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Sensor technologies, automated controls, and advanced design software are becoming intrinsic to manufacturing. These developments are transforming the way manufacturing businesses operate, resulting in profound gains in performance and productivity, says Booz Allen Hamilton.In today’s Internet of Things environment, manufacturers need a new breed of engineering expertise, the ability to constantly operate in startup mode, actionable insights into the supplier environment, and digitally-focused business models to capitalize on newfound customer intelligence.
1. Collect and integrate production data to optimize operations
Many companies have started to implement sensors across their production environment, and are collecting new data that has the potential to markedly improve throughput and reliability for factory operations. Yet, organizations are struggling to reap efficiencies and insights from this data because they haven’t created the proper technical and decision-making structures to organize and analyze data for real business value. The old model of collecting data and waiting for it to provide an answer is insufficient. What’s required now is a focused and pragmatic approach to harvesting and integrating data.
Manufacturers must sort through the noise to find the value hidden within signals and patterns that tell stories of what’s happening, or will happen, with production equipment. The best organizations are using technology to connect their machinery—grabbing data and turning that into insights to drive decisions around business optimization. The future lies in leveraging this information to optimize internal processes and drive toward higher margins.
2. Use real-time analysis to improve the customer experience
Large manufacturers have traditionally faced challenges in collecting reliable data to understand and adjust to the needs of end users. While surveys have been common in the industry, the data that was collected was expensive, difficult to acquire, and frequently unreliable. What’s more, the time required to collect such information made it unlikely that a company could incorporate any lessons learned into its current production cycle.
Today’s data analytics capabilities represent a new frontier for customer satisfaction. The ability to collect and analyze customer usage data in real-time allows manufacturers to make quick adjustments that improve their products and the customer experience. These metrics allow companies to not only fix current products but also add new features to products that customers want—even if they haven’t said so. Companies that understand this paradigm, invest in the capabilities to enable data capture and analysis, and work with customers to ensure its value will thrive in this new environment.
3. Design a dynamic cyber program to match your connected environment Manufacturing industry leaders are increasingly rely on embedded technologies, connectivity, and automation to make smarter factories a reality, and provide more intelligence and precision than ever before. In addition, Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT) environments are more intertwined, as connections are made to meet business needs. These connected capabilities present profound revenue potential, but they also require a new level of trust with your customer. A strong cybersecurity program protects that trusted relationship, enabling the promise of the connected product. This isn’t just about compliance; it’s about realizing business opportunity. Successfully managing cyber risks in today’s increasingly connected industrial environment cannot be achieved by adopting traditional IT approaches alone. The cybersecurity approach should be custom-fit to an organization's unique requirements. It requires a combination of industrial and technological know-how, plus a collaborative, multi-disciplinary mindset to protect both the “right” physical and data assets. Industrial manufacturers must develop a cybersecurity strategy to holistically address the people, processes, and technologies that are unique to the business, and in a way that is agile enough to respond to the shifting landscape in which they operate.
4. Work directly with suppliers to reduce cyber threats
Supply chain functions have traditionally been seen as internal operations, but that’s starting to change in today’s connected society. As evidenced by several major breaches, supply chains represent a significant cyber threat, with potentially damaging business impacts. Today’s suppliers are interconnected digitally with the companies they supply, with a network of software and hardware components that are sourced from a broad global market. Without high-confidence visibility into your supplier tiers and security levels, it is difficult—if not impossible—to understand whether inbound materials or systems have been compromised.
While addressing supply chain cybersecurity should include a risk and maturity assessment, it ultimately begins with understanding of the supplier network. By building relationships with your suppliers, you can work together to track key risk factors—such as ownership, manufacturing locations, supplier relationships, and the available attack surface. You can begin to implement continuous monitoring throughout the product lifecycle, perform deep multidimensional analytics with open source tools, and eventually expand your scope of vetting to include subcontractors. Ultimately, these new processes will help protect your end users.
5. Close the skills gap to compete with high-tech
As manufacturing evolves and business models become more connected, it creates the need for a new breed of talent—one that embraces computer science as much as mechanical engineering. The next generation of manufacturing talent must enable digital factories to flourish, protect supply chains from cyber intrusions, and bring high-end embedded analytics to products deployed in customer environments. But manufacturers face strong competition from high-tech companies in recruiting this talent, posing a significant risk to the future of the industry. To compete today—and in the future—industrial manufacturers need a talent management strategy to recruit, develop, and retain the workforce of tomorrow. Leaders must transform the manufacturing brand to be more attractive to the new generation of talent, build a culture of innovation to celebrate forward thinking, and foster employee engagement to create an environment that allows individuals to thrive. Industrial players who think boldly and take action now will outpace their competitors—both traditional and emerging.
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