Embrace Change, Harness Digital, and Boost Your Agility

Perhaps the most eye-opening finding from this year’s Agility Assessment is the significant agility drop – or at least perceived agility drop – among manufacturing organisations. Whereas last year, 74% of manufacturers rated themselves as “extremely” or “highly agile”, this year we saw just 47% say the same – a slide of 27% in just 12 months. The interesting detail is that this reflects many of the conversations we are having with our customers. A common theme we are finding is that many manufacturers have the desire to streamline their ways of working to become more efficient – a reality that feeds into the overall agility puzzle.

Now, the concept of Digital Transformation is linked very closely with streamlining and the associated efficiency and agility gains. But many organisations simply don’t know where to begin. Mention “Digital Transformation” and it is often the case that a lot of companies will tell you they are not in a position to embark on a lengthy, expensive journey. But the bottom line is that streamlining working practices through Digital Transformation doesn’t necessarily require a large investment and years of effort; as we’ve proved time and time again with our customers.

When it comes to being agile, start by looking at what processes you’re able to automate. Realising agility gains can begin with something as simple as replacing a spreadsheet with a digital solution, one that significantly reduces the need for human involvement. This kind of Digital Transformation is quick and cost-effective to implement and will bring immediate benefits. Something else we are hearing a lot from our customers is how they struggle to harness the power of all the data they are collecting. While it’s admirable that they are focusing on data and capturing as much as possible, the reality is the whole process can be for nothing if no valuable insights are being obtained.

One of the keys when it comes to taking advantage of data is making it both meaningful to and accessible to the people who will reap the biggest rewards from it – often your shop floor personnel. Start by asking these individuals and teams what kinds of data they could benefit from and understand how they could potentially use it. These conversations are so important, yet they sometimes do not happen. When they do, we often see specific requests from the shop floor which can be facilitated quickly and cost-effectively, and which bring significant benefits in terms of efficiency, agility and productivity.

By automating manual processes and properly leveraging the data you have, your organisation can start realising agility gains right away, with very little in the way of capital investment.