Digital transformation is an innovation and productivity accelerator but it is also a multifaceted undertaking with a number of important considerations. Today, only 16 percent of industrial organizations have embarked on enterprise-wide digital transformation programs. The ultimate goal of any digital transformation program is to turn investment into results but this can be easier said than done.
The first step in any digital transformation journey is to develop a strategic plan that addresses priority use cases, business justification, change management, and an execution roadmap for technology implementation and support. Customize these fields to your unique objectives and digital maturity level.
An outcome-based approach to technology can help identify the most attainable, high potential use cases that bring faster return on investment. With a business-first mindset, begin by identifying your biggest challenges, the underlying use cases, and key enablers such as the technology, processes and people that solve them. Collaborate with partners that have global OT and IT expertise who can help you quickly identify and implement repeatable, scalable, cost-effective solutions.
The Rockwell Automation Digital Transformation Strategy Consulting team can help you not only navigate the digital transformation process but also accelerate its value. We can work with you on a strategic plan that addresses priority use cases, business justification, change management, and an execution roadmap for technology implementation and support. All customized to your unique objectives and digital maturity level.
Stanley Black & Decker knew that digital transformation is the key to creating a more collaborative and innovative brand so they called on Rockwell Automation to help accelerate their journey.
The task at-hand
What does the largest toolmaker in the world do when it wants to build something new? That was a central question for Stanley Black & Decker, the 177-year-old creator of some of the most iconic industrial and household tools on the market. The company had a desire to innovate all areas of its business, including operations and manufacturing, workforce enablement, and supply chain.
As Stanley Black & Decker embarked upon its digital transformation, the company wanted to leverage Industry 4.0 tools, technologies and strategies to help its customers. The company also wanted to rethink how it enables its own business through technology, how it makes products and how it sells those products through the supply chain.
At the end of its four-year effort, Stanley Black & Decker’s leadership hopes to create $200 - $250M of value capture with an additional benefit of around $100M in enterprise shared services value.
Creating a Connected Enterprise
Stanley Black & Decker has continually performed at a high level but found that some processes required intense manual efforts to deliver on expected results. Leaders knew that a digital transformation program could help modify processes to be more data-driven and automated across the entire supply chain, and ultimately improve performance.
“One of the biggest challenges, especially for a traditional industrial manufacturing company is the issue which I call lazy, rusty asset syndrome,” said Sudhi Bangalore, vice president, Industry 4.0, Stanley Black & Decker. “We have plants that are really old – tremendously profitable but have a lot of legacy both in terms of practices as well as assets and processes.”
The first step to enabling digital transformation was to create a smart Connected Enterprise to act as a backbone for uncovering and unleashing data. This involved building a holistic set of enterprise applications and control towers to connect 122 factories and 15 distribution centers.
Investing in people
A second incentive for a digital transformation program is Stanley Black & Decker’s focus on creating value and opportunity for employees. Through comprehensive up-skilling and reskilling of 61,000 employees, the company is creating new and more rewarding career paths for employees and increasing retention.
For example, an approach to ‘elevating work’ could mean taking an employee trained in assembly and reskilling them to also play a role in quality oversight using data-driven systems and digital tools. Enabling employees with high-value digital skills also empowers them to make more strategic business-driven decisions, leading to new ideas and a better approach to work.
Building an infrastructure to support remote enablement is also part of the digitalization program. Spurred partly by the pandemic, remote access, monitoring and control will encourage employees to collaborate across factories, regions and countries to make strategic data-driven decisions even while off site.
“We never went into a plant and said, ‘we’re going to design something for you.’ We always leverage plant champions for insight.”
Driving engagement
At about 18 months into a multi-year program, Stanley Black & Decker is well on its way to full scale digital transformation, and still learning in the process.
“One strategy we put into practice was to leverage people across the organization to help ‘champion’ change,” Bangalore said. “We are combatting skepticism and driving adoption through smart engagement of plant champions who are helping build the bridge between technology and its impact on people.”
Another area that has brought about a lot of learning has been the timeframe. The company wants to connect its many sites in a timeframe of months, not years.
“That has been a foundation focus and one that has taken a lot of testing,” Bangalore said. “And we’re getting to a point where we’re now comfortable in saying that we are ready to actively deploy it at scale in each plant in about a month or two.”
Making digital transformation work
As can be seen through Stanley Black and Decker’s transformation journey, the road to greater operational efficiency and lower costs starts with a hard look at your organization in terms of where you are, what you have and where you want to be.
Companies that have successfully moved past the pilot phase started by evaluating current and future business requirements, technology infrastructure and organizational readiness.
This holistic view can help define early on how to make digital transformation work for you and where to start.
With the right strategy in place, successful companies have been able to articulate the return on investment and value of digital transformation. They have developed a clear strategy to improve KPIs including yield, asset and labor utilization, quality and cost effectiveness. In addition, they have gained alignment and drove adoption across their organization.
Digital transformation will continue to be a priority for successful companies as they start on the journey to their next competitive advantage.
