Measurement and evaluation of the digitization maturity levels (IoT Scan) and roadmap

The starting point for a feasible and economical IoT and Industry 4.0 strategy is a complete and objective view of the potentials and implementation hurdles of industrial digitization existing in the company. In practice, it has proven to be a good idea to start with a systematic maturity analysis, as most companies already have a large number of digitisation solutions in place, but these often do not follow a consistent strategy. The method of this IoT scan developed by ROI-EFESO consultants ensures transparency and makes it possible to evaluate the initial situation in a structured way, collect ideas and derive approaches for improvement and development. Fields of action are also prioritised and an initial roadmap with concrete implementation measures is drawn up.

Since there are countless technologies and suppliers for every application or task, the management consultancy ROI-EFESO's goal is to find the right technologies and solutions to suit the company and its IT infrastructure. The benefit is always in the foreground. Digital transformation, correctly thought and done, always has a positive ROI. Our customers have shown in many projects that efficiency increases of up to 30% through process redesign are realistic and up to 10% through digital support of existing processes.

ROI-EFESO starts the digital transformation process from two perspectives: Top Down, derived from the corporate strategy and Bottom Up, based on an analysis of the processes, systems & organization to determine the potentials  

When evaluating the digital maturity level, we focus on the following dimensions: The processes in production, logistics, quality, maintenance and their mastery, on the IT architecture and on the company organization. All dimensions are systematically examined and fields of action are developed.

The IoT pyramid, which represents successive stages of digitization, also serves as a reference framework for the maturity assessment:

For a single production plant, the complexity of maturity assessment is relatively low and becomes correspondingly more demanding in a supply network and plant group. From all fields of action, those are identified which represent a benefit for the entire company. Instead of "Proof of Concept", it is therefore a question of "Proof of Value".

These fields of action are consolidated and described in solutions (use cases). The requirement for a solution, even if it was developed at one location, is to take into account the requirements of all. Because the real challenge is not to develop a digital solution, but to ensure its scalability.

The most promising solutions found in this way are transferred into a digital "development plan" with a horizon of typically 5 years and successively detailed and implemented in the plant network.

In order for the industrial digital transformation to succeed, an appropriate organization must be created - here a balance is struck between centralization and decentralization with corresponding degrees of freedom.

In order to be able to pick up speed during implementation, not all solutions should be conceived and rolled out in a pilot plant, but rather, when designing the roadmap, it should be ensured that each relevant plant in the network is responsible for certain topics and can develop these for the sister plants.

Result:

  • Digital transformation can accelerate business processes and thus create competitive advantages. Throughput times from development to production can be reduced by 30%, throughput times in the administrative area by up to 80%.
  • Good digitization solutions are roll-out capable and scalable. The complete roll-out for a ROI-EFESO Aerospace & Defense customer to several plants took only 2 years.
  • Good digitization projects use agile project methods. For example, an engine manufacturer was able to connect entire production lines within two weeks and use the data for digital shop floor management.
  • Digitization helps to avoid or automate interfaces. As a result, manual processes can be partially eliminated or transferred to workflows. People only have to make decisions, non value-adding activities are reduced.
  • In high-wage countries like Germany, digitization can help to drastically reduce personnel costs. The greatest potential lies in the automation of manual interfaces, the use of RPAs, the integration of development, industrial engineering and production, and the automated creation of complex documents such as assembly instructions and work orders, possibly in combination with the use of new automation solutions such as AGVs, Cobots and intelligent goods provisioning.
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