Why digitalisation?
Technological development has never advanced so quickly, and as a company, it is vital to stay up to date and retain your competitive edge. Several new digital tools and methods have become available, and can be seen as a means of enabling greater customer value for the company. Products and equipment which can communicate externally and with each other (the Internet of Things) have become firmly established, and the field which is likely to have the greatest impact on companies is artificial intelligence.
Digitalisation can create value and benefits across a range of enterprises. It could be devising strategies for a new product or service, implementing a new manufacturing process or boosting employee’s digitalisation skills and creating attractive work. Greater access to data volumes (big data) creates opportunities to more effectively analyse and evaluate data before making decisions. At the same time, it is becoming increasingly important to ensure that relevant and accurate data is measured and fed into the new advanced models. To find out more, check out the Swerea IVF film below.
Some of the advantages of digitalisation are increased productivity, flexibility, customer benefit, inspection and quality, which boost the company’s competitive edge.
Below, our project partners in edig give their views on why you digitize:
AB Volvo: Although we have come a long way in some areas, we strongly believe that continued digitalisation has a great potential to improve our business. The first step in this journey is to increase our digitalisation skills to better understand how the new technologies will generate added value for our customers; and it affects everyone within our company - not just those involved in developing and implementing digital solutions. With edig we can reach out to many in our organization with relatively simple means. Listen to Jan Ohlsson, Executive Vice President at Volvo Group Trucks Operations, telling more about it in this video.
Volvo Cars: To achieve the company’s mission – “Our global success will be driven by engaged people. A customer-focused value chain from supplier to world-class cars.” – the necessary digital expertise must be in place. The digital factory must also be accessible at every level, both internally and externally (suppliers), with digital content creating value for the user.
ABB: We believe we will be increasingly connecting the digital systems which are distributed by each member of these extended supply chains. This enables cross-system “cooperation” which is made easier when systems are connected to the cloud. Cooperation will be system-to-system as well as person-to-person (with video communication technology reinforced by virtual/augmented reality).
CGM/ABB AB: In order to remain competitive, it is important to meet future challenges by embracing the digital era, which will change the entire industrial landscape and the traditional ways in which we do business. Fields such as AI, automation, AR, VR and 5G are fundamental, shaping the way we integrate our environment and technology. This will change our behavior. It is important to understand how this is set to change the way we behave, and give meaning to big data, in order to improve the health and well-being of people as well as the nature around us.
SKF: Digitalisation is vitally important to us for two reasons: (1) To develop our own production in order to make it more effective and even better from a work environmental perspective. (2) From a customer’s perspective, digital technology makes it possible to more easily monitor that machinery and applications operate as intended. We receive signals about deviations even more quickly, enabling us to make reliable forecasts on the scheduling of upgrade and replacement of components. With user-friendly smartphone applications, for example, individual operators on the floor can gain full control of a machine’s condition and ensure maintenance routines are applied. Watch a short film in which Victoria van Camp talks about the future.
Swedish Match: For the factories within Swedish Match, digitalisation is primarily concerned at present with securing the exchange of information between systems, humans and machines. With a secure environment, and the right data reaching the right recipient at the right time, we can create a more stable process which gives people a greater opportunity to make the right decision. In addition, when information is made available to a greater extent, we can more easily identify the information which most effectively helps us to pursue better and more targeted improvement measures. Watch more here.
Prevas: Digitalisation enables the improvement and optimisation of efficiency in production. Connected equipment monitored by smart systems increases accessibility and capacity, leading to greater throughput and lower production costs. At the same time, digitalisation of manufactured products enables new streams of revenue through new, innovative service portfolios and new opportunities to interact with the end-user. Digitalisation enables increased revenues through improvements to products and more insight into production.
Good Solutions: Digitalisation enables us to adopt a more fact-based approach to work and gain ongoing access to information, instructions and material at the right place at the right time. We call this Data-driven Production, which eliminates the need to search for materials and instructions and offers peace of mind that the information provided is up to date. This includes everything from work instructions and first-byte checks to obtaining facts on production outcomes in your mobile.
XMReality: Digitalisation is an absolute necessity for companies who wish to continue to be successful and competitive, and those who choose not to develop their business models and concepts using digital technology will be overtaken by those who do. It’s a case of utilising new technology and changing or renewing not only business models, but even industries. Augmented reality (AR) provides the opportunity to work smarter, with greater quality and at a significantly lower cost, with everyone given the right information at the right time, wherever they are located.
