How to digitalize

A lot of companies do not know what digitalization is or how it can be implemented. Here are some guidelines that has been created through workshops with relevant companies within the manufacturing industry.

• Start with small steps and highlight the already made digital initiatives that exist within the company.
• Keep your focus on the positive sides of digitalization.
• Involve a range of co-workers with different views and competencies.
• Reflect on how your firm could strengthen the need of competence with i.e. an apprenticeship.
• Map out if there is any new business or services that the customer will inquire, that you can provide today?

There are good examples of how industrial firms has benefited from digital technology for the creation of an increased efficiency, quality and simplicity in the production process. You can here take part of some of these interesting cases:

In the project of edig, we have put together “the wheel of edig”. The wheel of edig is a representation of a journey towards digitalization. The wheel consist of: Innovation, New business models, The connected factory, Digital-twins, Visualization, Human-Machine interaction, Smart work processes, additive manufacturing, environment friendly production, appealing work, Global cooperation, Artificial intelligence.

In the edig wheel, each subject is described in the logical order of: Innovation, new business models and connectivity, followed by a description of tools and smart work processes. We then continue with strategies for environment friendly production, appealing work and global cooperation. We will end this journey with higher digital maturity and AI.

It is of great importance that the senior management of the firm are fully aware of the potential of digital technology, so they could become a supporting resource in the work towards digitalization. We are more then happy to support your first steps in this journey. An important part of your first step is to understand why you want to become digitalized.

There are a great deal of support for companies aiming to start their digital journey: Some of the support initiatives can you find below.

• A practical example of how to proceed and what to bear in mind can be found here: Digitalization – how can I get started?
• Examples of support for digitalization for small and mid-sized enterprises include Digilyftet, Indigo and Kickstart, the objective of which is to provide insight into the challenges and possibilities of digitalization in industry.
• Examples of roadmaps are provided by the consultancies McKinsey and CGI.

An important part of a digitalization strategy is knowing why your company wants to digitalize. So, we decided to pose this question to our members.