How can you align your strategic goals with industry 4.0 objectives?

Begin by conducting a comprehensive SWOT analysis, with the context being Industry 4.0. This involves understanding the impact of digitalization on all facets of your business and industry. For example, if you're in manufacturing, assess how various Use Cases such as Automation, Digital Twins, and Predictive Maintenance could affect your production efficiency and product quality. Evaluate your digital maturity by benchmarking your current tech stack, workforce digital skills, and digital culture against industry standards. Identifying gaps in these areas will highlight critical areas for improvement and investment.

To align strategic goals with Industry 4.0 objectives, prioritize digital transformation initiatives that enhance efficiency, agility, and innovation, invest in emerging technologies such as IoT, AI, blockchain, and robotics, foster a culture of experimentation and collaboration to drive continuous improvement, train employees to adapt to new technologies and ways of working, forge partnerships with technology providers and industry peers to stay abreast of trends and best practices, and regularly review and adjust strategic goals to remain competitive in the rapidly evolving landscape of Industry 4.0.

Set a vision that describes your aspirations within the Industry 4.0 and provides a clear direction. For instance, your vision could be to become the leading provider of Smart Manufacturing solutions in your industry, improving operational efficiency and sustainability. Your mission should detail the approach, emphasizing innovation, customer-centric solutions, and sustainability. Ensure these statements are aligned with the overarching goals of Industry 4.0, like resilience, flexibility, and sustainability.

Aligning your strategic goals with Industry 4.0 objectives means focusing on digital transformation in ways that enhance internal efficiency, reduces costs and increases your marginality. For instance, a goal might be to increase your operational efficiency by 25% in three years through the integration of Automated Execution Systems and Automated Quality Control Solutions in your factories. Objectives under this goal could include deploying sensors, collecting data, and reducing manual labor. This alignment ensures your strategic direction supports operational efficiency by way of leveraging various Industry 4.0 trends.

Your action plan should detail the steps to achieve each objective, incorporating timelines, responsible parties, and required resources. For instance, deploying sensors may involve steps like defining what data needs to be collected, selecting sensors, procuring sensors, installing and integrating them onsite. Link each action to specific KPIs, such as downtime reduction or increased productivity, to measure progress effectively. Bound each action with a clear timeline and assign owners to execute as well as coordinate internal resources and external suppliers.

It’s important to leverage various internal solutions to aid in execution monitoring. Unfortunately many enterprises in the Manufacturing sector are still in early digitalization phase of using excel spreadsheets (or worse) to monitor execution. Some of the solutions that may be adopted include: - ERP systems such as SAP, Dynsmic 365 or others, to monitor execution on the Corporate, BU, LOB, Function, Department, Geography and other levels - BI Analytics platforms like Tableau or PowerBI to assist with aggregation, analysis and visualization of execution and performance-related data from various parts of the business

Other than choosing the wrong strategy, many strategies fail on choosing the wrong tactics, which naturally leads to failing with execution. Therefore, it’s important to ensure that tactics are aligned with the capabilities of the organization. For example, making sure that the tangible & intangible resources can support the chosen tactics. Also, it’s important to ensure that the organizational processes and day-to-day operations can support the chosen tactics. Many strategies also fail when it comes to updating the tactics. Tactics need to be updated more frequently than most organizations acknowledge. Quarterly updates are not uncommon, and they requires a thick skin to “recalculate” so often and confidently lead your team to a new path.