Latin America. The era of digital transformation is not only in front of us, it is also developing at a dizzying pace and generating new conceptions of every aspect of our lives. Connectivity, predictability, simplicity, speed and agility are the digital pillars on which the future success of companies will depend.
Schneider Electric knows that a successful and profitable company manages its expenses and revenues and, as digitalization spreads around the world, puts into operation the convergence of computer (IT) and operational (OT) technologies, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIot) and collaboration solutions to achieve greater visibility of the operation and more efficiently manage the company's assets.
Taking into account this panorama, today more than ever, we must learn to manage different processes within companies and industries. Below you will find some tips that will make it possible to manage profitability more accurately and more holistically.
1. Planning management
The convergence of planning and production data, plus the contextualization of that information with respect to external factors that affect your company, can have a real impact on the profitability of production. To have context, think about how the weather affects a farmer in real time; Thunderstorms or other phenomena can influence logistics, it is possible that a flood will make roads impassable for heavy transportation bringing problems to the production schedule. In these scenarios, integrating weather forecasts with planning and production schedules can help companies make sound and informed decisions to avoid delaying production until it is feasible to maximize profitability.
2. Customer order management
The digitalization of orders and their management from all business data increase and protect the profitability of organizations, this is achieved through the convergence of computer technology systems and operational technology data, which contributes to putting information in context intelligently to make appropriate decisions on how to produce each order profitably. Digitalization also helps improve immediate customer service, providing the visibility needed to quickly answer questions about when your orders will be produced and shipped, and at what price, for example.
The digitization of order management involves putting all the information related to an order: terms and conditions; income per unit; product data; quantities and deadlines, in the context of planning and production data, but also of information on the availability and price of raw materials. In addition, by linking HR systems, labor can be calculated in terms of salaries, staff availability, and the potential cost of hiring additional collaborators.
3. Resource management
Resource management is another key element to manage profitability, it is one of the main aspects in which management can be improved and profitability increased. For example, good energy management achieves significant savings, thanks to data that allows us to know how much energy is wasted inside a plant or in machines. With this information, real-time measures are taken, which can reduce energy costs without having an impact on production. The result is improved profitability.
It is also possible to optimize material waste by digitizing a process and using a digital twin to design an object and its production tool: with one the other is optimized to achieve a balance between functionality and productivity while minimizing material waste. The use of digital tools reaches the point where profitability is maximized and risk in actual production is reduced.
4. Asset management
Connecting production assets optimizes their use, ensuring that the best performance is achieved without damaging the asset. In addition, connected products are easier to maintain throughout the service life since it is possible to perform maintenance tasks before the assets are damaged.
A single machine can affect your ability to deliver new orders cost-effectively. If the machine is accelerated to increase performance, the higher the vibration could be and be dangerous or register a performance below its capacity, on the other hand that limitation will have an impact on the ability to add shifts when large orders arrive and, in turn, will affect the number of personnel needed, along with many other variables. Thanks to digitization, you can leverage performance data collected from a connected machine to decide on its ability to cope with new orders cost-effectively.
5. Knowledge management
At the application level, analytics tools and services, predictive modeling software can have a real impact on a company's profitability. Knowledge management solutions developed around a central database strengthen work processes and allow knowledge to be shared among a broad spectrum of users within an organization. The result is a better understanding of product quality and greater responsiveness, which means it is possible to optimize business planning and make better decisions quickly.
In conclusion, digitalization allows the convergence of data associated with planning and production, customer orders, asset and waste management, with computer data and analysis tools to visualize "virtually" the profitability of a project, even before it starts.
