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Roland Maucher

8 Simple Digital Transformations to Increase Organizational Agility

In today’s highly competitive environment, Organizational agility is the ability to quickly sense and respond to change. At a time when data is considered a business asset, traditional data management systems will not add value, but will generate additional costs. The success of manufacturing companies will be defined by the way they harness their data, transformed into usable business knowledge. Actify believes that manufacturing companies have enormous, andoften untapped, potential which is hidden and unused within various business systems.

When businesses strive for the waythings used to be, rather than adaptingto the way things are, they fail. The soon-er you embrace your data, the sooneryou can start adding real value to yourbusiness. Many small and medium-sizedbusinesses shy away from smart dataprojects due to the perceived costs andcomplexities. Once you have the perspective that ‘digital transformation’is a journey and not a destination, therecan be no excuse to starting a new digital initiative today.

In this article we will discuss some practical digital transformations that canbe cost-effectively applied within yourorganization and with great ease. Wewill share the steps towards increasingoperational agility.

1. Drive more innovation2. Produce better quality products3. Automate paper driven processes4. Rapidly respond to sales opportunities

Technology itself is not the wholeanswer. In our experience, to be successful, any new approach mustsimultaneously consider organizationalgoals, business strategy, work processesand culture towards technologicalchanges.

1. Drive more innovation

Create a culture of innovation. Organiza-tions that are consistently able to innovate do so throughthe purposefulmanagement of a systematic innovationprocess.

Innovation is everyone’s job. You can’trely purely on the efforts of a small R&Dor engineering department to originatenew innovations. Instead, create a culturein which everyone is entrusted andempowered to innovate. The responsibilityfor innovation migrates from engineeringto C-level executives who run theextended enterprise.

Digital Transformation 1: Enterprise CollaborationTechnology alone will not elevate yourbusiness to the next stage of the trans-formation journey. Collaboration and anopen mindset is key to discovering newways of thinking and working, whichincreases levels of participation and motivation. Innovation cannot andshould not just be about the product, it

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must include the process from effectivelygathering the disparate content and filesto keeping files in sync for efficient collaboration. Innovation comes from the enterprise. Therefore, enable cross-department collaboration, data manage-ment and quick access to extended product data that can help make criticalbusiness decisions faster. Every stage ofyour process can be improved with con-tinuous communication and collabora-tion. This can now be easily achievedusing Actify Centro.

Digital Transformation 2: Data AccessibilityInnovation is not driven by luck. Innova-tion stems from a place of experienceand knowledge. Having both the contextand ability to visualize the big picturedrives people to come up with uniquesolutions to tough problems. Many jobfunctions around the enterprise requireinformation that comes from Engineer-ing documents and CAD files. However,while product information and productfiles are created and generally used effectively within engineering, their useis often limited to the engineeringdepartment. Enterprise workers may dis-rupt the engineering team to gain accessto crucial information. As a result, engi-neers spend valuable time administeringinformation to the wider enterprise.Since engineers are responsible forimplementing and executing new inno-vative ideas. Organizations must effec-

tively use their engineering resource totheir full potential and release them todrive innovation.

To mitigate this information bottleneck,Actify has developed Centro which actsas a neutral enterprise platform, collect-ing information from multiple productdata sources to enable enterprise dataaccessibility, delivering value to all stake-holders. Actify Centro is used to integratea variety of organizational disciplinesboth within and outside of engineering.Data accessibility empowers workers tooperate on the road, at work or at home.We believe that when you respect indi-viduals for who they are and how theyoperate, it significantly increases produc-tivity.

2. Produce better quality products

Life for a manufacturer used to be muchsimpler. Markets evolved at a moreleisurely pace and parts were sourcedlocally. Fast forward to today, wheresmart connected products are intrinsicallymore complicated because of integratedsensors or electronic parts, and competi-tors can arise from any corner of theglobe. At a similar pace, business technology has evolved to make our livessimpler. However, these applicationshave become inherently more complicat-ed. The creation of a smart connectedproduct demands the involvement ofmany different expertise. Cooperation

between software, electrical andmechanical teams are required to realizeand fulfill the requirements of today’ssmart products.

The movement toward smart connectedproducts has cause many manufacturersto feel vulnerable. How can companiescompete when they still struggle witheffectively managing product develop-ment for their discrete components, letalone adding sensors and electronics?Technology is disrupting the manufactur-ing industry, but many discrete manufac-turers are not ready. They are too busytrying to re-invent processes and imple-ment change throughout the organiza-tion, but their legacy systems are notagile enough to support these changes.Evolving customer requirements andinternal process change creates unduepressure on enterprise workers. This iswhere some companies see digitalizationas a huge advantage.

Digital Transformation 3: Data VisualizationEffective data visualization to augmentcommunication holds the promise oftransforming product development-reducing time to market, improvingproduct quality, and enhancing productcapabilities to best satisfy customer andmarket needs. Effective data visualizationbegins with the ability to leverage CADmodels and share them with down-stream stakeholders, the supply chain,

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and customers. An effective data visuali-zation solution must overcome threemajor challenges, beyond just viewingcapabilities.

Cost – Budget allocation is a highly scrutinized activity and many small – tomedium-sized businesses simply cannotafford to purchase expensive CADauthoring licenses or additional seats forline-of-business systems to support allthe potential downstream users.

Ease-of-use - Enterprise acceptancerequires intuitive tools that are easy touse. Traditional enterprise applicationsfail because they are too difficult to useand require substantial training. Sophisti-cated business systems by their verynature are complex and the applications’interface becomes cumbersome for thecasual user.

File and platform agnostic - The ability tomanage and accept any file type madeaccessible not only on desktop and lap-top computers but also on a wide rangeof mobile devices including work tabletsand smartphones.

Digital Transformation 4: Operational FlexibilityIn a dynamic and volatile world, opera-tional flexibility is a strategic priority thatmanufacturing organizations cannotafford to ignore. The ability to simultane-ously meet changing customer demandwhile also controlling costs. As productcomplexity and variability increases Manufacturers must anticipate andaccount for change. An organization'srelationship with their customer andapproach to Standardization and Config-uration management becomes increas-ingly important. Companies need to startwith formal requirements managementand traceability to meet their customer’sexpectations and achieve compliance.

Actify provides an enterprise platformunderpinned by a graph-oriented data-base which enables flexible deployment,tailored to client specific needs. ActifyCentro will gather content createdthroughout the development and product lifecycle. Feedback from the fieldcan come full circle, informing the development of next generation products.Customer and warranty databases canbe leveraged to guide product decisions.No matter what product you make, agilityrequires a solid digital foundation. WithActify Centro, you can manage your digital assets from idea though end ofproduct life. Associate all project infor-

mation, providing context and a platformto capture change and review past decisions and provide insight to optimallymake new decisions.

3. Automate paper driven processes

Many of today's manufacturing compa-nies store their data in line-of-businesssystems like PLM and ERP. Today peoplemust go to each of those data sources toextract what they need, then join thedots between all the information so theycan get an accurate picture. Typically,manual data collection, meetings andregular reporting are the methods mostcompanies employ to extract informationfrom their enterprise workers or line-of-business systems. We observe a high- volume of static Excel spreadsheets beingcopied and passed around the companyas the primary means of communicatingdata.

Today employees are looking for easyand fast ways to share information andcomplete their work. Shadow IT repre-sents the unknown applications andfacilities that enterprise workers use tomeet their data exchange needs: USBdevices, mobile devices, email, andonline file transfer services. If you don'tprovide an effective platform to manageenterprise data within your organization,you're at risk of employees connectingand sharing through unmanaged net-works outside of your organization.

Digital Transformation 5: Effective Data Management Replace your static Excel spreadsheetwith a dedicated business tool. Actify’sbusiness tools can be configured to replicate your company’s Excel drivenprocess; this ensures you can retain yourorganization’s unique competitive advan-tage – the process. Minimize processchange and gain all the benefits frommodern software. Single version of data,accessible anywhere, change audit, storeand access previous versions and com-pare changes between revisions. Noteverybody needs to author or edit files,but all workers need access to data tosupport their role. Data governanceinsures that the right people have accessto the right information.

Actify’s business tools can make dataentry more efficient. Simple and intuitivedata filtering can eliminate human error.When business tools are equipped withknowledge of your enterprise, filteringby location will display only the machinesand resources available at that facility.Assigning people from drop-downmenus and date pickers ensures humanerror is not a barrier to your organiza-tion's operational agility.

Digital Transformation 6: Automation & Integration Automation can increase the output ofyour organization while reducing costsmaking it an essential component to

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becoming more agile. Too often expen-sive engineering resources are wastingvaluable time administering informationto the wider enterprise. Actify can auto-mate the extraction of PMI, metadata,parts properties and other engineeringdata from CAD, and disseminate theinformation far more consistently thanmanual efforts. Optimize and automatemundane processes to increase the avail-able man-hours and mitigate humanerror.

Integration allows organizations to create a central software architecturethat’s able to seamlessly connect andpass data between business systems. Cutdown the inefficiency of dealing withmultiple software solutions and eliminatebottlenecks.

Actify gives you the best of both worlds.We appreciate that no single monolithicenterprise application can meet all thebusiness-management needs of theorganization. Existing legacy applicationsare unprepared to handle the growingbusiness and process complexity we seetoday. Actify believes that ‘platformiza-tion’ provides companies with an oppor-tunity to combine the capabilities ofleading business tools. Unify enterpriseapplications with integration and maxi-mize existing investments into Line-of-business systems while providing a sustainable path to software upgradesand data migration.

With Automation and Integration, youcan reduce communication delays whileincreasing data accuracy, essentially making your business run faster and moreefficiently. Actify offers many integrationoptions and provides experienced devel-opers with a range of capabilities to helpyou create integrations and connectionsto the systems and tools used by yourbusiness.

4. Rapidly respond to sales opportunities

This must be one of the most curiouschallenges that we’ve encountered during numerous client engagements.Some manufacturing organizations are‘too busy’ to respond to sales opportuni-ties or their internal process takes toolong to respond within a given timeframe. Simply stated, they are too busyto make money.

To make the sales process more agile,speed and throughput are not the onlyaspects to consider. To ensure that newbusiness opportunities are both feasibleand profitable, we must consider theimportance of leveraging enterprise dataand alignment with customer require-ments to rapidly produce profitable bidsthat can also result in higher sales productivity. Quickly develop high qualityquotes that can lead to higher closerates, increased revenues and enrich yourcustomer relationships.

Digital Transformation 7: Data DiscoveryNecessary data no longer resides withinone application. Organizations have several structured siloed data sources(systems and databases such as; CAD,ERP, cost accounting systems and war-ranty databases.). Multiple data sources,countless different file types and disparatefiles scattered across network drives andgeographic locations provides a growingchallenge to govern and manage datawithin your organization. Furthermore,product data is hidden within CAD filessuch as Product Manufacturing Informa-tion, GD&T, etcetera The challenge we’veobserve within a lengthy quoting processis not about generating more data, it’sabout accessing the existing disparatedata and gaining insight. Have we produced something like this before? Or,how much did we quote for this lasttime? Etc. Time is valuable, and yourwork force is busier than ever. Is yourorganization truly achieving progress?Or, are your workers wasting valuabletime searching for crucial information?Release your hidden product data withdata discovery. Centro provides greaterenterprise visibility and disparate datavisibility, implementing controls and toolsto react and respond to opportunitiesand insights identified through a con-nected manufacturing infrastructure.Centro can standardize your data in auser-friendly and easily accessible formatto enable the organization to leverage

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product data to optimize commercialreturns.

Digital Transformation 8: Dedicated Quoting ToolFor companies that offer a wide range ofproducts or provide a ‘build-to-order’‘make-to-order’ service find it increasinglydifficult to make the quoting and ordering process simple and fast for thecustomer. Sales and service reps cannotcontinually be retrained or expected tokeep up with the ever-changing salesconditions. Quoting has become a labor-intensive manual process with endlesspart numbers and many iterationsbetween sales and engineering. Actifyhas developed a quoting tool that lever-ages legacy project information extractedfrom enterprise applications. Deployingsuch a tool will immediately enable greaterthroughput, faster response to salesopportunities, enhance the buying expe-rience, while ensuring that only profitablequotes are put in front of customers.

Conclusion

Companies’ must be prepared to evolvetheir enterprise systems and businessstrategies to meet market velocity chal-lenges. Unfortunately, many companiesrely on aging line-of-business systemsand legacy infrastructure that is just notup to the task. The vast majority of dis-crete manufacturers have PLM solutionsin place that are over 10 years old. Thesesolutions were not designed to supporttoday’s requirements. These old systems

primarily focus on CAD data manage-ment for discrete products. If companieswant to increase their organizationalagility, a new approach is required. Companies need to expand their digitalvision and embrace more up-to-datesolutions enabling new levels of effi-ciency based on industry best practices.

The success of your organization will notbe achieved through the creation andcollection of data. Success will bedefined by the way business data istransformed into usable business knowl-edge to create value. Actify believes that manufacturing companies haveenormous, and often untapped, poten-tial which is hidden and unused withinvarious business systems. Many compa-nies are looking at digital strategies to achieve their operational goals ofbecoming better, faster, and cheaper.

About ActifyActify is a global leader in deliveringpowerful, easy-to-use, affordable ProductData Intelligence solutions to the aero-space, automotive, industrial automation,and discrete manufacturing industries.Actify’s solution enables designers andknowledge workers alike to participate inproduct design and development activi-ties, thereby lowering collaboration costsand improving manufacturing perform-ance. Actify empowers a diverse audienceof users by delivering business solutionsthat do not require design expertise orcostly CAD software and supports allmajor 3D & 2D CAD formats. Contact

Roland MaucherActify Europe GmbH

E-Mail: rmaucher@actify.com