Facing the COVID-19 pandemic, it is necessary for manufacturing companies to improve innovation in products, services, operations, employee development and other aspects to carry out
digital transformation.
At present, prevention and control and resumption of production have become the two most important words in the epidemic prevention war.
The prevention and control of the epidemic is related to life. Many enterprises have started the "national pick-up" mode, using "rework charter" to pick up their employees to resume production. China is a big manufacturing country, and its economy is running smoothly, especially because of its contribution and strength. Affected by
the COVID-19 epidemic, manufacturing companies that resume production will face challenges such as rising material supply prices and shortages, staff shortages (more difficult to recruit in spring), and capital shortages. The manufacturing industry will see increased product manufacturing costs, lower profits, and even accelerate competition And the survival of the fittest.
In the face of greater pressure, challenges and uncertainties brought by the epidemic, it is urgent for manufacturers to improve innovation, agility and adaptability in terms of products, services, operations and employee development.
First talk about product digitalization. Everyone knows that products are the vitality of manufacturing enterprises. This epidemic has pushed telemedicine to everyone's front, allowing
medical experts to provide guidance across regions and across time and space through digital means. The product development of the medical equipment manufacturing industry behind it is shown in the following figure. Finally, the competition of the system will be built into a system under the trend of telemedicine. ) The system will also interconnect with the medical service system, hospital information system, even medical reimbursement system, medical insurance system, etc. to store the above information in a digital form and store it in a massive way to build an interconnected health system.
Such changes in the intelligent interconnection of industries and products are as PTC CEO Jim Heppelmann wrote in the Harvard Business Review, "Changes in product characteristics are overturning the entire value chain, forcing companies to rethink and reconstruct almost everything inside." As a result, manufacturing companies need to rethink the value of smart connected products that will be integrated into the system in the future, and the value transfer caused by this:
"The transfer of hardware to software: This has a very practical guiding significance for product design. The hardware part of physical products is still very important, such as cars still need a chassis, a tire and a windshield. But software can add more to the car Function. Today a car already contains between 10 million and 100 million lines of software code.
"Embedded to the cloud: embedding software-related functions in physical hardware or placing it
in the cloud not only affects how we design the product, but also how we operate it. By placing product digital components in the cloud, we can create richer User interface, easier remote control, remote upgrade, especially those products that are difficult to reach. At the same time, it also helps to simplify the configuration of physical hardware, shorten the supply chain, accelerate time to market and reduce product production costs. In the future, it will help simplify product interaction and service methods.
"Product to service transfer: This is a business model issue. The reason why the new business model is possible is based on the intelligent interconnection of products. The core of the enterprise has evolved from product sales to bundled products and services, from extended warranty to Performance-based contracts.
Liu Qiang, Senior Vice President of PTC and President of Greater China, also said: "The impact of the epidemic on China's manufacturing industry in the short term is a material supply challenge, rising costs in all aspects, and a shortage of employees. In the long run, the product is the core Increasing the competitive advantage of enterprises. Manufacturing companies should use digital technology to defend and improve their competitive advantages so that they can maintain their undefeated long-term position. "
Second, we talk about the digitization of labor in manufacturing companies. Affected by the isolation of the epidemic and the international delayed resumption policy, enterprises will generally face the problem of labor shortage after resumption of production, especially small and medium-sized enterprises. Even before the epidemic occurred, when I talked to enterprise managers on this topic, some enterprise managers once said that it is difficult to recruit workers. The shortage of labor force will be one of the long-term challenges facing China's manufacturing industry. In his company, employees of the "Double Eleven" factory even took a month off to work as a courier.
When talking about this topic, we must take a look at why people are still important in the future manufacturing enterprises, and why machines / equipment and digitalization cannot replace people. In manufacturing companies, machines / equipment have the physical advantages that people do not have, the advantages of continuous work, and the advantages of resisting harsh environments. The development of
digital technology (IIoT, AR, Cloud) makes machines / devices add more storage capacity, computing power and even smart capacity. But despite this, they still can't replace human advantage. Human conception, creation, innovative thinking, human emotional communication, and professional perceptual motor skills. In this way, in order to allow the three advantages to work together and solve the labor shortage problem, we need to superimpose the advantages of the previous two aspects on people in a better way to help them think, analyze, and make decisions.
Employees and tools that make employees more efficient and powerful are the foundation of digital transformation. The employees of manufacturing companies are not always in traditional offices, they may be in factories, workshops or sales and service sites. Only by narrowing the application of digital technology to the working environment of workers can digital transformation succeed in the enterprise. For hundreds of millions of frontline employees of manufacturing companies, new technologies, such as augmented reality (AR), allow them to interact with real-world environments, increasingly complex products / equipment, and information in many IT systems to quickly obtain 3D insight and decision making.
Liu Qiang, Senior Vice President of PTC and President of Greater China, said: "The value of augmented reality (AR) technology for employees / enterprises' remote assistance is also obvious: For example, due to the impact of the epidemic and quarantine policy, most 4S stores will face menace Status, and AR can help sales staff interact with customers online, 1: 1 size projection models in the real space, experience new functions, customized orders, and well assist employees in remote marketing. "
Once again, let's talk about the
digitization of operational processes. It is the key result of digital transformation to let digital information flow in real-time and synchronously among different regions, departments and roles of enterprises. Turning the process of finding data from the original person into an automated flow of data to find people to greatly improve efficiency and give full play to digital advantages. The high-level organizational goals of this enterprise will be realized in the form of Digital Thread (Digital Thread), which is an emerging technology framework used to connect completely different data flows in the enterprise (covering all functional departments interacted by products to services And all environments), to create a dynamic and free-flowing "digital river. Realize real-time visibility, traceability, decision-making, and predictability of the product's entire value chain operation.
From the perspective of business operations, regardless of the heads of R & D, manufacturing or service departments, they hope to get high-quality data, but also hope to deliver high-quality data to the next link. The upstream and downstream connections of the digital main line can embrace the value of data as a whole and avoid prying eyes. Form a product-centric and business-oriented global operation optimization model. This can improve operational efficiency, shorten product development cycles, and gain a huge competitive advantage.
Summary:
This COVID-19 epidemic may be a turning point for manufacturing companies, and manufacturing companies need to pay more attention to long-term competitive advantage. Need to be down-to-earth and based on the "artisan spirit"; look up the road, pay attention to digitalization, introduce digital technology and tools, and further strengthen your competitive advantages in products, operating processes, personnel, etc., in order to enhance the company's ability to resist risks, and to stay invincible position.
