PROVING IMPACT TODAY Vanishing horizons
Start specific with a long-term vision. By tackling tangible business problems, manufacturers can generate value quickly, building momentum to replace legacy technology without the risk of a full-scaleoverhaul. This prevents the need to ask for huge sums of money for a dream scenario, such as to transform whole systems, improve system resilience or become future fit: these are not business outcomes. With a vanishing horizon, over time technical debt is reduced with incremental implementation. It’s a better frame, bringing technical teams together where everyone is speaking the same language. The research programme highlighted a large bakery manufacturer as an example of this strategy. It was interested in implementing robotics, but it was still largely working on paper and, perhaps unsurprisingly, had issues with communication. The company decided to invest first in digital screens with Chromecast software. Overnight, this improved how everyone shared and recorded information. That momentum has since been used to install the right robotics as leaders realised they better understood what they needed to do with technology.
How do you get a data driven digital transformation off the ground in an organisation as complex and global as BP? One of the largest companies in the world, it took this ‘vanishing horizons’ approach to improve reliability and safety in plants. It started with connecting existing data sets in one platform to provide visibility and focus, bringing experts together to spark new ideas and thinking based on the data, creating a multitude of use cases that improve business outcomes and then improving data with the aid of sensors for these use cases. It’s enabled them to move from more reactive to preventative ways of operating to unlock value. To help a leading UK manufacturer of pastry and plant-based products understand store shoppers, Newton started by switching the company from Excel to machine learning to speed up calculation time by 1,000 times. We could then quickly cluster stores based on shopper missions, analyse product performance and spot and replace underperforming products. These changes led to a 3% net margin improvement. With all the focus on big data, it's important not to lose sight of the power of a well curated small data set and the value it can bring. Growing data availability and quality internally over time, supplemented by strategic data partners with relevant data can add value incrementally while modernising overall data infrastructure. For example, at one drinks manufacturer in the research programme, analytics allowed the commercial teams to see the operational impact of adding more lines, allowing a stock keeping unit (SKU) rationalisation programme.
Building the business case with digital and data
Digital is an enabler, helping to build stronger business cases which bring together newer technologies and automation. It can reveal where to focus to achieve the next level of performance, although by itself, its impact is limited.
Businesses can overcome legacy infrastructure challenges by taking a long-term vision while implementing digital solutions iteratively and delivering tangible business outcomes.
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