Beyond SMAC – Digital twister of disruption!!

Have your seen the 1996 movie Twister, based on tornadoes disrupting the neighborhoods? A group of people were shown trying to perfect the devices called Dorothy which has hundreds of sensors to be released in the center of twister so proper data can be collected to create a more advanced warning system and save people.

Today if we apply the same analogy – digital is disrupting every business, if you stand still and don’t adapt you will become digital dinosaur. Everyone wants to get that advance warning of what is coming ahead.

Even if your business is doing strong right now, you will never know who will disrupt you tomorrow.

We have seen these disruption waves and innovations in technologies – mainframe era, mini computers era, personal computers & client-server era and internet era. Then came the 5^th wave of SMAC era comprising Social, 

Mobile, Analytics and Cloud technologies.

Gone are the days when we used to wait for vacations to meet our families and friends by travelling to native place or abroad. Today all of us are interacting with each other on social media rather than in person on Facebook, Whastapp, Instagram, Snapchat and so on.

Mobile enablement has helped us anytime, anywhere, any device interaction with consumers. We stare at smarphone screen more than 200 times a day.

Analytics came in to power the hyper-personalization in each interaction and send relevant offers, communications to customers. The descriptive analytics gave the power to know what is happening to the business right now, while predictive analytics gave the insight of what may happen. Going further prescriptive analytics gave the foresight of what actions to be taken to make things happens.

Cloud gave organizations the ability to quickly scale up at lower cost as the computing requirements grow with secure private clouds.

Today we are in the 6^th wave of disruption beyond SMAC era - into Digital Transformation, bringing Big Data, Internet of things, APIs, Microservices, Robotics, 3d printing, augmented reality/virtual reality, wearables, drones, beacons and blockchain.

Big Data allows to store all the tons of data generated in the universe to be used further for competitive edge.

Internet of Things allows machines, computers, smart devices communicate with each other and help us carry out various tasks remotely.

APIs are getting lot of attention as they are easy, lightweight, can be plugged into virtually any system and highly customizable to ensure data flows between disparate systems.

Microservices are independently developed & deployable, small, modular services. 

Robotics is bringing the wave of intelligent automation with help of cognitive computing.

3D printing or additive manufacturing is taking the several industries like medical, military, engineering & manufacturing by storm.

Augmented reality / virtual reality is changing the travel, real estate and education.

Wearables such as smart watches, health trackers, Google Glass can help real time updates,  ensure better health & enable hands-free process optimization in areas like item picking in a warehouse.

Drones have come out of military zone and available for common use. Amazon, Dominos are using it for delivery while Insurance & Agriculture are using it for aerial surveys.

Beacons are revolutionizing the customer experience with in-store analytics, proximity marketing, indoor navigation and contact less payments.

The new kid on the block is blockchain where finance industry is all set to take advantage of this technology.

As products and services are getting more digitized, traditional business processes, business models and even business are getting disrupted.

The only way to survive this twister is to get closer to your customers by offering a radically different way of doing business that’s faster, simpler and cheaper.

Digital Transformation in Manufacturing

Manufacturing companies have traditionally been slow to react to the advent of digital technologies like intelligent robots, drones, sensor technology, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology & 3d Printing.

Industry 4.0 has changed manufacturing. At a high-level, Industry 4.0 represents the vision of the interconnected factory where all equipment is online, and in some way, is also intelligent and capable of making its own decisions.

The explosion in connected devices and platforms, abundance of data from field devices and rapidly changing technology landscape has made it imperative for companies to quickly adapt their products and services and move from physical world to a digital world.

Today, Manufacturing is transforming from mass production to the one characterized by mass customization. Not only must the right products be delivered to the right person for the right price, the process of how products are designed and delivered must now be at a level of sophistication.

First step in digitization is to analyze current state of all systems starting R&D, procurement, production, warehousing, logistics, marketing, sales & service.

The digitization of manufacturing impacts every aspect of operations and the supply chain. It starts with equipment design, and continues through product design, production process improvement and, ultimately, monitoring and improving the end-user experience.

Digital transformation revolutionizes the way manufacturers share and manage product & engineering design, specs on the cloud by collaborating across geographies.

Down time and reliability are critical when it comes to the operation of equipment and machines on a shop floor. With Big data Analytics, the quick and easy access to this operation data, production information, inventory, quality data gives ability to quickly adjust to machine status across the enterprise.

Quality and yield is directly related to manufacturing processes as to how raw materials are used, inspected, manufactured, and how everything comes together. This really determines the quality level of the products. Cognitive computing enables earlier identification of nascent quality problems, increased production yield, and reduction of problems that lead to service and warranty costs.

Implementing smarter resource and supply chain optimization strategies helps to improve the cost efficiency of these resources like energy consumption, worker safety, and employee resource efficiency.

Service Excellence is also an important part of the strategy that companies are using to achieve digital transformation in the manufacturing space. Connected Devices (IoT) are changing the paradigm of delivering after-sales service. Some of the advantage are most prevalent in several selected industries, such as industrial equipment, power generation and HVAC providers:

·       Push Service Notifications

      o   How is your asset health?

      o   How is your asset usage?

·       Predictive/ PreventiveMaintenance

·       Break-Down Assistance

·       Usage-based Billing

·       Spares Fulfillment

General Electric’s jet engines combine cloud-based services, analytics and on-line sensors to report usage and status and help predict potential failures. The result is improved uptime and lower cost of ownership.

Additive manufacturing (3D printers) for prototyping help shorten the iteration cycles in the design process and help to turn innovation into value. 3D printing is also quickly gaining ground in the commercial manufacturing of customized products in low volumes.

Smart machines integrated with forklifts, storage shelves and production equipment. These machines are able to take autonomous decisions and communicate with each other to drive material replenishment, trigger manufacturing and much more.

Industry 4.0, allowing manufacturers to have more flexible manufacturing processes that can better react to customer demands.

9 steps to Successful Digital Transformation

Today nobody is bothered about if you need to go for Digital Transformation but when and how you are doing it.

All new programs or initiatives should now take a ‘Digital First’ approach, with the rapid evolution in social media, mobile, big data analytics and cloud. 

Consumers of all ages are using wide range of digital channels and are increasingly expecting high standards of digitization.

If an organization fails in attempt to digitally transform its business, then there will be multiple predators to eat them out.

Digital Transformation will involve various leading edge technologies like:

• Social media
• Mobile 
• Big Data Analytics
• Cloud computing
• Internet of things
• API management
• User Experience - Responsive web design
• Microservices
• Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
• Virtual Reality - Augmented reality
• Wearables
• 3D printing
• Robotics
• Drones
• Beacons
• Blockchain

Here are the steps to be successful in digital transformation:

1. Boardroom/Senior management buy in, decision to go Digital and drive it across organization
2. Cultural alignment & commitment to Digital from board of directors to entry level employees
3. Identify and assess the current state of the organization on Digital
4. Put Customer first - Prepare customer journey maps to identify all the touch points with organization
5. Find out pain areas at each touch point and respective stakeholders involved who can correct them
6. Prioritize and break them in small projects to adopt fail fast approach. If anything did not work, just accept the failure, publish the learnings and move on.
7. Seek partners to help you in your journey, who take shared risk and shared rewards
8. Deploy agile implementation approach for quick results
9. Market your successes to whole world

Some of the successful Digitally Transformed organizations are:

• Apple – do you need introduction?
• Uber – disrupted taxi industry
• Airbnb – disrupted hotel industry
• Disney – most loved brand in the world
• Tesla – disrupted auto industry
• CVS Health – leader in pharmacy
• Burberry - retail
•  John Deere – manufacturing

Digital Transformation can be achieved only with change of mindset and commitment across the organization. 

There is very little time now for businesses to capitalize on Digital Transformation opportunity to win and serve their customers, to create new products and services that customers want.

Welcome to Industry 4.0

The term Industry 4.0 was coined by the German Government which indicates the use of the latest digital technologies like the Internet of Things in the manufacturing industry. 

Sometimes it is also known as Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). It refers to the 4^th industrial revolution.

Here is the brief history of industrial revolutions: 

• Industry 1.0: use of water and steam power
• Industry 2.0: introduced mass production with the help of electric power.
• Industry 3.0: use of electronics and IT to further automate production.
• Industry 4.0: digitization of manufacturing with the use of Internet of Things, Big Data, automation of processes with Robots, 3D printing, drones & Artificial Intelligence (AI)

In the Internet of Things, sensors having the ability to collect real-time data which can be used by manufacturers and producers. The advancements in big data and powerful analytics means that systems can scan through the huge sets of data and produce insights that can be acted upon quickly.

Smart factories, which will be at the heart of Industry 4.0, will take on board information and communication technology for an evolution in the supply chain and production line that brings a much higher level of both automation and digitization.

It means machines using self-optimization, self-configuration and even artificial intelligence to complete complex tasks in order to deliver vastly superior cost efficiency and better quality goods or services

Industry 4.0 represents a giant leap in the evolution of machines, today, our machines are connected with each other, their physical environments, and most importantly, to people.

Companies have just begun to adopt additive manufacturing, such as 3D printing, which they are using to prototype and produce individual components.

In the future, companies will make much broader use of augmented reality to improve decision making and work procedures. In the virtual world, operators will learn to interact with machines by clicking on a cyber representation. They will also be able to change parameters and retrieve operational data and maintenance instructions.

Manufacturers should make the most of Industry 4.0 with this adoption of digital transformation.

The future of Robotics !!

Robotics is the study of robots or machines that can be used to do repetitive jobs. 

Companies like Google, Amazon, McDonald's, Nike and Chipotle are exploiting the power of robotics to be competitive and reduce costs.

In future robots are going to do our day to day work. Imagine if you can rent a robot for 1 hour to do some shopping for you? Or like Drones it can go to the disaster sites to help humans and can be controlled from the far distance to avoid any more human injuries.

Healthcare & process manufacturing like drugs, auto etc. are fastest growing industries for robotics. 

Today there is lot of concern about unemployment robots can bring. Still there are plenty of positive ways like Iron Man, that robots will help us. They can work in conditions hazardous to humans.

• Fanuc is largest industrial robots manufacturing company.    
• Amazon is already using robots in their warehouse to move products to workers for further scanning and processing.
• Some of the bomb squads in USA use robots to dispose of the bombs to minimize the risk to human life.
• Roomba, the vacuum cleaner robot has been around for a while.
• NASA uses 3D printing robots to help do research.
• In farming robots are used for weed control, moving, pruning, seeding and spraying the crops.

Unlike in the Terminator movies, robots are unable to think or make decisions; they are only tools to help us get things done. Robots are machines with programmed movements that allow them to move in certain directions or sequences. Artificial intelligence has given robots more ability to process information and to “learn.”

This science is in the early stages, but robots are being developed that can make decisions in order to serve food, translate words from one language to another, and get information from outside resources to solve problems. 

The robotics market spend is going to be in billions to help mankind.

Digital Transformation with 3D printing.

How many of you remember the dot matrix printers of 1980s? 

Nobody could have thought then, that we will have 3D printers to print anything from consumer goods to military/space equipment.

Simply put 3D printing is also known as additive manufacturing. 3D printers work like inkjet printers, but instead of ink they build 3D objects by adding layer upon layer of the material.

Today 3D printing uses variety of materials like Sugar, Nylon, human cells, metallic powder etc. to print anything.

• Medical : Bionic ear, Skin grafts, prosthetic limbs
• Military : weapon and arms manufacturing
• Engineering : various spare parts, cell phone displays, fuel injectors
• Manufacturing : items can be printed as required, JIT inventory
• Food : Edible object printing

Today there are 3D printing service website like Shapeways, Ponoko and Sculpteo that can very inexpensively print and deliver an object from a digital file that you simply upload to their website. You can even sell your 3D designs on their website.

MakerBot's Thingiverse is a thriving design community for discovering, making, and sharing 3D printable things.

ASDA is giving away 3d miniature figures of you or your loved ones as marketing gimmick.

Argos, a leading Digital retailer is working to improve customer experience with 3D printed customisable jewelry.

3D printing, artificial intelligence, robotics, drones, sensor technology and nanotechnology are examples that are radically going to change the way we do business.

Research is going on for 4D printing in which 3D printed objects can change the shape or colors dynamically, as shown in the movie Transformers.

With new materials being introduced, 3D printing can drastically impact our life. Some products may save our lives, others may extend lives and some brings ease to our daily activities!!