Embracing and adopting cutting-edge digital technologies can supercharge businesses – in both the short-term and the long-term – but while it is in almost every facet of society, the pace at which digitalization is being adopted across industry is still relatively slow.
Siemens Digital Industries Software has conducted a benchmark survey that found despite the enormous potential to improve efficiency and boost productivity offered by digital transformation.
Remarkably, the survey found that nearly half of UK and Ireland machine builders still lack a digitalization strategy and that the potential for adoption of digital transformation is growing rapidly.
According to the benchmark report, over two-thirds of machine builders see increasing productivity and efficiency as the most significant challenge, yet 48% of companies have no strategy at all in place to begin their digital transformation – and interesting figure, considering the digital age we now live in.
Speaking to Machinery about the benchmark survey, Ben Sheath, VP and Managing Director, UK & Ireland, Siemens Digital Industries Software, explains that he has a few main takeaways from the survey’s findings.
He notes that a vast majority of Siemens’ customers have already digitised, but very few of these companies are actually thinking of that and utilising the data in terms of a digitalization strategy.
“Our customers have all this bits of digital data, but how do you join that together to create a value stream in your business and a digitalization strategy that you can then use to transform your business – whether that is to increase productivity, improve product quality, be faster to market – all those kinds of challenges,” Sheath says.
“This then rolled on to a very interesting comment about how a significant number of them were not therefore able to realise the value of that digital data to be able to use it to offer new services or new business models to customers.
“They have the digital data and they are all digital – but there is a lack of a digitalization strategy to join it together. This then therefore becomes an impediment for them to be able to use that information and knowledge to potentially offer alternate services and monetise services into their customer base.”