ARC Research Reveals That Only Five to Eight Percent of Industrial Process Manufacturers Are Ready for Digital Transformation today
SINGAPORE, 18 September 2019 — At a media briefing hosted during its annual customer conference in Singapore today, AVEVA, a global leader in engineering and industrial software, revealed customer validation of business advantage for industrial and capital intensive organizations who leverage digital transformation projects.
While finance, insurance, health and retail sectors have rapidly harnessed the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and big data to meet the changing needs of their customers, the industrial world has been slower in adopting new technologies. Recent research, conducted by ARC Advisory Group (ARC), of 157 process manufacturers found that there were still barriers in organizational accountability, culture and employee change management that impeded transformation.
Moderating the session today, Craig Resnick, Vice President at ARC Advisory Group, said, “Despite the transformational road not being a straight path, digital transformation is a key driver of change that opens new opportunities for companies to grow and create value. The key to successful digitalization is an agile, digital-savvy leadership that sets forth a strategic vision for organizations, and effectively infuses a digital mindset across the entire workforce.”
During AVEVA’s media session AVEVA’s CEO, Craig Hayman, alongside senior executives from Worley, leading provider of projects and expertise in engineering, procurement and construction, the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company and Nestle Worldwide, stressed that it was time for the industrial sector to embrace innovative technology to drive positive business outcomes in order to realize greater productivity, optimize energy consumption and the return on investment.
Order of panelists from left to right: Craig Resnick, Craig Hayman, Abdul Nasser Al Mughairbi, Thierry Friant and David Makin
Time to Break Down Barriers to Adoption
According to research conducted by ARC, although more than eighty percent of industrial process manufacturers are piloting advanced technology, only five to eight percent of them are ready for digital transformation today. The main barriers to adoption, according to ARC, are organizational makeup and scalability of use cases and users while the biggest driver of digital transformation in the industrial sector is the need to address the business consequences of unplanned downtime.
“It’s never been easier to begin a digital transformation program, as cheap access to cloud computing, great connectivity, a merged edge and enterprise combined with analytics and machine learning, means that the ability to digitally drive productivity improvements into the industrial world is now unprecedented, “commented Craig Hayman, CEO of AVEVA. “Leaders driving the next wave of transformation know they must move quickly. AVEVA works as a partner to accelerate organizations on their digital journey, helping them accelerate the use of digital technology, realize the value of a digital twin and build a digital team.”
Untold Benefits of Digital Transformation for The Industrial Sector
The benefits of digital transformation in the industrial sector are many. Improved asset health will result in a reduction in unplanned downtime and better asset performance, while incident prediction capabilities have the power to lower operational risk and protect worker safety. Furthermore, cognitive learning can deliver digitized intelligence resulting in knowledge and experience being freely available throughout the organization.
At the conference, Craig Hayman also outlined three key steps to accelerating the organizational digital transformational journey. Firstly, he urged organizations to ‘snap in’ a unified operating center to visualize the industrial data they already had. Secondly, organizations need to use data to free up the OPEX or operating budget, build a knowledge graph about an asset as well as utilize machine learning and artificial intelligence to predict when it will fail before it fails. This process called Asset Performance Management or APM, is a hot area that has moved very quickly with a lot of innovation. Finally, organizations should use their data to remove risk bringing simulation into engineering design and using the cloud to eliminate legacy workflows.
“Over time, these three steps combine into an end-to-end digital twin, that spans from an organization’s original engineering data through to operational performance and maintenance work,” commented Hayman. “By leveraging the integrated data and analytical capabilities of the individual digital twin, companies can embark on true digitalization to optimize their asset’s lifecycle. This process begins with the initial capital investments right through to the operating phase of a modern plant, refinery, or smart city.”
Customer Quotes
- The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) is one company which has led the way in the oil and gas industry by utilizing cutting-edge AVEVA technology to deliver unsurpassed success. Abdul Nasser Al Mughairbi, Senior Vice President, Digital, at ADNOC commented: “ADNOC’s state-of-the-art operations across the entire oil and gas value chain, including modelling, simulation and analytics solutions, have enabled us to drive greater production efficiencies as part of our digital transformation journey.”
- Worley, the leading global provider of professional project and asset services in the energy, chemicals and resources sectors, has combined its own Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) knowledge with AVEVA’s industrial software expertise to deliver the first cloud-based Enterprise Resource Management solution. David Makin, Senior Vice President, Integrated Digital Operations, Worley, said, “Worley's digital evolution started when we recognized we had to change our traditional ways of working. Over recent years, we've invested significantly in developing our people to better understand and apply new ways of working in the digital environment; and that's just one step in our evolution. We continue to look at ways of automating what we do, developing our people and creating more efficient ways of working with our customers that wouldn't be possible without embracing digital change.”
- Thierry Friant, Cereal Partners Worldwide Global Operations Excellence Initiative, Nestlé, commented, “in a context where consumers habits are changing quickly, customers asking for more personalization, while competitors become more agile, investing in new technologies is seen as one of the lever to increase speed to Market, reduce total delivered costs, and become more agile. Nestlé recently kicked off a global initiative called connected operations to embrace technologies such as Cobots, AGVs, advanced analytics, predictive solutions, digital solutions to better connect our workforces.”
About ARC Advisory Group
Founded in 1986, ARC Advisory Group is the leading technology research and advisory firm for industry, infrastructure, and cities. ARC stands apart due to our in-depth coverage of both operational technologies (OT) and engineering technologies (ET) and associated business trends. Our analysts and consultants have the industry knowledge and the first-hand experience to help our clients find the best answers to the complex business issues facing organizations today. We provide our technology supplier clients with strategic market research and help our end user clients develop appropriate adoption strategies and select the best technology solutions for their needs.
About AVEVA
AVEVA is a global leader in engineering and industrial software driving digital transformation across the entire asset and operations life cycle of capital-intensive industries. The company’s engineering, planning and operations, asset performance, and monitoring and control solutions deliver proven results to over 16,000 customers across the globe. Its customers are supported by the largest industrial software ecosystem, including 4,200 partners and 5,700 certified developers. AVEVA is headquartered in Cambridge, UK, with over 4,400 employees at 80 locations in over 40 countries. For more details visit: www.aveva.com.
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