At TE Connectivity, a manufacturer of sensors and connectors, we have made important progress toward digital transformation. Being technology-driven, we realized the value and virtuous cycle being well-positioned for the new realities Industry 4.0  could create by permitting increased efficiencies through a more connected factory environment. Nevertheless, TE swiftly learned that there’s no “magic bullet” to utilize in the journey toward going digital. Put simply, what might work in one area, might not work for the next. Often, the processes and regulations are different between geographies and sometimes even from line to line in the same plant, requiring a bespoke approach and custom proof of concepts for each different project.

 

TE’s initial focus has been on creating new connections between manufacturing and IT, and empowering value throughout its business — primarily by gaining access to, and then operationalizing, data that was not earlier available. A vital part of TE’s transformation journey was developing the digital transformation skills, leadership, and overall mindset required to move its strategy forward. There was a degree of uncertainness connected with doing something new, mainly around the lack of clarity related to the economic benefits of going digital, so a new approach was needed to help build confidence.

 

Beginning with pilots, to help get this clarity before rolling out greater efforts on a crucial scale helped gain traction in developing a digital culture at TE, building tolerance regarding potential failures and establishing measures to make certain any missteps served as learning opportunities. With 8,000 engineers on our team, TE knows that encountering a few bumps on the road is par for the course with innovation, learning, and culture transformation. As a result of our own experiences, TE has identified a number of best practices for manufacturers looking to embark on their own digital transformation journey.

 

1. Create use cases that clearly demonstrate opportunities to drive business impact

 

As a first step, having solid use cases in place can help demonstrate opportunities to save money, gain flexibility through reduced changeover time, and improve overall performance through predictive maintenance, among other advantages. As TE started its rollout of improvements internally, it put forth various such pilots. Many of these resulted in use cases demonstrating enough added value to gain the internal support needed to make larger changes all over the business. The pilots tested proof of concepts to comprehend whether implementing a digital solution would bring about the anticipated value, whether it’s cost savings or a boost in efficiency.

 

With various digital factory tools available, the choice of which to implement and in what order will depend on each site’s specific requirements. Each site will have different challenges and priorities, which need to be addressed with different tools. A solution that worked in one area won’t fundamentally yield the same results in another. In some cases, the money and effort to connect a machine may even outweigh the anticipated benefits. The bottom line is that using small-scale pilots as a foundation is useful for determining particular inefficiencies and challenges when implementing customized solutions.

 

2. Start with existing offerings and add connectivity to what’s already there

 

Right after the use cases were determined, the next key step was to identify opportunities for improvement and establish what was needed to enable near real-time data-driven decision-making in the product environment. Whether adding sensors, or processes for aggregating, this can help prevent unnecessary costs as well as efforts to reinvent the wheel. In addition, manufacturers at the beginning of their digital transformation journey should focus on identifying the high-value-add products and processes that will provide the greatest efficiencies and highest return on investment.

 

3. Ensure you have a data architecture that can support your IoT vision

 

Another fundamental factor for manufacturers to consider is ensuring they have the data architecture to support their IoT vision, customized according to latency, safety and security requirements. For TE, it was a combination of edge, fog and cloud computing solutions, enabling data to be suddenly processed at the edge, or be sent to an MES (Manufacturing Execution System) or central server system, or which could pipe the data directly to the cloud for storage and processing to enable updates over time.

 

4. Build an ecosystem of partners

 

Implementing new connected technologies and processes requires complicated integrations and an ecosystem of partners. No single company can supply all the equipment needed for a complete digital transformation solution. There are just just too many specialties involved. The easiest way to overcome this is to identify partners and then work with them to define, enable, and support any remaining pieces. By working closely with the right partner, companies can optimize internal costs related to digital production, and leverage the unique knowledge the partner has gained, developed, and advanced from previous digital transformation initiatives.

 

5. Be flexible, but focused

 

Connecting machines and visualizing and analyzing the data can be like reducing the water level in a river and exposing proverbial rocks and obstacles. As awareness of what was once hidden increases, navigation becomes fundamental; action and course corrections become imperative. Large, unavoidable 'rocks' – like machine utilization, run time, wait times, and repair times – are no longer hidden by the 'water' (i.e. manually calculated efficiency metrics, or older standards). Remaining flexible enough to course correct when needed while staying focused on your overall digital transformation goals will subsequently pay off. Because of its early transformation efforts, TE is already reaping the benefits, including shorter lead times, lower production costs and a reduction in the amount of scrap.

 

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