Enabling the Digital Factory 

Efficiency. Quality. Innovation. These have always been the biggest priorities for every manufacturer, irrespective of their size or their area of business. Yet, the reliance on traditional tools and legacy systems may well be making it difficult to accomplish these priorities.  

One way to overcome existing challenges and roadblocks is to have a digital-first mindset, invest in modern digital solutions and skillsets, and pave the way for a digital factory to enable comprehensive planning and continuous enhancement.   

What is a digital factory and what are its benefits? 

A digital factory is an organizational construct comprising a network of digital models and an array of methods and tools that set the stage for holistic planning, constant evaluation, and continuous improvement of all the main structures, processes, and resources of a real factory.  

Let’s look at its benefits:  

• Streamline and extend transformation: When manufacturers kick-start their digital transformation efforts, most achieve plenty of success when the project is small. But as soon as they try to scale it across the enterprise, they run into problems because they are unable to visualize how the changes they plan to implement will impact the overall functioning of the business. Enabling a digital factory is a great way to get enterprise-wide visibility into how to allocate people, how to secure funds, or what technologies to use – thus streamlining and extending transformation across the manufacturing setup.  
• Advance and increase business agility: Setting up a digital factory also helps in optimizing the operating model of any manufacturing unit. It empowers teams to work in different ways and build new and improved digital capabilities while supporting cross-functional collaboration, so teams can reimagine and transform everyday operations. By bringing different functions together, it allows businesses to better respond to changing market trends and regulatory changes and better mitigate risks that erupt along the journey.  
• Refine and improve operations: A digital factory also allows teams to work in agile sprints and continuously refine and improve operations as they go along. Through constant analysis and visualization of their plans and strategies, manufacturers are in a better position to evaluate the real-world impact of their decisions while making necessary edits to further enhance their bearing.  

How you can enable a digital factory  

A digital factory calls for a whole new set of rules and requires manufacturers to embrace innovative technology solutions to drive cross-functional collaboration, boost performance, and enhance supply chain efficiency. That said, here are 5 ways to enable a digital factory and set yourself up for the best results: 

1. Implement hyperautomation: Implementing automation in combination with advanced technologies like machine learning and artificial intelligence can aid manufacturers in streamlining mundane, everyday processes and creating a strong digital environment. Such automation can not only eliminate the time and costs associated with repetitive, data-heavy tasks; it can also enhance the efficiency of the workforce while allowing them to focus on high-priority tasks that drive real value.  
2. Embrace low-code architecture: Embracing low-code architecture is another way to enable the digital factory. Since modern factories need to respond quickly to changing economic and regulatory changes, low-code software allows for swifter development and deployment of processes and functions – with minimum resources. Using low-code platforms, manufacturers can reduce the amount of time spent on developing application codes and processes, improving not just productivity but also time-to-market schedules.  
3. Invest in data science: Manufacturers that want to enable the digital factory stand to benefit immensely by investing in data science. When equipped with the right data analytics tools and platforms, they can make smarter, data-driven decisions and possess the ability to unearth valuable insights using business intelligence and organized dashboards. Data science can also help in identifying hidden patterns, so teams can drive efforts in the right direction to establish an agile culture and streamline delivery.  
4. Modernize existing systems: Digital factories also need to be able to bring products to the market quickly, while maintaining the required levels of quality. Since legacy systems restrict innovation and growth, setting up a cross-functional business unit within the organization requires modernization of existing systems and robust infrastructure architecture that allows them to cater to multiple apps and solutions across multiple teams and departments. Modernizing rigid and inflexible systems in time can help the business in making the most of advanced digital innovations to drive effective and long-term transformation while also leveraging capabilities across security, performance, and resilience.  
5. Adopt cloud: Adopting the cloud also helps in accelerating the setting up of the digital factory. Since the cloud allows for any time, anywhere access to resources, manufacturers can more easily couple modern digital platforms with new ways of working, quickly bring their ideas on new digital approaches to life, and achieve faster transformation. Cloud also helps streamline costs, so manufacturers can more effectively utilize their budgets and maintain stakeholder trust for subsequent funding.

The promise of digital transformation to the world of manufacturing is vast. As organizations embark on the journey to address the challenges and bottlenecks in modern manufacturing, enabling the digital factory allows them to re-configure their business into something that’s future-proof and adaptable. But as each company is unique in its own way, it requires careful planning and the adoption of unique practices to steer complex decisions and drive the right outcomes. Let us show you how you can make the most of this powerful technology-driven concept.