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10 Elements for senseful digitalization projects

The whole world is talking about digitalization, in order to gain from the optimization and efficiency of our state-of-the-art digital world. Therefore, the target and the expectations are clear. Now it comes to the point to bring the visions and concepts to life and action.

The key to a successful way is to generate a masterplan which is built of a clear roadmap to structure important milestones for the long journey to digitalization. These milestones cover not only technology or tools, but also the organization and human beings.

Benefit from the long-term experience in how to integrate various generations of technology and organizations in the field of yard management and logistics in the cement and aggregates industries. You will obtain tools and methods of how to shape a senseful way to digitalization under consideration of technology, organization and human being.

Digitalization – Benefits and Challenges

When talking about digitalization, most of the arguments are just scratching the surface and leave people behind with the impression of something needs to be done, but there are too many options, activities and opportunities, so that it is needful to watch behind the scenes and to clear the facets up to yourself.

No doubt, that there are lots of things you can benefit from, like:

Business process optimization

Digitalization will help you to increase efficiency and speed in your business processes. This also forms the basis for further automation. Higher transparency gives the change for much better business decisions.

Modern way of work

Benefits by introducing collaboration tools and integrated workflows supports the use of flexible work models in terms of time and location.

Making your company crisis proof and unleash new sales potential

Times and markets are changing fast and so digitalization can increase your level of resilience for crisis situations. This chance can also bring added value to your clients or even open new business models or sales channels.

These benefits sound really great, but there is also a second side of the medal, and these challenges should not be disregarded.

Investment

Digitalization requires investment in people skills, hardware and software. Without the will to release certain budget, no digitalization project will be successful. Employees must also be motivated to change and be willing to embrace new ideas.

Awareness of risks

It should not be concealed, that digitalization brings risks, which need to be addressed and taken into account while performing a digitalization project. Cyber security needs to be a key aspect when we talk about interfaces or higher integration of systems. You will not be the only one, stepping into digitalization. This means new and even disruptive business models can and will come up and jeopardize your business.

You will not be the only one, stepping into digitalization. This means new and even disruptive business models can and will come up and jeopardize your business.

Digitalization will happen, there is no way around. Take the challenge and benefit from it. The following chapters describe a few tips and tricks for the cement industry to make digitization projects successful.

10 Elemente für sinnvolle Digitalisierungs-Projekte_Axians IAS

Level of Digitalization in the cement industry

Having a look at the digitalization in the cement industry we can identify six areas to have a deeper look on. The areas of raw material extraction and raw material preparation are quite well balanced in terms of digitalization and the effect of more digitalization does not bring ground-breaking benefits to the business. Quite similar is the field from raw material processing (raw mill), clinker production (kiln) and cement production (cement mill). The focus is already set into these areas and modern equipment provides well designed digitalization features.

The area of logistics, on the other hand, requires a little more attention. Of course, there is computerization and network integration quite often in place, but the integration into the supply chain processes is quite weak and therefore transparency and 3^rd party communication falls by the wayside.

Based on our experience this section of the cement industry is worth to pay more attention on and hides a huge potential of optimization through digitalization.

10 Elements for senseful digitalization projects

Until now we have been discussing about potential fields where digitalization could bring in the most benefit to your business. The next level is to find a good approach to set up digitalization projects in order to transform the ideas into real value. Some key aspects are collected and described here as the 10 elements for a senseful digitalization, which have been developed over long years of project and digitalization experience. These elements will not fit every situation, but are a good guide to consider different aspects.

1. Analysis

Before doing anything, it is essential to answer the “why” it should be digital and “what” is the benefit for the company. Just because there is a technology should not be the reason to start a project. Focusing on the business benefit prevents from investing into wrong topics. Digitalization does not mean to computerize what is already existing. Including the people running that business today is a good idea and brings in precious business cases.

2. Prioritization

Even a carefully executed analysis will bring either a high number of topics or tap into a huge story. Now it is essential to give priority in order to receive digestible pieces which fit into the budget, but also can be accepted by the business which needs to change the way of work. Even a far away goal can be reached by several small projects and allows intermediate results to settle and to readjust.

3. What is already digital

While analyzing the process flow, some process elements are already a kind of digital. It is worth to have a closer look and to evaluate if this piece has the ability to be a nucleus for further expansion or really needs to be replaced.

4. Communication

People are key to a successful digitalization. The combination of the enthusiasm provided by young digital native starters and the experience of old-established employees is the engine of digitalization. Communication needs to be spread into various directions. Management wants to understand the benefit in order to release budget for digitalization projects. Business gives precious information to implement value bringing processes and tools.

5. Using Standards

Even if the expectation of a digital process is very individual, the only way to complete a digitalization project within a reasonable framework is to build on standards as much as possible. This helps in establishing interfaces to other systems, but also keeps the chance to maintain the solution over long time. For sure typical challenges in a digitalization project have been solved somewhere before and you can benefit from this experience and save money.

6. Seek for help

There are several companies on the same digital journey. Seeking for knowledge exchange with partner, clients, external experts or even with competitors will support the digitalization project and enriches with new insights and solutions.

7. Plan and adjust

Each and any project needs precise planning. Digitalization projects are quite tricky in this matter. Technology in digitalization is quite dynamic and therefore plans needs to be adjusted to new features or better solutions available in the meantime. The key is to find the right balance between adjusting a plan without getting confused by too many options.

8. Step by step

Closing the link to the element of prioritization means to develop the digital journey in small and digestible pieces. This keeps flexibility, budget overview and provides success stories by finishing each single step.

9. Stay curious

Continuously new trends, technology or solution platform are pupping up to the market. Having the eyes open to at least know about the latest developments enlarges the own knowledge and options. Of course lots of them will come and go and it dies not make sense to hunt behind each and any trend. But being online sharpens the feeling of real progress.

10. Digital network

Establishing a digital network facilitates the exchange of experience between similar problems and enriches the company’s own digitalization landscape. Recommendations, tips and tricks or even negative experiences from the digital network will save lots of energy and cost on your digital journey.

As conclusion it is to say that the field of digitalization is such a huge playground where it needs a wise choice of decisions to find the senseful way into digitalization. There is no wrong or right, but at the end you are responsible to find your own and individual pathway trough the jungle of options. The only fact is, that digitalization will happen – with or without you.

E-Book: The master plan for digitalization in the bulk goods industry

The transition to digitalized process management in the bulk goods industry is complex and requires foresighted planning. This guide will show you how to overcome this challenge and make your processes more effective.

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