnecessary delays, costs, downtime, and waste while maximizing production performance. Typically, manufacturers can roll out machine monitoring and a predictive maintenance program in 3-9 months.

In a similar vein, manufacturers can benefit quickly from the installation and rollout of vision systems to eliminate defects earlier in the process, prevent downtime, and increase production efficiency. At the end of the manufacturing process, automated packaging, packing, and end-of-line automation systems deliver significant returns, reduce safety issues and workers compensation claims, and when combined with additional automation systems can support producing around-the-clock with minimal resources.

Another area of opportunity with a shorter roll out and quick benefit is the automation of order processing and updates. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) can perform order entry, invoicing, and supplier updates at a fraction of the cost and time with less errors. From the planning perspective, artificial intelligence and automation can drive dramatic improvements in forecasting, planning, and inventory optimization. We recommend taking the practical approach and focusing on your planning bottleneck to drive quick results instead of getting mired in complex, full-scale software upgrades.

How critical is workforce readiness and change management in successfully implementing Industry 4.0 initiatives?

Although workforce readiness and change management are touted as critical for the successful rollout of Industry 4.0 initiatives, we find that the most successful executives combine both into an approach that focuses on targeted, high impact wins while engaging your teams in the process. People do not fear change; they fear not knowing the path forward or journey to get there.

Thus, we have yet to experience issues with clients who are unwilling to change as we explain the objective, why it is important, what is known about the path to achieve the objective, provide education and training as needed, explain how each person and/or department add value to achieving the objective, promoting small wins, and keeping the team in the loop with progress, issues, and opportunities. This type of an approach achieves better results as it doesn’t require people to understand nebulous concepts; instead, it puts the change management concepts into action with practical examples and upgrades team members readiness (skills, behaviors, and engagement) simultaneously.

For example, a building products manufacturer rolled out automation and packaging machinery in their manufacturing operation and involved their team members in the preparation, training, and process rollout. They brought in experts, involved their lean resources, and leadership directly engaged with team members throughout the process. They beat their ramp up plans and gained capacity at a crucial time to support growth plans.
 

Reproduced in full from the interview in ‘Industry 4.0: The Next Frontier of Smart Manufacturing’, Intelligent Enterprise Leaders Alliance.