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The Time to Digitize is Now
The COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented challenges for manufacturers. Many are seizing the opportunity to fast-track their digital transformation to build more sustainable and resilient operations.
While the COVID-19 pandemic has created many obstacles for companies, enterprising manufacturers are speeding up their digitization plans to overcome these barriers. In the process, they are realizing that new digital tools can have transformative effects across their organizations.
Digital technologies aren’t just providing short term benefits. They are changing the way that companies operate and creating shifts in business models that will continue long past the pandemic. Now that companies are understanding how to drive value from data, and how IoT, artificial intelligence, predictive analytics and automation can dramatically improve their operations, they won’t go back. Meanwhile, companies that do not make use of these tools could place themselves at a competitive disadvantage.
Ensuring business continuity
In the short term, companies have focused on leveraging technologies to run their operations amidst the disruptions posed by the pandemic. Ecolab’s Remote Assist programme supports customers with mixed reality and IoT technology when access to a facility is restricted. The Ecolab field representative wears mixed reality goggles to transmit live audio, video and other information from inside a facility back to a team of experts that can guide the operation (think of it like a guided moon mission, but the astronaut is in your manufacturing facility). This ensures social distancing during COVID-19 and it gives Ecolab access to facilities that have closed or restricted access during the pandemic, helping to keep them active when they have faced reduced operations or complete shutdowns.
With a digital tool like mixed reality enabling Remote Assist, response times are quicker and multiple experts can collaborate to diagnose and troubleshoot customer problems without having to travel to the site. This saves time and money while boosting efficiency. Our customers are also using this technology to troubleshoot mechanical malfunctions, audit operations, identify leaks, train new employees, and install equipment. This is just one example of how digital tools can boost not only productivity, but resiliency in the face of unprecedented challenges.
Profitability meets sustainability
While we face this pandemic, other challenges can’t wait. The existential threats of climate change and water scarcity demand that industries around the globe take action to lower carbon emissions, conserve water and reduce waste. By deploying transformative digital innovation and adopting best practices, manufacturers can achieve their business and financial goals with a net-zero carbon and water footprint.
By harnessing the power of billions of data points, cloud-to-cloud integration, and digital twin technology, companies can assess performance across their enterprise and optimise their operations in real time. A cloud-based digital platform such as ECOLAB3D™ uses predictive analytics and machine learning (backed by a global team of on-site and remote experts) to help companies optimise their operations and reduce their environmental footprint at the same time. By leveraging technology and adopting circular water strategies that go beyond their factory fence, companies can not only reduce their water use, but have a positive water impact in the watersheds they operate.
Get started now
There are very practical steps that your organisation can take today to speed up your digitization journey. The key is getting started and accepting that it won’t be perfect out the gate, but it will pay off sooner than later. To succeed, companies will have to build highly agile and collaborative organizations that embrace a start-up mindset. It will require upskilling current associates and hiring digital natives, creating new roles, retooling incentives, and revamping the back office. And don’t look just inside your company: Work with external partners such as customers, suppliers, and technology companies to learn new skills and build an integrated digital ecosystem.
Let’s seize this opportunity to transform the industry, empower our associates and build a sustainable future. The time to digitize is now.
While the COVID-19 pandemic has created many obstacles for companies, enterprising manufacturers are speeding up their digitization plans to overcome these barriers. In the process, they are realizing that new digital tools can have transformative effects across their organizations.
Digital technologies aren’t just providing short term benefits. They are changing the way that companies operate and creating shifts in business models that will continue long past the pandemic. Now that companies are understanding how to drive value from data, and how IoT, artificial intelligence, predictive analytics and automation can dramatically improve their operations, they won’t go back. Meanwhile, companies that do not make use of these tools could place themselves at a competitive disadvantage.
Ensuring business continuity
In the short term, companies have focused on leveraging technologies to run their operations amidst the disruptions posed by the pandemic. Ecolab’s Remote Assist programme supports customers with mixed reality and IoT technology when access to a facility is restricted. The Ecolab field representative wears mixed reality goggles to transmit live audio, video and other information from inside a facility back to a team of experts that can guide the operation (think of it like a guided moon mission, but the astronaut is in your manufacturing facility). This ensures social distancing during COVID-19 and it gives Ecolab access to facilities that have closed or restricted access during the pandemic, helping to keep them active when they have faced reduced operations or complete shutdowns.
With a digital tool like mixed reality enabling Remote Assist, response times are quicker and multiple experts can collaborate to diagnose and troubleshoot customer problems without having to travel to the site. This saves time and money while boosting efficiency. Our customers are also using this technology to troubleshoot mechanical malfunctions, audit operations, identify leaks, train new employees, and install equipment. This is just one example of how digital tools can boost not only productivity, but resiliency in the face of unprecedented challenges.
Profitability meets sustainability
While we face this pandemic, other challenges can’t wait. The existential threats of climate change and water scarcity demand that industries around the globe take action to lower carbon emissions, conserve water and reduce waste. By deploying transformative digital innovation and adopting best practices, manufacturers can achieve their business and financial goals with a net-zero carbon and water footprint.
By harnessing the power of billions of data points, cloud-to-cloud integration, and digital twin technology, companies can assess performance across their enterprise and optimise their operations in real time. A cloud-based digital platform such as ECOLAB3D™ uses predictive analytics and machine learning (backed by a global team of on-site and remote experts) to help companies optimise their operations and reduce their environmental footprint at the same time. By leveraging technology and adopting circular water strategies that go beyond their factory fence, companies can not only reduce their water use, but have a positive water impact in the watersheds they operate.
Get started now
There are very practical steps that your organisation can take today to speed up your digitization journey. The key is getting started and accepting that it won’t be perfect out the gate, but it will pay off sooner than later. To succeed, companies will have to build highly agile and collaborative organizations that embrace a start-up mindset. It will require upskilling current associates and hiring digital natives, creating new roles, retooling incentives, and revamping the back office. And don’t look just inside your company: Work with external partners such as customers, suppliers, and technology companies to learn new skills and build an integrated digital ecosystem.
Let’s seize this opportunity to transform the industry, empower our associates and build a sustainable future. The time to digitize is now.
