Manufacturing, construction, and other industrial businesses can leapfrog from technology-lagging organizations to ones driving competitive advantages. A chief challenge is escaping legacy mindsets, especially in small and medium businesses where technology is a commodity component that’s bought once and used well past its depreciation date.
We’ve discussed manufacturing, construction, and Industry 4.0 at several recent Coffee with Digital Trailblazers, a LinkedIn audio event I host on Fridays at 11am ET. We’re bullish for this sector because of the many opportunities using cloud, SaaS, low-code, AI/ML, and IoT technologies offer, even for small and medium enterprises that have small IT departments.
“Siloed IT infrastructure is obsolete; integration with broader business
objectives is imperative,” says Debashis Singh, Chief Information Officer of
Persistent. “Success hinges on
building domain expertise, nurturing a solution-oriented mindset, and
championing automation for heightened efficiency and an enriched user
experience.”
Below are five practical technologies that manufacturing and construction
companies can use to quickly go from proof of concept (POC) to production.
The trick is to design a POC demonstrating feasibility, plan the required
integrations, and lead an
incremental change management plan.
1. Transform from grey work to no-code dynamic work
Every business has its systems of record, and then there is the duct tape –
the grey work – that subject matter experts must do to collaborate and
connect data between these systems. That work can be extremely inefficient
and limit operational scalability and resiliency. Employees close the gaps
using a myriad of tools, including spreadsheets, emails/messaging, meetings,
and swivel chairing between multiple tools on different screens.
Grey work is a risk and missed opportunity for manufacturing and
construction companies because of the lost time and data when people
compensate for a lack of integrated tools. Here are several
opportunities:
- Construction companies can shift to dynamic work that can improve safety at jobsites, track equipment easier, and simplify onboarding subcontractors.
- Manufacturers should review these seven signs of grey work and can empower plant managers to improve shop flow management, optimize equipment maintenance schedules, and convert checklists to analytical workflows.
What’s driving this innovation, automation, and intelligence?
Companies like
Consigli Construction
and Procter & Gamble’s Global Business Services
leverage
AI and no-code to transform to dynamic work
and improve operational resiliency. These companies recognize how no-code
solutions empower employees to develop and manage efficient and scalable
dynamic work management solutions.
2. Automate accounts payable
Paul Wnek, founder and CEO of ExpandAP,
shared with me a recent
PYMNTS Intelligence-Amex Study
reporting that 36% of the SMBs surveyed have yet to automate any aspect of
accounts payable.
That’s shocking and an opportunity for all industrials to improve
efficiencies, quality, and intelligence by collaborating with existing
vendors and new partners to develop automation.
“This vital business function is ripe for innovation, especially in
the age of automation and AI,” says Wnek. Trust and complexity are the
biggest barriers for SMBs when considering new tech to POC, but the good
news is that leading business solution partners such as Salesforce are doing
the legwork and offering native-built technologies in this realm.”
3. Drive performance, efficiencies, and safety with computer vision
Computer vision is no longer an emerging technology and has many industrial
applications, including
improving safety on the factory floor
and construction jobsites. That’s just the start of the innovation, and
industrials have many opportunities to use computer vision to connect
real-world problems to machine intelligence.
Vikhyat Chaudhry, CTO, COO, and Co-founder of
Buzz Solutions, says, “Using AI
and computer vision to collect and analyze data on the performance of
equipment at scale is essential for industrial SMBs as the tech reports back
to end users on the quality of the product, its performance and risks or
faults.”
Sometimes, the equipment is on the factory floor and can be monitored by
well-placed cameras and IoT sensors. However, tracking remote equipment and
infrastructure can be more challenging and an opportunity where computer
vision can outperform people.
“The energy industry can adopt computer vision to monitor the power grid,
power lines, and transmission and distribution equipment for risks and
anomalies such as poorly performing components, vegetation, animal
interference, or potential fire threats,” says Chaudhry. “With an aging
infrastructure and a shift toward renewables adding greater strain on the
grid, this transition to AI alerting systems through computer vision is
essential.”
4. Find defects and predict maintenance with IoT
Another physical-to-digital investment in mainstream adoption is IoT, their
real-time data integration systems, and the machine learning analytics tools
used in manufacturing.
“Leveraging IoT allows industrial manufacturers to quickly identify issues
with manufactured parts and analyze trends in the data to adjust how
something is manufactured across an organization,” says Michael Israel of
Zuper. “IoT in predictive
maintenance is essential for industrial SMBs looking to improve productivity
and safeguard products, enhancing the customer experience through proactive
and predictive maintenance.”
While IoT in manufacturing has many tactical use cases, it can be a
strategic investment for companies looking to improve operations
continuously, meet sustainability objectives, and target other competitive
differentiators.
“Adoption is essential as industrial manufacturers are closely considering
where their materials come from and how they meet ESG measures in industrial
equipment production,” adds Israel. “IoT offers data that improves reporting
and identification of inefficiencies or errors in the manufacturing process
- addressing problems before they result in larger business concerns.”
5. Unify data on operations and supply chain
Construction companies struggle with getting up-to-date work-in-progress
(WIP) reports. Calculating project profitability and using actual costs to
improve estimates remain challenging for many construction companies. A
starting point is to unify ERP, project, scheduling, and building
information modeling (BIM) data while developing new analytics
capabilities.
The data challenge for manufacturing companies is around their supply
chains.
“The use of technology that automates and unifies data and processes for
visibility and analysis is essential for SMBs in manufacturing and
production, specifically when considering supply chain,” says Anders
Lillevik, CEO & Founder of
Focal Point. “Considering the
push toward ESG and DE&I standards and compliance, coupled with
increased supply chain disruptions due to geopolitical conflicts and
shortages, this technology is essential for manufacturers sourcing materials
across the globe.”
Unifying data is key to enabling
citizen data science, developing machine learning predictive models, and experimenting with
generative AI.
Address the culture while investing POCs
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Investing in a POC is not the real challenge, as many technology service
companies are willing to partner with SMBs in manufacturing and
construction. The harder part is defining an impactful problem statement,
expressing its potential business value, identifying the POC’s success
criteria, and drafting a
vision statement
to align executives and employees.
That’s the job of
Digital Trailblazers, who lead digital transformation initiatives from planning to
change management
and through continuous improvements. Construction and manufacturing
companies need Digital Trailblazers to lead transformation programs,
collaborate across the organization, and connect architectures spanning
operational technology (OT) and IT.
Digital Trailblazers! Join us Fridays at 11am ET for a live audio discussion on digital
transformation topics: innovation, product management, agile, DevOps,
data governance, and more!
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