4.0 Industry: The Role of Collaborators, Technology and Processes
Process automation has grown significantly after the pandemic due to the urgent need to support manual processes through digital tools, in order to allow remote access for users anywhere at all times.
This has led companies to seek to develop their business in a contactless way, implementing robust cutting-edge technologies that meet users’ expectations and ensure immediacy, security, and data quality for decision making.
That need for change, which was vital to stay in business, lead organizations to make fast decisions in order to go digital, and, in many cases, they saw their costs increase instead of maximizing profits. As Bill Gates said: “The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.”
In that regard, when organizations seek to gain agility through process digitalization, they may make two common mistakes: isolated digitalization -based on the design of functional interfaces that don’t include integration with other processes- and resistance to change by members of the company.
As a consequence, with mistakes and certainties that are inherent to digitalization, digital tools that provide different services aimed at enhancing business competitiveness have multiplied. These include: offering a better experience for users, being more efficient and reducing operating costs; gathering better data and advanced analysis to make informed decisions; being more agile and adapting to market changes before competitors, among others.
That said, despite the range of technological tools to support processes, corporate evolution wouldn’t be possible without process analysis and design.
The role of collaborators
Despite the applied technology, countless digital tools, and the insertion of the 4.0 industry in companies’ process improvement, people are still key to ensure efficient operations.
As a response to that need for integration, over the last couple of years, we’ve seen a digital mindset boost, based on reinvention as well as users’ adaptation to face immediacy, volatility, personalization, and constant change.
Moreover, in that context we also have Scrum, a popular framework for agile software development, which has even expanded to other industries and entails the application of good practices for people to work collaboratively and in teams in order to get the best result in projects.
Another relevant aspect regarding people in a context of digital demand is evidenced by companies’ decision to invest in process analysis and process improvement positions. In 2021 there was an increase in job searches regarding this topic and, according to the World Economic Forum, among the top 10 job roles in increasing demand after the pandemic, there are Process Automation Specialists (n° 5), Business Development Professionals (n° 6), and Digital Transformation Specialists (n° 7).
Collaborators are key players because there are certain constraints that technology cannot solve on its own, so their conscious, proactive, and flexible role is crucial in the following aspects:
- Process design: It involves building specialized teams to analyze processes for assessment, including all players, designing the flow, identifying pain points, analyzing necessary interfaces and adapting them to digital tools, as well as evaluating operational efficiency and users’ satisfaction.
- Data processing: It’s the starting point for the analysis of any given process. Though it depends the technology each company implements, decision making, process treatment, and business rules do not depend on technology. It’s collaborators who identify which KPIs are needed to measure processes’ performance and, consequently, define the data required to calculate them. All correctly processed data will provide information to enable decision-making.
- Change of environment: it’s inherent to the world we live in, and it forces us to adapt. The continuous analysis of changes that favor or boost the business compels companies not to rely on technology to stay on track. Quick decision-making to adapt to change is, for sure, collaborators’ field of action, where the effective and fast search to face change might well be a race against competitors to gain market position.
- User experience: any negative experience regarding use would make the correct process design go to waste, so users’ feedback is key when operating processes in digital tools to ensure continuous improvement.
As we can see, the exchange and need between technology and people is reciprocal. The opportunities that are opened up by technology wouldn’t make sense without people’s encouragement, ideas, and motivation.
4.0 technologies to manage processes:
The relationship between humanity and technology is not just a modern 21st-century practice: this bond has evolved through the centuries. Nowadays, we are moving/shifting towards the 4.0 industry. which started around 2011 and is referred to as the “fourth industrial revolution”.
Companies now face a new challenge that entails stepping up and applying continuous improvement regarding the use of technology.
The role of collaborators to detect business opportunities in the life cycle of current processes, optimizing them, and making them more profitable through the use of emerging technologies will be essential to increase business profitability and effectiveness.
Digital transformation, which has been in the spotlight for years regarding process support through digital tools, will have to adapt to new technologies that, sooner or later, will be demanded by clients.
Here are a few examples of the application of technology in popular companies:
- Airbus: the company, a referent in aircraft manufacturing, wanted to reduce the complexity of assembling cabin seats, and thus, reduce the time required to complete said task. The solution entailed the use of wearables to increase productivity. It also reduced the necessary skills to develop the task. To that effect, they designed an app for smart glasses, which display information for staff to mark the floor faster, reducing possible errors. Because of this improvement, error rates are reduced to zero, boosting productivity by 500% while gaining more flexibility, and increasing staff’s comfort and satisfaction.
- Alibaba’s smart factory allowed the company to reduce delivery time and cut costs with the help of Big Data and AI. The massive amount of data provided by clients who shop online is used to improve the manufacturing process. Using Big Data, Alibaba finds out what kinds of clothes, colors, and sizes are chosen by clients. Its smart factory uses that data to manufacture only what people want, avoiding clothes, colors, or sizes that are less popular. Thus, the purchase of materials has been centralized to save up to 75% and, through an AI software, the company creates digital fabrics to choose fabric or colour combinations for designs that will later be manufactured. With these improvements, the production process is reduced from three months to two weeks.
- Since its automated driving, Audi has consistently searched for ways to entertain passengers. In June 2022 they’ll launch an entertainment system with virtual reality glasses, which will also be in sync with cars’ movement, reducing the common motion sickness we experience when we read a book or watch videos on a moving vehicle.
These cases are good examples of business development focused on users’ needs and the application of technology as a means of growth and survival for companies.
The range of technologies devised for organizational change and efficiency is available. Still, it won’t make an impact without a strong focus on operational adjustment through process management or without collaborators’ training and participation to make decisions.
Identifying the right technology to meet a certain need is another challenge that will depend on organizational strategy. In that regard, spotting changes in clients’ expectations and adjusting to possible social changes will be another distinctive feature when it comes to competing. That is yet another ability to be displayed by collaborators.
