Many manufacturers are busy with transitioning to digital manufacturing. Yet, deployment of new digital technologies, adaptation of the scalable, digital architecture that will allow connectivity of data systems on the level of the whole factory and network of factories, is not there.
Main technical condition for digital manufacturing is the adequate digital backbone: fully connected digital systems and well-defined data governance.
Nevertheless, robust data and IT infrastructure is not all company needs. Digitalization at scale requires:
• Strong leadership and clear strategic directions regarding how digital transformation will create new business value.
• Technical, managerial, and transformational capabilities and resources to understand and execute the changes.
• Culture with cross-functional set-up, with agile way of working and strong incentives for people to make it happen.
In the last three years, Fraunhofer Project Center in the Netherlands supported many SMEs and multinational is transition to digitalization at scale. Our learnings from the market will be shared in this edition.