FEATURE
FROM MYTH TO MAGIC
How collaboration can help us make the most of the ' fourth industrial revolution ’
It ’ s a funny old world . Having spent around 50 years in the pharma , chemical and automation industries , learning and then applying " my trade ", you bump into people who stick . Way back in 1999 , ITS employed John Robinson in our sales team . John spent five years with ITS but was destined for bigger things even then and is currently responsible for the development of SAP ’ s Industry 4.0 go to market strategy in EMEA ( Europe , the Middle-East and Africa ) North . Prior to joining SAP in June 2019 , John ’ s career after ITS included senior roles at EY , Atos and Schneider Electric , but some people you sort of stay in touch with because your thoughts on certain things match . You see things in a similar way , but not the same way , and bouncing ideas off these people helps clarify and articulate your own thoughts .
John and I keep in touch and recently we were discussing why Industry 4.0 , which has been around for a while , hasn ’ t really delivered what either of us think it could have .
Our musings led to a conclusion that while Industry 4.0 offers manufacturers enormous potential value , on our current path , investments in Industry 4.0 will often fall short of our expectations . Our respective companies ( a multinational and an SME ) and manufacturers will be involved in investments that again underdeliver against both their potential and promise .
Why is that the conclusion ? Because customers and suppliers have different requirements of the process : customers think one big supplier will give one bum to kick if it goes wrong and suppliers want all of the pie to themselves . Suppliers operate in different silos and the silos are still largely intact . All of the players still want to follow their established business models .
Industry 4.0 is blurring the lines between the silos and making things more difficult for manufacturers by introducing more technologies , more vendors and more complexity . An audit of a typical facility today will illustrate the large number of suppliers that currently influence customer performance . Each supplier has significant value to bring but they are often fighting to retain or grow their share in preference to any other consideration .
There will usually be some overlap in capability , but there is no real reason not to cooperate . The mandate for collaboration has to be driven by the end customer demanding it from its suppliers . Surely that is in both the customer and supplier ’ s best interests . Achieving this goal is challenging but not impossible .
We must break down the competency silos and the competitive arms-length way of working . How can we expect manufacturing to successfully execute a paradigm shift while the ecosystem of suppliers remains fundamentally unchanged ? The successful recovery we all need can only be delivered through a major change of approach in the supplier ecosystem . It should be an approach based on collaboration and co-opetition .
Of course there are risks – breaking the status quo has its risks and these are often seen as the reason not to change . These risks are real if not dealt with properly and controlled . If they are allowed to be reasons not to make the change then they should be dealt with , and that is where customer focus and the customer strategy for collaboration needs to be strongest . > Outcomes need to justify the time and resources invested . > Flexibility in working practices needs to be monitored . > Decision-making needs to be clear and unbiased . > Scope creep or drift needs to be avoided .
> Damage to brand and reputation needs to be avoided if the responsibility is not clear .
As Henry Ford said : “ If you do what you ’ ve always done , you ’ ll get what you always got .”
At the end of our conversation John made this point : “ I don ’ t have all of the answers , none of us does . What I do have are lots of ideas , a desire to make a difference and a willingness to listen .”
I ’ d agree , none of us , not SAP , not ITS or any other individual supplier , has all the answers . But John ’ s premise that "… an approach based on collaboration
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