Digitalisation of industrial company activities - Data-driven operations in industry

Digitalising the activities of an industrial company step by step

There is a classic approach to the digitalisation of manufacturing companies distinguishing three levels.

The first level is considered to be that of corporate governance, where demand is aligned with procurement, production and delivery. This way we can optimise the cost of raw feedstock materials, or even the inventory - this is the classic ERP level.

The second level is production, the MES level, which consists of production planning and actual manufacturing. This is where orders are broken down into production plans, which is indispensable to maximise productivity.

Finally, the third tier is the SCADA level, where we intend to measure and optimise the operation of specific machines, whether it concerns energy consumption, machine stoppages, or reducing the downtime caused by various problems. To this end, we collect data from the machines; for example, in the case of predictive maintenance, this allows us to predict when a failure or breakdown will occur.

How well are Hungarian industrial companies doing in this context?

In the industry sector, the position occupied by different players tends to vary a lot. Sometimes we see very advanced solutions at the corporate governance level, but production planning is still done in Excel.

There is also a typical lack of coordinated equipment operation. To mention just one example, it happens that manufacturing equipment can only provide information on its own status, but the manufacturers either do not give access to these data or the relevant software uses fundamentally so different approaches that are very difficult to link together efficiently. This often prevents manufacturing companies from connecting data so they cannot use them to significantly improve their operations.

How to avoid failure?

If there is no specific goal that a company wants to achieve, then there is a fair chance of inevitable failure. This explains why Stratis applies a kind of consultancy approach to guide its clients along the road of the digitalisation journey. In this spirit, we take the first steps together and set the digital milestones to be achieved. The projects worked out jointly under professional guidance and based on a shared digitalisation development plan stand a good likelihood to be successful on their own. However, speaking of a set of development plans resting on each other, truly breakthrough results should not be expected from the outset; in other words, we must be patient.

It must also be kept in mind that the success of digitalisation depends on the attitude of staff members and managers. Just think, if the employees concerned are afraid of using the new system, or stick to the so-called time-honoured "tried and tested" methods and do not support the changes, then failure is guaranteed.

It is therefore not possible to skip and jump over many steps at once, the system put in place must also be adapted to the maturity of the organisation. It is a perpetual truth that although a project may end, the development of a business is never finished, as there is always room for improvement. However, Stratis can help you at every stage, whether it's laying the foundations for digitalisation, developing measurement for business processes that influences performance, or helping to build trust in AI among employees.

Contact us now and let's embark on the digitalisation journey together!