The COVID-19 crisis is rapidly accelerating our need to prepare for a digital transformation and creating a digital strategy will be a roadmap for the transformation. The “new norm” of navigating the digital landscape in COVID times, highlights the reality of moving past the buzz words and catchy phrases, to aspiring to undertake a digital transformation agenda with both near and long-term strategic objectives in mind. This crisis presents its challenges to digital transformation planning: while certain sectors of the manufacturing industry are thriving, others are battling the fast-paced changes, challenges, and constraints.
Almost overnight, the pandemic has accelerated the need to invest in digital technology adoption, increasing the depth of adoption and culture penetration; thus, creating a performance gap between organizations that invested in digital transformations and those that did not. To close this gap, organizations that have forgone a digital adoption or floundered in their digital transformation, must face the brutal fact that they are behind on their digital journey… and the bar continues to rise, making the gap wider day over day. However, MEP centers across the United States and Puerto Rico, like IMEC in Illinois, can help your organization rethink your digital transformation, in these COVID times, with three easy rules.
Be a “Lean” thinker
No matter how advanced an organization gets, LEAN thinking should always be at the core of its improvement initiative planning. During this COVID crisis, many organizations have started to work more remotely, coming face-to-face with the reality of their level of agility and discovering broken processes along the way. Due to various technical and process-based hurdles, organizations have been struggling to realize productivity and efficiencies because of this remote telecommuting experience. A lean thinking approach would analyze the constraints to workflow, identify the waste and streamline processes that would evolve into a culture of LEAN thinking to support a new, more productive and more efficient way of working… working smarter not harder.
Be cognizant
One of the many things that COVID has taught organizations, is to look beyond the traditional way of doing business. We are constantly learning from our customers, leaders, and employees to be more flexible and agile. For example, in response to COVID-19, IMEC quickly pivoted and adapted a virtual model to interact with our clients, providing webinar-based content and staffing a Manufacturing Helpline to better assist manufacturers achieve success during these difficult times.
Have a digital strategy with a purpose
Having a digital strategy with a purpose, as a roadmap for a digital transformation, can pave the way for the organization to innovate, allowing the organization to deliver value and a first-rate experience for customers, as well as enhance the organization’s employee experience in delivering a timely and quality product. Creating a digital strategy cannot be accomplished in a vacuum or in isolation within the organization. It requires a new level of understanding, thinking and collaboration between the organization’s people, processes, and technology. These three pillars of digital transformation success, working in concert with a digital strategy with a purpose, yield unimaginable results and form the core of a successful digital transformation.
In conclusion, organizations that are adapting and navigating the nature of the current business climate, and following these guidelines to strategically seize a digital transformation opportunity, will be better positioned to tackle emerging changes yet to come.
If you need help with your digital transformation plan, get in touch with an Industry 4.0 expert at IMEC!
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