Manufacturing - April 2021

April 2021 | manufacturingglobal.com

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DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IN MANUFACTURING Adriaan Van Horenbeek, Manufacturing Lead Customer Advisory Western Europe, on the importance of digital transformation and analytics FIND OUT MORE

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The Manufacturing Team EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

GEORGIA WILSON DEPUTY EDITOR

RHYS THOMAS LAURA GARCIA EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

SCOTT BIRCH CREATIVE TEAM

OSCAR HATHAWAY SOPHIA FORTE SOPHIE-ANN PINNELL HECTOR PENROSE SAM HUBBARD MIMI GUNN JUSTIN SMITH

PRODUCTION DIRECTORS

GEORGIA ALLEN DANIELA KIANICKOVÁ

VIDEO PRODUCTION MANAGER

MEDIA SALES DIRECTOR

DIGITAL VIDEO PRODUCERS

SALES AND MARKETING DIRECTOR

KIERAN WAITE

OWEN MARTIN PHILLINE VICENTE JENNIFER SMITH

SAM KEMP EVELYN HUANG MATTHEW EVANS TYLER LIVINGSTONE

PRODUCTION EDITOR

DIGITAL MARKETING EXECUTIVE

PRODUCTION MANAGERS

JENNIFER SMITH

KAYLEIGH SHOOTER PROJECT DIRECTORS

JAMES RICHARDSON KARL GREEN

JAMES WHITE

JASON WESTGATE MANAGING DIRECTOR

LEWIS VAUGHAN

CHIEF OPERATIONS OFFICER

STACY NORMAN PRESIDENT & CEO

GLEN WHITE

EDITORS LETTER

The future of additive manufacturing Dating back almost 40 years, 3D printing today is a widely-used solution in the manufacturing industry that is a fast, flexible and a cost effective way to make ‘on demand’ products.

“Step aside 3D printing, 4D and 5D are making their mark on the additive manufacturing industry!”

MANUFACTURING GLOBAL MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED BY

Now I know what you’re thinking “But what is 4D and 5D Printing?”

4D printing: By introducing a fourth dimension, those that harness the technology can print 3D objects that have the capability to transform their own shape over time. The transformation happens without human interaction when the materials interact with external stimuli (light, heat, electricity or a magnetic field).

Pioneering the use of 4D printing NASA’s use of the technology led to the development of an ‘armor-like material’ for astronaut spacesuits that can reflect light on one side and absorb it on the other for passive heat control. “We call it 4D printing because we can print both the geometry and the function of these materials,” said Raul Polit-Casillas, Space Architect, Systems Engineer, Technologist at NASA. 5D printing: First used by Mitsubishi Electric Research Lab (MERL), 5D printing - like 4D printing - has its roots in 3D printing. However, what makes 5D unique is its use of five different axes to create complex and intricate objects, while ensuring strength and quality.

While 5D printing is a relatively new entrant in additive manufacturing it is making waves in the healthcare industry due to its capabilities to make curved objects with accuracy.

As these innovations unfold you can rely on manufacturing global to provide you with the latest updates as they happen.

GEORGIA WILSON

georgia.wilson@bizclikmedia.com

© 2021 | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

manufacturingglobal.com

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CONTENTS

Our Regular Upfront Section: 8

Big Picture

10 The Brief 12 Global News 14 People Moves 16 Timeline:

Tesla Gigafactories 18 Legend:

Terry Gou 20 Five Mins With:

Emmanuel Routier

38

Digital Factory

Britishvolt The UK’s First and Largest Gigafactory

24

46

Democratising artificial intelligence (AI) in manufacturing

Helping Customers Thrive Through Disruption

SAS

APEX Logistics

82

AI & Automation

56

Understanding the value of automation in manufacturing

Smart Manufacturing GE Digital: Transforming Manufacturing with Smart MES

66

Procter & Gamble

How IWS is Driving Operational Excellence

92

RPG Group

RPG Puts People First in Digital Transformation

106 Technology

Data & Analytics: the Lifeblood of Digital Transformation

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Creating Digital Communities in Cyber

118 CGI Nederland

158 ServiceMax

Optimising Service Through Asset Centricity

Data harvesting: Key on Journey to smart manufacturing

172 Schenck Process Your Best Defense is a Good Offense

132 Top 10

Women in manufacturing

144

186 J-Tec Material Handling Driving Growth in Asia

Siemens

Integrating Engineering and Infrastructure to Enhance Urban Mobility

200 Amcor

Smart, Sustainable Packaging from Amcor

BIG PICTURE

Disruption drives digital transformation in manufacturing

With advanced manufacturing companies implementing new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), data, and analytics to drive growth and profitability in disruptive environments, the digital transformation market in manufacturing stands to value at US$767.82bn by 2026, working at a CAGR of 19.48% between 2021 and 2026.

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April 2021

Manufacturingglobal.com

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THE BRIEF “Digital transformation is the most amazing challenge and opportunity that we have in industry today” Francisco Betti,

Head of Advanced Manufacturing and Production, World Economic Forum (WEF) 

Manufacturing’s four largest sectors contributing to GDP

45%

31%

Other

Machinery and transport equipment

READ MORE

“SINCE THE ADVENT OF THE PANDEMIC, THE ADOPTION OF AUTOMATION HAS ACCELERATED AND MANY ARE LOOKING TO RPA TO SAVE TIME AND MONEY ALL WHILE KEEPING EMPLOYEES SAFE”

14%

Chemicals

5%

Textiles and clothing

5%

Food, beverages, and tobacco

Gavin Mee,

Managing Director UK and Ireland, UiPath  READ MORE

“Technology will eventually lower manufacturing costs, improve efficiency, drive adoption and create a truly circular economy. That doesn’t just benefit industry, it benefits society as a whole” Orral Nadjari,

Founder and CEO, Britishvolt  READ MORE

10

April 2021

80% 67%

300,000

of executives consider data and advanced analytics important to improve productivity

of manufacturers say that the importance of cost-reduction has increased during COVID-19

Britishvolt's production targets for EV batteries when at full capacity in 2027

READ MORE

READ MORE

READ MORE

Did you know? The global industrial robotics market is expected to reach US$66.48bn by 2027.

Agility, flexibility and transparency in manufacturing Founded in 2013, Fictiv is a digital manufacturing ecosystem. Since its founding, the company has manufactured more than 12 million parts for both early-stage and large companies to drive agile innovation and highquality parts at speed.

How is Fictiv helping the widespread adoption of digital transformation? By securing US$35mn in funding Fictiv plans to aggressively expand its groundbreaking digital manufacturing ecosystem, and advance its cloud-based platform technology and invest in its supply chain operations and network infrastructure.

How does Fictiv's digital manufacturing ecosystem work? By harnessing technology, Fictiv streamlines the entire manufacturing process from quote to delivery, which it states achieves “a level of manufacturing speed and agility that has long confounded the traditional contract manufacturing industry,” providing radical transparency and ultimate flexibility.

Who participated in the funding round?

Led by 40 North Ventures, those that participated in the funding round included Honeywell, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., Adit Ventures, M20, Accel, G2VP, and Bill Gates, bringing its total funding to US$92mn.

 SMART MANUFACTURING MARKET Global smart manufacturing market is expected to reach US$417.07bn by 2026, up US$245.59bn compared to 2018.  US TO SUPERCHARGE CHIP MANUFACTURING President Joe Biden seeks US$37bn in funding to supercharge chip manufacturing in the US following a shortfall of semiconductors forcing manufacturers to cut production.  e.GO MOBILE SERIES B FUNDING ROUND German electric car manufacturer e.Go Mobile successfully closes its Series B equity funding round of over US$36.6mn enabling the manufacturer to start its production and growth plans.  BOMBARDIER DATA BREACH Plane manufacturer Bombardier - suffered a limited cybersecurity breach. It is speculated that the attack is part of the Accellion ‘supply chain’ breach.  TESLA SHARES DROP Tesla shares dropped as much as 12%, its biggest single day decline since September 8, 2020. The automotive manufacturer’s shares abolished its year-to-date gains, trading below the level the company entered the S&P 500 Index.

W A Y U P APRIL

W A Y D O W N

Manufacturingglobal.com

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GLOBAL NEWS

1

US, BOSTON

3D printing: Fortify secures US$20mn in Series B funding Led by Cota Capital, 3D printing startup Fortify has secured US$20mn in its Series B funding.

The secured funding will help the company to scale up its manufacturing operations, fueling the growth of its team, accelerating its expansion in high-value application spaces, and transiting to volume manufacturing of the Flux Series 3D printers.

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April 2021

2

US

US DOE to support domestic manufacturing with US$24.5mn Addressing environmental challenges, the US department of Energy (DOE) plans to support domestic manufacturing improvements with US$24.5mn in funds to build resilient, modern electricity infrastructure.

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4

UK

GLOBAL

Make UK: UK Government’s industrial decarbonisation strategy

Top 10 global companies using lean manufacturing principles

A major landmark for the industry, the UK government’s Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy gives “the confidence that our country is politically ready to take action on the Net Zero by 2050 target.”

The report emphasises the government’s crucial role in supporting the manufacturing industry.

In recent years, the requirement for large scale, global manufacturing has never been greater. Companies have adopted lean manufacturing to meet demands in all business sectors from worldwide consumer goods to vehicle and heavy machinery production.

6

ASIA, CHINA

Human Horizons: unveils new smart factory assembly plant

5

EUROPE

Volkswagen Group to build six Gigafactories in Europe

Equipped with cutting-edge autonomous machinery, Human Horizons has repurposed a gasoline powered vehicle plant for the production of its new HiPhi X super SUV. The smart factory uses sophisticated technological tools practicing sustainability to limit its environmental impact.

Ramping up its transformation strategy, Volkswagen Group has set bold ambitions to build six cell factories (Gigafactories) with a total capacity of 240 gigawatt hours in Europe by the end of the decade.

Manufacturingglobal.com

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PEOPLE MOVES KATHERINE BENNETT CBE FROM: AIRBUS UK TO: HIGH VALUE MANUFACTURING CATAPULT (HVM CATAPULT) WAS: SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT NOW: CEO Following Dick Elsy’s retirement as CEO later this year, Katherine Bennett CBE - the current Senior Vice President at Airbus UK - will take on Elsy’s role as CEO of the UK government’s High Value Manufacturing Catapult (HVM Catapult).

With a career that spans 30 years, Bennett will bring to the new role her depth of understanding of the challenges and opportunities faced

by UK manufacturers.

“I am honoured to have been asked to lead the next phase of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult’s development, building on the strong foundations which have been created over the past eight years,” said Katherine Bennett CBE.

“I am honoured to have been asked to lead the next phase of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult’s development, building on the strong foundations which have been created over the past eight years” 14

April 2021

KURT MILLER FROM: SWAGELOK TO: BETTCHER INDUSTRIES WAS: ENGINEERING MANAGER NOW: VICE PRESIDENT OF OPERTIONS

MATT WINDLE

With over 30 years of experience in a wide range of operational functions in engineering and manufacturing, Kurt Miller has joined Bettcher Industries as Vice President of Operations.

Miller’s key responsibilities for the role include the implementation of manufacturing best practices as well as leading the organisation to a ‘world class’ status harnessing 80/20 methodologies, lean production practices and continuous improvement techniques.

FROM: LOTUS CARS TO: LOTUS CARS WAS: EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ENGINEERING NOW: MANAGING DIRECTOR Following Phil Popham stepping down from his position at Lotus, Matt Windle has been newly appointed Managing Director of Lotus Cars. With over 30 years of experience in the automotive industry, Windle’s new role as Managing Director will see him lead Lotus into the next chapter of its innovative history.

“It is an honour to be appointed Managing Director of Lotus. Of the many manufacturers I have worked with over the years, Lotus has been the one closest to my heart. I have a history with the company dating back more than 20 years and I really know my way around the business,” said Windle.

Manufacturingglobal.com

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TIMELINE

TESLA

GIGAFACTORIES A brief timeline of Tesla’s Gigafactory construction

2014

2016

2017

Giga Nevada and Giga New York begin construction

Reno, Nevada grand opening

Giga New York begins production

Born out of necessity to meet its own supply demand for sustainable energy, Tesla began the construction of its first Gigafactory in June 2014, in Reno, Nevada, followed by its Buffalo, New York facility the same year.

Tesla’s construction of Giga Nevada came to an end in 2016, the first of its Gigafactories to complete its construction project.

The factory’s grand opening took place in July 2016.

Tesla’s second Gigafactory Giga New York - completed its construction and started production in 2017.

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April 2021

2019 Giga Shanghai construction to production in record time In 2019, Tesla selected Shanghai as its third Gigafactory location. The company constructed the factory in record time, taking just 168 working days from gaining permits to finishing the plant's construction.

2019 Giga Berlin begins construction Announced in November 2019, Tesla began the construction of its first European Gigafactory in Berlin. The Gigafactory is still under construction.

2020 Giga Texas begins construction The following year in August 2020, Tesla began the construction of its Giga Texas factory. The company’s third Gigafactory in the US is still under construction.

2021 Giga Texas and Giga Berlin expected completion of construction Tesla expects to complete the construction of its Giga Texas and Giga Berlin factories in May 2021 and July 2021 respectively.

Manufacturingglobal.com

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TERRY GOU LEGEND

CEO, Hon Hai Technology Group (Foxconn)

F

ounder and former CEO of Hon Hai Technology Group (Foxconn), we look at what makes Taiwan’s richest man a legend.

Founding Hon Hai Technology Group - better known as Foxconn in 1974 with $7,500 in startup money, Gou has taken the company from a startup to Taiwan's largest private manufacturing enterprise by 2001.

Not only is Foxconn the world’s largest electronics manufacturer providing products to the likes of Apple, it is also a leader in global science and technology solutions.

Gou is committed to driving Foxconn to create an AI 8K+5G global ecosystem promoting nextgeneration technological solutions and applications in all aspects of life.

Actively involved in philanthropic and social development initiatives for underprivileged youth, Gou founded the Taiwan-based YongLin

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April 2021

Gou founded Foxconn in 1974 with just

$7,500

Foundation in 2000 to fund and support multiple projects ranging from education to healthcare.

In 2007, the YongLin Healthcare Foundation donated NT$25bn (US$867.79mn) to the National Taiwan University Medical School for the development of a world-class cancer prevention, treatment and research center. In addition the YongLin Education Foundation initiated the ‘Tomorrow School’ program to bridge the knowledge gap for students in remote villages.

After 45 years as CEO of Foxconn, Gou stepped down from the role in 2019 to return to politics taking on the formidable challenge of becoming a presidential candidate.

Whilst he stepped down from the bid, Gou has not removed himself from politics and will continue to strive for the policies he proposed in the presidential primary in 2019.

“ I never think I am successful.

If I am successful, then I should be retired”

Manufacturingglobal.com

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FIVE MINUTES WITH...

EMMANUEL ROUTIER VICE PRESIDENT INDUSTRY 4.0 AT ORANGE BUSINESS SERVICES

Q. WHY IS DIGITALISATION IMPORTANT TO MANUFACTURING?

» The manufacturing industry,

throughout history, has always been at the forefront of innovation and technological change. While many see it as something old and set in its ways, it has a long history of pioneering new ways of operating. The industrial revolution was spearheaded by manufacturers and transformed the world into something unrecognisable.

Moving towards a more digitalised world is simply the next step in this ongoing evolution.

The Covid-19 pandemic has also highlighted the need for manufacturers to accelerate their digital transformation having exposed areas of weakness in operations and supply chains. New digital technology

“ 5G is a game changer for Industry and its digital transformation” 20

April 2021

“ The manufacturing industry, throughout history, has always been at the forefront of innovation and technological change” will be of the utmost importance in overcoming these weaknesses and getting our economies back on track.

Q. WHAT DOES DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION MEAN TO YOU?

» Digital transformation is progress

and evolution. It is the natural progression of how businesses operate, with new digital technology replacing manual and archaic processes. It is a process that has been ongoing for at least a decade or more and we are now at a critical point where businesses no longer have the choice of whether to pursue it but must now decide when and how they take the step towards a brighter, greener future.

Digital transformation in manufacturing specifically will usher in a new era where technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), 5G and the internet of things (IoT) give manufacturers the ability to be more agile and produce better quality products, faster and more efficiently.

Q. WHAT’S NEXT FOR YOU IN THE NEXT 12-18 MONTHS?

» 5G is a game changer for Industry and its digital transformation. 5G enables industry to digitalise and improve its network infrastructure on industrial campuses, increasing

5G

enables industry to digitalise & improve its network infrastructure on industrial campuses, increasing employee productivity with stronger performance of Industry

4.0

use cases and the automation of industrial processes offering stronger flexibility

employee productivity with stronger performance of Industry 4.0 use cases and the automation of industrial processes offering stronger flexibility.

This will be my primary focus in the coming months, further supporting the industry in their digital transformation and realising Industry 4.0 use cases with 5G technology.

Q. WHAT INSPIRES YOU?

» Human nature has always been a

source of inspiration for me. The way that humanity can come together even during the most trying times and find solutions, cooperating and collaborating to elevate itself. Most recently, the efforts to produce a vaccine for COVID-19 has been a delight to witness, seeing competitors joining forces to overcome the greatest challenge in our lifetimes.

Q. WHAT ARE YOUR FAVOURITE THINGS TO DO OUTSIDE OF WORK?

» Outside of COVID restrictions,

being in nature, mountain biking with the children and enjoying the sun are my favourite ways to relax. However, during these times of lockdown I have found that having a good diner with my wife and friends and spending some quality time socialising is definitely helping to bring some variety to my daily routine.

Manufacturingglobal.com

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April 2021

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SAS

24

April 2021

SAS

Democratising artificial intelligence (AI) in manufacturing WRITTEN BY: LEILA HAWKINS

PRODUCED BY: KARL GREEN

Manufacturingglobal.com

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SAS

26

April 2021

SAS

Executive perspective by Keld Zornig, Vice President Nordics, Executive Sponsor EMEA Manufacturing at SAS

M

Keld Zornig

anufacturing leaders of today are boldly pioneering new efficient methods to modernise the business. Digital transformation in manufacturing has accelerated recently, one of the reasons being the need to respond to the changes caused by the pandemic. Companies are keen on experimenting with AI and analytics to turn the huge amounts of data available into insights that can help minimise risks, cut costs and drive new revenue.

AI and analytics need to deliver on their promises. If you invest in IoT and data analytics, it’s obvious you should expect to see results, soon. It is time to get into action, move forward from testing and scale-up analytical models to industrial processes.

We at SAS think the way to go is what is called democratising AI. It means making the technology widely available in the organisation and incorporating it into daily operational processes. This is possible with an integrated analytics platform on which people with different roles work together.

Our mission is to empower and inspire with the most trusted analytics. I hope you enjoy reading Adriaan Van Horenbeek sharing his insights on how analytics delivers value to your business.

Manufacturingglobal.com

27

SAS

Adriaan Van Horenbeek, Manufacturing Lead Advisory Western Europe at SAS, gives us the facts on the importance of digital transformation and analytics in the manufacturing industry

S

AS is the leader in advanced and predictive analytics. Since 1976, SAS has empowered and inspired customers with the most trusted analytics, innovative software, and services. From machine learning, deep learning, computer vision, and natural language processing (NLP) to forecasting and optimization, their AI and IoT technologies support diverse environments and scale to meet changing business needs.

Adriaan Van Horenbeek, Manufacturing Lead Advisory Western Europe at SAS, believes that in the manufacturing industry advanced analytics is now essential for businesses to thrive. "Most companies are now aware that digital transformation is here to stay. One of the key pillars of digital transformation involves making smarter use of data, leading to better decision-making.

To do that you need advanced analytics."

Digital transformation is driven by people, processes, and technology. "People will start using the new technology, so they need to develop new skills and we need to guide them. Their roles might shift a little.

If you look at operators for example in the production plant, their role will become a bit more strategic as execution becomes automated by algorithms."

When it comes to the process, the key is how to derive long-term value from advanced analytics with AI and machine 28

April 2021

learning. "This means finding out how to scale within the organisation, and for that, you need a clear process in place," he says.

"We typically have a four-step-approach to work with the customer. The first one is to identify the business potential, to see where the largest opportunities are in terms of using analytics. The second one is to create lighthouse projects in a few weeks because this will show the organisation what the possibilities and value of using analytics are for them. The third step is to industrialise which means integrating advanced analytics in the day-to-day processes. The fourth step is scaling, which means accelerating digital transformation by expanding to other business units or their business clients."

“ One of the key pillars of digital transformation is about making smarter use of data, leading to better decision-making. To do that you need advanced analytics” ADRIAAN VAN HORENBEEK

MANUFACTURING LEAD ADVISORY WESTERN EUROPE, SAS

SAS

Adriaan Van Horenbeek Manufacturingglobal.com

29

SAS

The power of people, process, and technology in data analytics | Adriaan Van Horenbeek | SAS

Then it’s time to make sure the right technology is in place to support the people and the process. "We talk about the analytics lifecycle getting the data, cleaning the data, then going into the analytics and modelling capabilities.

The final part is deployment, translating the insights that come out of an algorithm into day-to-day decisions. It's only here that you actually capture the value."

“Covering the entire analytics lifecycle is important”, Van Horenbeek says, “because sometimes we see that technology only covers certain parts and is a patchwork of different technologies which makes user adoption more difficult. We can support our clients to cover the entire analytics lifecycle.”

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April 2021

“ We speak the language of our customers and we guide them through the entire journey” ADRIAAN VAN HORENBEEK

MANUFACTURING LEAD ADVISORY WESTERN EUROPE, SAS

We speak the language of the clients we're supporting because for example in my team we come from an industry background, not purely with a data science background.

It helps us guide our clients through the entire journey.

SAS

SAS Corporate Headquarters

Every journey starts with the right data Manufacturing organisations typically capture large amounts of data, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it is the right data or there could be gaps. This is where IoT comes in, for example, you can easily place wireless sensors on a production line to capture additional data and store it in a cloud environment.

"However, while IoT data capture is very nice, this doesn't bring you value. It only brings you value once you apply analytics and start analysing this data and making smarter decisions,'' Van Horenbeek adds.

A specific area this can benefit is R&D. "We analyse data to identify new products faster, decreasing the go-to-market time.

Another example is the smarter use of data in the supply chain. You can look at demand forecasting, using AI and machine learning techniques to better predict the demand, and inventory optimisation – all are related to smarter scheduling of production.

"In the production plant, we use AI or machine learning to perform process optimisation in terms of yield and the quality of the product – we can identify the key drivers of variability in the quality of the product that we are producing."

It’s also possible to find sustainable ways of working, like using data to reduce the energy consumption of production lines. "For example, using less raw materials to produce the same end product,” Van Horenbeek says.

Manufacturingglobal.com

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1976 Company Founded

$3bn+ Revenue

14,000 Number of Employees

32

April 2021

SAS

SPG Dry Cooling | Advanced Analytics Applied | SAS Customers

“ In addition to our core technology, we've built solutions for dedicated business problems to give our clients a headstart in using advanced analytics according to their business context” ADRIAAN VAN HORENBEEK

MANUFACTURING LEAD ADVISORY WESTERN EUROPE, SAS

Manufacturingglobal.com

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SAS

Augmented Reality

Quality Engineers Hit Production Quality Targets With SAS Production Quality Analytics

34

April 2021

SAS

“ Our aim is the democratisation of AI, and we provide visual interfaces throughout the entire analytics lifecycle, so there is no need to be an expert in coding to use it”

ADRIAAN VAN HORENBEEK TITLE: MANUFACTURING LEAD, CUSTOMER ADVISORY WESTERN EUROPE INDUSTRY: ANALYTICS SOFTWARE LOCATION: BELGIUM

ADRIAAN VAN HORENBEEK

Advanced analytics is also a valuable tool to serve customers in a better way. "In terms of pricing optimisation and customer intelligence, it can capture customers’ requirements and feed back into the R&D process to develop products that are aligned with the real customer needs."

SAS supports clients with several Industry 4.0 solutions specific to the particular business problems in their industry. "In addition to our core technology, we've built solutions for dedicated business problems to give our clients a headstart in using advanced analytics according to their business context. In manufacturing, we have specific solutions like SAS® Analytics for IoT, SAS® Production Quality Analytics, and SAS® Asset Performance Analytics which is more targeted towards predictive maintenance.

We also have SAS® Field Quality Analytics, targeted to analysing the data of a product during its lifetime."

SAS® Viya® platform is built to capture raw data from a variety of different sources and provide dashboarding, statistical analysis,

EXECUTIVE BIO

MANUFACTURING LEAD ADVISORY WESTERN EUROPE, SAS

Adriaan holds master's degrees in electromechanical engineering and industrial management and received a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at the University of Leuven for research on predictive maintenance in cooperation with several industrial companies like Bekaert and Atlas Copco.

He worked two years as an industry asset management consultant for Stork where he performed reliability engineering projects at for example Umicore, BASF, and VPK. Today, at SAS he holds the position of manufacturing analytics expert and generates value through analytics within the process and manufacturing industry. His background of engineering skills, management skills, and data analytics skills, makes him an ideal partner to his clients to develop and embed analytics within their manufacturing processes.

SAS

“ Manufacturing businesses need to move from testing new technologies to using them at scale within their organisations” ADRIAAN VAN HORENBEEK

MANUFACTURING LEAD ADVISORY WESTERN EUROPE, SAS

data mining, machine learning, and AI. "Our aim is the democratisation of AI, and we provide visual interfaces throughout the entire analytics lifecycle, so you do not need to be an expert in coding to use it."

"In digital transformation, we talk about open ecosystems and partnerships. Our technology is also built with that in mind. The SAS® Viya® platform is completely open, so you can integrate open source applications 36

April 2021

like Python. We want to integrate with the existing ecosystem of the customer that is already in place.

SAS partners with organisations that are leaders in key areas – for instance for cloud technology we partner with Microsoft, to enable our clients to define their cloud strategy. With Ericsson, we are leveraging IoT and 5G capabilities.

We also partner with startups to ensure

SAS

“ IoT data capture is very nice, but this doesn't bring you value. It only brings you value if you start analysing this data and making smarter decisions”

we are continuously harnessing innovation.

One example is BlueChem, an incubator in the chemical industry based in Belgium; another is Aerospace Valley in France.

"We are looking at how we support these companies with our technology in the first phase of their journey going from a startup to a scaleup. Having these dedicated partnerships also enables us to provide end-to-end solutions to our clients."

“In the next few years”, Van Horenbeek says, “manufacturing businesses need to move from testing new technologies to using them at scale within their organisations. To transform their way of working and putting analytics and AI in action is key. It will give them a significant competitive advantage.

"There is a discrepancy today between companies using data effectively compared to companies that haven't started yet, and this will only get bigger. I strongly believe that the companies that are not adopting digital transformation and analytics will decline and may even go out of business in the coming years. It's a matter of survival. We saw this with COVID-19, when many companies were not digitally transformed or making use of data, got hit much harder than others.

COVID-19 was a bit of a stress test in that respect, clearly showing that companies need to invest more in these technologies."

AI and machine learning are not new technologies, but today experiments often remain a proof of concept. “The time for experimenting with AI is over. It is time to democratize AI, make the technology widely available on an integrated platform and incorporate techniques into day-to-day operational processes for value.”

ADRIAAN VAN HORENBEEK

MANUFACTURING LEAD ADVISORY WESTERN EUROPE, SAS Manufacturingglobal.com

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DIGITAL FACTORY

The UK’s First and Largest Gigafactory Orral Nadjari, Founder/CEO, Britishvolt discusses the concept of gigafactories and how Britishvolt is driving the transition to electrification WRITTEN BY: GEORGIA WILSON

F

ounded in 2019, Britishvolt “is a large full scale lithium ion (and beyond) electric vehicle battery manufacturer, aiming to assist the government’s 10-point plan to decarbonise,” explains Orral Nadjari, Britishvolt’s Founder and CEO. Being the UK’s first and largest gigafactory, Britishvolt aims to achieve its mission “by assisting UK PLC and safeguarding the auto industry, as it transitions to electrification.”

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April 2021

DIGITAL FACTORY

Manufacturingglobal.com

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DIGITAL FACTORY

“ In essence a gigaplant is a large-scale battery manufacturing site, the giga refers to the amount of batteries you can produce in GWh” ORRAL NADJARI

FOUNDER AND CEO, BRITISHVOLT

What is a gigafactory?

“In essence a gigaplant is a largescale battery manufacturing site,” explains Nadjari. “The giga refers to the amount of batteries you can produce in GWh. We are aiming for 300,000 EV batteries when at full capacity in 2027.”

Orral Nadjari Founder and CEO, Britishvolt

On its journey to achieve this mission, Britishvolt strives to do so by implementing sustainable and highly advanced manufacturing technologies, practices and business strategy.

“The UK has long been a hub of world leading research and development, the battery space is no different. We are looking to collaborate with industry partners and government funded agencies like the Faraday Battery Challenge to take that embedded industrial brilliance and scale it up for commercial success,” says Nadjari.

“The latest innovations are right here in our own back garden, we are looking to leverage them and create a world-class, Manufacturingglobal.com

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DIGITAL FACTORY

Peter Rolton from Britishvolt talks about sustainable energy

“ The pandemic has highlighted the need for sustainability and local supply chains.

Out of adversity it has shone a light on the need to move quicker, more swiftly, towards electrification” ORRAL NADJARI

FOUNDER AND CEO, BRITISHVOLT

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DIGITAL FACTORY

Adopting innovation: the importance of workplace culture We only source the best talent, the finest minds of the industry. Just look at our CSO Isobel Sheldon, recently appointed an OBE for her service to the battery industry.

With this kind of leadership you get the best out of your workforce; we are a group of individuals all focused on one common goal to produce the greenest and best performing

batteries in the world. This needs to happen to reduce the amount of carbon in the atmosphere and help the world achieve its net-zero ambitions, this lines up perfectly with UK Government Industrial Strategy and the leading role the UK is taking in combating climate change.

Orral Nadjari, Founder and CEO of Britishvolt

market-leading battery manufacturing hub.

We want to be best in class and we have the human capital and the right ecosystem in the UK to make this possible,” he adds.

Automotive industry and advanced manufacturing: the top trends “The main trend, as you will see now filtering down to the mainstream, is electrification,” explains Nadjari. “Batteries are going to become a more and more integral part of our transport ecosystems.

The battery technology, and in particular improved manufacturing processes, will be what pushes and drives creativity and advancements in existing lithium-ion solutions and may one day make solid state a practical reality.” Another key trend in the industry Nadjari identifies is “recycling efficiencies and improvements to create a truly circular economy.”

When asked how these trends will evolve over the next decade, Nadjari comments “we are very focussed on the upstream value chain and ensuring we have more than enough raw materials to access to enable our growth, this is a very strategic approach as there are finished material shortages on the horizon and we need to ensure we have manufacturing capacity covered for these.

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DIGITAL FACTORY

“ Batteries are going to become a more and more integral part of our transport ecosystems” ORRAL NADJARI

FOUNDER AND CEO, BRITISHVOLT

As much as we advocate the need for full recycling, the current timeframes for success seem a little optimistic to us. Maybe towards the end of 2027 we’ll see some real leaps in progress in the field, more development is needed as the ‘ideal’ recycling solutions aren't quite there yet.”

Adding further to his thoughts for the next decade, Nadjari says “Technology 44

April 2021

will eventually lower manufacturing costs, improve efficiency, drive adoption and create a truly circular economy. That doesn’t just benefit industry, it benefits society as a whole. That’s the entire point of the EV revolution. The manufacturing industry will be benefitted by the new ‘green’ industrial revolution, we are going to need a lot of batteries to make this really work.”

DIGITAL FACTORY

The impact of COVID-19 for Britishvolt and the automotive manufacturing industry Reflecting on the impact of COVID-19 so far, Nadjari says “the pandemic has highlighted the need for sustainability and local supply chains. Out of adversity it has shone a light on the need to move quicker, more swiftly, towards electrification. The pandemic hasn’t slowed us down.”

Like every other industry, manufacturing has “had to adapt to ensure safe working practices to ensure employees' health is protected,” says Nadjari. “We see our timing as advantageous as we have the ability to design and set up our new facility to take into account the mitigations that will be necessary when we have the next global health crisis. We need to ensure that we do not suffer the loss of production and shutdowns others have seen over the last year, and will take the appropriate steps to protect our business and our employees should this ever happen again.”

Looking to the future post-COVID-19, Nadjari believes that “[Britishvolt] is on a path to the electrification of mobility that has been enhanced and accelerated by the pandemic and the improvements we have seen in nature, people are really taking notice of this improvement and want it to continue.

There’s no turning back now; 2021 is the year of the EV. The planet, the only place in the entire universe where we know life to exist, needs this.

Technology will simply make it more accessible and practical as we push forward with this new revolution.”

“ Technology will eventually lower manufacturing costs, improve efficiency, drive adoption and create a truly circular economy.

That doesn’t just benefit industry, it benefits society as a whole”

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APEX LOGISTICS INTERNATIONAL INC.

HELPING CUSTOMERS THRIVE THROUGH DISRUPTION Fueled by passion, enriched by experience and empowered by technology, Apex Logistics is helping customers thrive through disruption WRITTEN BY: LAURA V. GARCIA PRODUCED BY: JAMES WHITE

A

pex says they deliver passion, they mean it. Apex Logistics’ rich corporate culture takes a forwardthinking mindset that launches customer commitment to a whole new level where supply chain resilience and risk management aren’t just buzzwords but are ingrained in everything they do, from the ground to the cloud.

At its core, Apex is rooted in laserfocused risk management, an unrelenting commitment to quality, and an aggressively proactive customer-first approach. Providing an unmatched customer experience, they find themselves strategically placed to help customers through the repercussions of the global pandemic so they can not just survive, but thrive, because managing disruption is what Apex does best.

What’s unique about Apex is the thoroughness in which they approach every task. From the designing of their incredibly powerful platform that lends insightful supply chain visibility with actionable data, down to their extensible knowledge on the safe loading practices that safeguard client Manufacturingglobal.com

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APEX LOGISTICS INTERNATIONAL INC.

Sean M. Francisco APEX talks about technology in International Logistics

shipments, no stone is left unturned in their efforts to keep their clients ahead of the curve so they can thrive even through disruption.

Sean M. Francisco, Chief Operating Officer for the Americas at Apex, speaks to their unique stance in the market, “Most industry players are generally categorised to be either a traditional organisation, a startup or a technology-based company. What I love

“ WHERE APEX IS UNIQUE IS IT HAS THE SIZE, THE INFRASTRUCTURE, AND THE BUYING POWER TO BE ABLE TO REALLY DELIVER VALUE FROM A MARKET COMPETITIVE POSITION” SEAN M. FRANCISCO COO, APEX LOGISTICS INTERNATIONAL INC.

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about Apex is that we’re all three. It started off as a traditional organisation delivering critical marketplace services. But we're still a fairly young company, so that allows us to pivot and adopt newer technology to advance the internal and external supply chain experience. The ability to have nimble and interconnected networks of data, people, and processes has accelerated our growth.”

“Where Apex is unique is it has the size, the infrastructure, and the buying power to be able to really deliver value from a market competitive position. And it has the technology to help customers push and pull inventory in response to real-time supply chain needs.”

Fueled by passion “More than a company culture, a global movement.”

It’s often said but rarely lived up to. At Apex, however, passion really is more than

APEX LOGISTICS INTERNATIONAL INC.

SEAN M. FRANCISCO TITLE: COO INDUSTRY: LOGISTICS LOCATION: UNITED STATES

Enriched by experience Decades of industry experience have afforded Apex intricate knowledge of the risks that lay within supply chain logistics and the mitigation tactics and business model strategies that may be used to ward against them.

Leveraging these tactics and fueled by their company culture of always looking for

EXECUTIVE BIO

a motto; it’s in everything they do. It’s reflected in their attention to details, their “out-of-the-box” thinking, and their customer-first approach. Apex’s value-led decision making takes their employees wellbeing to heart and creates a culture that breeds passion and nurtures employees, so they remain driven and committed to delivering unparalleled quality, exceptional customer service, and growth.

Every client has unique needs and challenges, and Apex stands at the ready with a global community of experts who are always looking for better ways to do things.

Sean M. Francisco is a 30+ year veteran in international supply chain, commencing his career immediately out of college at one of the world’s current top freight forwarders.

Throughout his career, Sean worked his way up through several positions ranging from operations to branch management to corporate product leadership, providing a wide scope of supply chain and logistics knowledge-base, which have proven to be invaluable assets in his current role as Chief Operations Officer at Apex Logistics International Inc, Americas.

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APEX LOGISTICS INTERNATIONAL INC.

better ways to do things, Apex values every experience as a learning experience that better informs their tomorrows.

Empowered by technology Francisco explains, “We have a mindset that we will use technology to enable customer resiliency and flexibility in the face of constant market risk and change. The solutions born out of that mindset, such as being able to 50

April 2021

easily divert orders in process, enable decision making throughout the order lifecycle.”

This focus on leveraging technology to give customers a vantage point over their end-to-end supply chain led to the creation of a game-changing order management system. Apex’s unrelenting attention to detail is reflected in their platform’s capabilities, providing their customers with true endto-end real-time visibility, exception alerts,

APEX LOGISTICS INTERNATIONAL INC.

“ MORE THAN A COMPANY CULTURE, A GLOBAL MOVEMENT” SEAN M. FRANCISCO COO, APEX LOGISTICS INTERNATIONAL INC.

revised eta’s and tracking right down to item level detail. It’s risk mitigation at its best.

Apex’s holistic view over the entirety of their supply chain allows customers to save time while shifting from reactive to proactive actions that lessen the impacts of disruptions on their organisation.

“So we're really excited about it, and we've had great collaboration with the world’s largest and most influential Fortune 500 companies to help us on this journey. I don't see a limit right now. We will continue to grow with individual, small, medium and large size customers and the industry.”

partners, we worked closely with clients every step of the way to help determine the best steps forward.”

“What the Coronavirus has done is really elevate our industry, bringing to light that we don’t just move goods and materials through commerce. We are a vital part of the world’s lifeline.”

“People started paying attention to sectors that historically have been paid little mind. All of a sudden, the impacts of supply chain are more visible. People want to gain an understanding of the supply chains of perishable food, toilet paper, PPE and of course, the vaccine.”

Stepping up to the COVID challenge “The pandemic has impacted every aspect of our lives, and the fight against the Coronavirus continues. At Apex, we started by creating six working guidelines to help minimise the spread and help ensure a healthy and safe working environment for our employees, telecommuting, office distancing, PPE supplies for employees, travel suspension and transportation options for employees that depended on public transportation. We then looked to experts for guidance in each of those areas.

“Covid was unlike any disruptions we had faced before, unlike a labour disruption at one particular port or a volcanic eruption in a particular region. This impact was global. As businesses had to pause and determine how to best move forward, we felt that we played a vital role in the supply chain. So, as trusted Manufacturingglobal.com

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APEX LOGISTICS INTERNATIONAL INC.

2001

Year Founded

425

Number of Employees

52

April 2021

APEX LOGISTICS INTERNATIONAL INC.

“People are no longer just focused on airlines and the ocean liners, which have done a tremendous job under these conditions, but the entire chain. This includes infrastructure and ground handling, trucking companies and delivery agents.

Companies are now working in a much more collaborative manner because, at the end of the day, everyone is fighting the same thing.”

“WHAT THE CORONAVIRUS HAS DONE IS REALLY ELEVATE OUR INDUSTRY, BRINGING TO LIGHT THAT WE DON’T JUST MOVE GOODS AND MATERIALS THROUGH COMMERCE. WE ARE A VITAL PART OF THE WORLD’S LIFELINE” SEAN M. FRANCISCO

COO, APEX LOGISTICS INTERNATIONAL INC.

Tactical risk management Apex has built risk management into their business model, acquiring the assets that allow them to take control and mitigate the risks that most threaten the safe movement of their customer’s goods.

Francisco on Apex’s risk management efforts, “When you look at the entire logistics chain from a risk management viewpoint, you must look for potential threats such as loss, damage, or theft, and even weather patterns using statistics to identify higher probability locations. You must ensure you have suitable security processes in place at every location. A robust vetting process for service providers further ensures that you limit opportunities and keep shipments safe.

“In many of the larger airports, where you not only have higher activity of cargo, but Manufacturingglobal.com

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APEX LOGISTICS INTERNATIONAL INC.

you also have a higher probability of theft, we've taken control over two key elements.

One is ground handling work. With this, we build up and then break down the airline's unit load devices. We prefer to operate our own ground handling services or container freight station services. Then we transport those unit load devices from the airport to our facility. So we remain in control from one secured area to the other.

“Wherever feasible, we operate our own trucks, as to not contract out a critical step.

Again, we want to control the environment that a package is moving in. It's these types of tactical movements that allow us to minimise risk within the logistics chain.

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April 2021

“ MOST INDUSTRY PLAYERS ARE GENERALLY CATEGORISED TO BE EITHER A TRADITIONAL ORGANISATION, A STARTUP OR A TECHNOLOGY-BASED COMPANY. WHAT I LOVE ABOUT APEX IS THAT WE’RE ALL THREE” SEAN M. FRANCISCO COO, APEX LOGISTICS INTERNATIONAL INC.

APEX LOGISTICS INTERNATIONAL INC.

“We also directly engage with our clients to ensure a full understanding of how they are moving their goods or materials throughout the supply chain. We want to know how we can partner to ensure that we eliminate any grey steps within the process and ensure that we always have visibility and control over documentation and the physical movement of the goods.”

Apex takes a dynamic approach to all that they do, evolving with technology and quickly adapting to the everchanging landscape of today’s highly interconnected global supply chains.

Their expansive global presence and deep industry involvement as a member

of the World Cargo Alliance allows them to provide valuable insights and thought leadership, helping to keep their customers ahead of the curve. Offering an uncompromising customer experience, relentless precision and attention to detail, Apex focuses on quality control so they can deliver on-time, safely and securely.

A word of appreciation goes out to all staff, clients and business partners who have done a tremendous job of assisting Apex and it’s customers to not only survive but to thrive through all that has come their way.

Manufacturingglobal.com

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SMART MANUFACTURING

GE DIGITAL: TRANSFORMING MANUFACTURING WITH SMART MES 56

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SMART MANUFACTURING

Nine months on from speaking with GE Digital, we discuss how the use of Smart MES has evolved since the outbreak of COVID-19 WRITTEN BY: GEORGIA WILSON

S

mart manufacturing execution systems (MES) go beyond traditional MES functions like efficiency, quality, track and trace, etc. it uses all that data to enable lean manufacturing through IIoT insights and intelligence,” begins Joe Gerstl, Director of Product Management, GE Digital.

“It helps manufacturers to transform their business and operations through data integration, machine learning, and predictive analytics. Take for instance the ability to predict when downtime is about to occur based on key indicators and the knowledge of what product is running on the line or the last maintenance date of the equipment.

Better than predicting it, what if your MES could tell you what to do to prevent it. These are just some examples of benefits that can be obtained with the rich set of data that Smart MES provides through automation, sensors, system integration, and manual data entry.”

Comparing its use in 2020 to how Smart MES will be used in 2021 and beyond, Gerstl continues to explain that, “today, Smart MES has been able to meet the needs of manufacturers, in this age of COVID-19, in a connected enterprise. With reduced numbers of workers in the factory due to social distancing guidelines and with more workers performing their jobs at home, it is more important than ever for manufacturers to implement solutions that consolidate, aggregate, and transform manufacturing data across not just the local plant but across the entire enterprise.”

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SMART MANUFACTURING

“ TODAY, SMART MES HAS BEEN ABLE TO MEET THE NEEDS OF MANUFACTURERS, IN THIS AGE OF COVID19, IN A CONNECTED ENTERPRISE” JOE GERSTL

DIRECTOR OF PRODUCT MANAGEMENT, GE DIGITAL

He adds “using a hybrid cloud Smart MES, like GE Digital’s Proficy Plant Applications, runtime and master data is piped to an endless cloud repository in near real-time. This thick and deep data can be used for look back analysis and for look forward analytics. These can be used in a closed loop fashion to analyse data on the fly and feed back important adjustments to equipment and processes based on machine learning algorithms.”

Smart MES: the current trends “I think the trends in manufacturing continue to be optimise operations, increase visibility, and improve quality and output,” contemplates Gerstl. “In addition, out of the box analytics as well as a rich data foundation for custom analytics is crucial to success. These outcomes go across industries as manufacturers deal with rapidly changing market demands, changing consumer preferences, and the need for production agility.”

One particular trend that Gerstl sees becoming more and more important is “sustainability and meeting zero carbon emission goals. This will be a global issue that manufacturers will have to address and plan for as they deploy MES solutions.”

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SMART MANUFACTURING

Joe Gerstl from GE Digital talks about Manufacturing Execution System

MES a key component of Smart Manufacturing/Industry 4.0 In order to gain the benefits of these initiatives, there has to be a transactional management system for three purposes: 1 | E xecution: managing the execution of manufacturing processes. Ensuring that the correct information, materials, tools and instructions are available to the front-line worker (or piece of equipment) in order to produce a quality product, as well as ensuring that the worker is certified to perform the task and the critical quality data is collected.

2 | O rchestration: providing both process and data integration to make sure that order/batch specific information is shared with enterprise 60

April 2021

systems such as ERP, production scheduling, engineering (PLM), quality, warehouse management, logistics, supply chain management, automated equipment, etc. either on-demand, scheduled or real-time as appropriate.

3 | M onitoring: MES provides visibility to manufacturing data, including batch/ order/serial number information for product genealogy, data for monitoring equipment health, and data for the generation of process KPIs Regardless of industry, these three capabilities need to be in place to support any level of digitalisation/ smart manufacturing.

Rick Franzosa, Senior Director Analyst with the Gartner Supply Chain Practice

SMART MANUFACTURING

“ THE PANDEMIC HAS SHOWN COMPANIES THE VALUE OF BEING AGILE AND DEPLOYING SOLUTIONS THAT FORTIFIED THEIR ORGANISATIONS SO COVID19 DIDN’T NEGATIVELY IMPACT THEIR BUSINESS” JOE GERSTL

DIRECTOR OF PRODUCT MANAGEMENT, GE DIGITAL

Why is Smart MES important for manufacturers?

When asked this question, Gerstl emphasises that “it’s so important for today’s manufacturing companies that don’t want to be left behind.

Many of our customers have been deploying our leading-edge solutions for years and were well prepared for what COVID-19 brought.”

However, “some needed to quickly add to or modify their solutions to address the needs of a more mobile and distanced workforce. Smart MES solutions like Plant Applications enable manufacturers to be flexible because it ships with out of the box, ‘mobile first’, vertical user experiences (UX) for process, assembly, and component manufacturers. These UXs are made up of ‘widgets’ (components) that can be reconfigured into customer/role specific screens using a rapid application development environment. Since these are mobile ready, operators can have their own tablets instead of a shared kiosk which lets them stay spread out and safe in terms of the virus.”

Reflecting on the impact of the pandemic, Gerstl states that “ultimately, the pandemic has shown companies the value of being agile and deploying solutions that fortified their organisations so COVID-19 didn’t negatively impact their business.”

The challenges of adopting Smart MES solutions Speaking with Gerstl back in July 2020, he explained some of the key challenges when it comes to the adoption of smart MES solutions, “aging infrastructures, greater productivity challenges and tighter budgets need to be considered as profitability pressures rise. What’s more, with budget restrictions, resources for plant systems are often limited, making it difficult to carry out

Joe Gerstl Director of Product Management Manufacturingglobal.com at GE Digital

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SMART MANUFACTURING

infrastructure modernisation, expansion, and technology upgrades. Often, due to corporate acquisition and consolidation, manufacturers have several facilities, all with different types of equipment, including various sizes and ages.

Companies therefore have no common

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process for gathering and analysing information, and no internal expertise to integrate systems.”

In addition to these challenges Gerstl also identified the widening talent gap. “The new generation of workers are experienced with modern technologies such as

SMART MANUFACTURING

Current technologies and innovation There is a seismic shift taking place in the MES market driven

by IIoT, cloud and the rising interest of AI/machine learning. Most of the MES vendors Gartner covers are at some stage of rearchitecting their technology to take advantage of platform-as-aservice (PaaS), microservices based ‘service bus’ approaches with low code/ no code application development.

The most innovative have taken these approaches and created technologies that can manage high volume data from IIoT and transactional data from

MES in the same data model. Gartner is also seeing innovation in creating user experience ‘personas’ for both UI and process definition. These tools, as well as crowd-source app stores are providing organisational building blocks to simplify and democratise MES. The challenge to these approaches is providing the necessary governance and ‘guardrails’ in these PaaS offerings to maintain product quality and employee safety.

Rick Franzosa, Senior Director Analyst with the Gartner Supply Chain Practice

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SMART MANUFACTURING

“ THE TRENDS IN MANUFACTURING CONTINUE TO BE OPTIMISE OPERATIONS, INCREASE VISIBILITY, AND IMPROVE QUALITY AND OUTPUT” JOE GERSTL

DIRECTOR OF PRODUCT MANAGEMENT, GE DIGITAL

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SMART MANUFACTURING

The benefits of Smart MES This is something that Gartner has surveyed annually since 2012. The top benefits from the standpoint of how MES is justified, as well as achieved, are quality improvement, improved visibility to manufacturing data, enforcement of standard manufacturing processes and improved employee decision making and competency (through improved data access).

Rick Franzosa, Senior Director Analyst with the Gartner Supply Chain Practice

smartphones but don’t have manufacturing domain expertise or experience with manufacturing software. Manufacturers are losing the institutional knowledge of their more seasoned workforce, so they need to turn this human-based knowledge into a digital asset through the use of work process management systems that capture domain expertise and drive consistent processes across the entire business – all facilities, all systems.”

Nine months on, when asked if these challenges have changed Gerstl adds, “I’m not sure the challenges have changed, but maybe magnified. Manufacturers need a more holistic view of their operations. They want to anticipate supply chain and other disruptions.

They are looking for global solutions that deliver global visibility, orchestrate the execution of their processes, optimise their assets and plants in the context of the enterprise as well as the supply chain. To do this, they need to put industrial data to work at an enterprise scale to enable visibility and scalability from their on-premise components to the cloud.”

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HOW IWS

IS DRIVING OPERATIONAL

EXCELLENCE WRITTEN BY: JANET BRICE

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April 2021

PRODUCED BY: KARL GREEN

PROCTER & GAMBLE

PROCTER & GAMBLE

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PROCTER & GAMBLE

Manufacturing mastery of P&G’s IWS delivered cost savings of up to $1 billion despite the pandemic, says Maciej Stawicki, Global Manufacturing VP powered to a large extent by IWS,” he said.

“We had a strong first half of the fiscal year with impressive sales. This was enabled by the Product Supply organisation and practically uninterrupted operation of manufacturing sites driven by IWS, while in

MACIEJ STAWICKI TITLE: VP GLOBAL MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY: CONSUMER

EXECUTIVE BIO

P

rocter & Gamble’s iconic family and home care products flew off supermarket shelves around the world during the past year - a surge fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Who would have thought that more than 180 years after Mr. Procter (a candlemaker) and Mr. Gamble (a soapmaker) opened their doors in Cincinnati promoting the ‘highest grade soaps and candles’ the company would again be focusing on its basic household hero products as they supply a world working from home during lockdown.

Despite COVID-19 causing massive distribution challenges for some companies, P&G has leveraged their manufacturing and supply chain resiliency to enjoy a competitive edge and always ensure their consumer products, from Charmin to Mr Proper, are on the shelf.

One key to success for such operational excellence is P&G’s Integrated Work Systems (IWS) which works on two principles; the power of zero defects and losses and the power of 100 per cent Total Employee Ownership (TEO).

“The power of IWS, has not only enabled us to go through the pandemic with minimal impact, but in some respects, has made our organisation stronger by building the learning into how we operate going forward,” said Maciej Stawicki Global Manufacturing Vice President speaking from his office in Geneva.

“Looking at the last calendar year, we continued to deliver to the company close to a billion dollars of total delivered cost savings

Maciej Stawicki is the P&G Global Manufacturing Vice President.

He owns the Integrated Work System capability building program for 113 manufacturing sites across the globe.

Stawicki earned his MS in Mechanical Engineering from Warsaw Technical University and worked as Process Engineer in CNC Machine Tools Design Center before joining P&G in 1993. Since then he successfully performed several manufacturing roles in several countries including leading three plants in Saudi Arabia, Poland, and Germany. Prior to his current role, Stawicki led the Baby Care category Product Supply organisation in India, Middle East, and Africa region.

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PROCTER & GAMBLE

“Looking at the last calendar year, we continued to deliver to the company close to a billion dollars of total delivered cost savings powered to a large extent by IWS.” MACIEJ STAWICKI

GLOBAL MANUFACTURING VICE PRESIDENT, PROCTER & GAMBLE

parallel ensuring highest safety standards and effective COVID protocols. We were able to sustain our results while sometimes a significant number of our employees in our factories had to stay at home.”

MASTERY IN MANUFACTURING P&G is renowned for its ‘multiple decades of mastery in manufacturing, supply chain excellence and operations’ and with IWS P&G continues to be recognised. Industry accolades reflect this as the company has been awarded Supply Chain Master distinction from Gartner, Supplier of the Year from Walmart and close to 100 awards for individual plants across the world for example, the most recent “Fourth Industrial Revolution Lighthouse 70

April 2021

Factory Award by the World Economic Forum for P&G Lima, USA and P&G Amiens, France plants.

According to Stawicki, IWS has “evolved beyond the manufacturing discipline” and is now a fundamental element of an E2E supply chain blueprint for others to follow. It can be leveraged by other companies and shows a step-change in results within a timeframe of 16-20 weeks.

P&G partners with consultants from Ernst & Young to implement the systems in more than 400 non-P&G factories around the world.

“I think that the partnership with EY is unique. Together we can offer help to other global companies to reach worldclass standards,” he said.

PROCTER & GAMBLE

1837

Year founded

99,000+ Number of employees

$71bn revenue

$14bn

TDC savings in the last 10 years

$1bn

of cost savings over the last calendar year largely driven

by IWS

DID YOU KNOW...

ALLIANCE WITH ERNST & YOUNG (EY) P&G is now sharing the manufacturing excellence of IWS with other companies around the world - to improve their supply chain performance - via their partnership with EY. The alliance between P&G and EY combines their supply chain and manufacturing excellence capabilities to bring a different approach to attaining improved end-to-end supply chain performance and higher levels of manufacturing reliability.

The combination of P&G’s IWS program and EY’s consultants for implementation (including smart factory) is now used in more than 400 non-P&G factories around the world.

“On one side, we have P&G with multiple decades of mastery in manufacturing, supply chain excellence and operations. On the other side, we have EY who has expertise in delivering global transformation programs. Together we can offer help to other global companies to

reach world-class standards,” said Stawicki.

An example of IWS working in practice is an automotive supplier who implemented it and reduced unplanned stops by 90 per cent and unplanned downtime by 96 per cent.

“It was so successful that the company decided to roll out the IWS program across all of its sites,” said Stawicki. “The important thing to note is this does not have to take a long time.

We have a program that enables achieving breakthrough results within the timeframe of 16-20 weeks.

“Within this timeframe we have multiple examples where companies were able to reduce the unplanned stops by more than 50 per cent and increase the MTBF by a couple of hundred per cent. It doesn't have to be a very long journey to see the breakthrough results. It's also sector agnostic as it works for automotive, pharma, food companies and heavy industry,” he said.

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PROCTER & GAMBLE

TOP HIGH GROWTH CATEGORIES IN 2020 Home care - Surface cleaners Family care - Toilet paper, paper towels

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE OF IWS: • Operational excellence driven by IWS is crucial to the delivery of Operating Total Shareholder Return (O-TSR) goals in every node of the E2E supply chain.

• IWS is the productivity enabler which drives convergence and focus on cost, cash, predictability and responsiveness.

• The framework applies to any industry, product type or form and drives a stepchange improvement in performance from any baseline or level of maturity.

• Enables financial flexibility (cost and cash) for re-investment in disruptive and transformative innovation that drives growth and shareholder value.

PEOPLE POWER OF IWS While many multinational companies struggled during the pandemic, P&G already had an infrastructure in place to navigate the challenges with the use of standard work processes that were digitally enabled in their plants and regional Planning Service Centres.

Immediate actions were triggered in line with the three top company priorities: ensuring the safety of employees and their families, providing the businesses with uninterrupted supply and supporting local communities.

“We were able to activate existing, strong business continuity plans immediately. Despite the fact that people 72

April 2021

5bn

P&G consumers

113

P&G factories implement IWS

400+

non-P&G factories around the world have IWS as a result of alliance between P&G and EY

$10bn was achieved

by Pampers

“The power of IWS, has not only enabled us to go through the pandemic with minimal impact, but in some respects, has made our organisation stronger by building the learning into how we operate going forward.”

MACIEJ STAWICKI

GLOBAL MANUFACTURING VICE PRESIDENT, PROCTER & GAMBLE

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Unlock your potential The EY P&G Alliance can help you reach a leading-class standard that has helped our clients realize billions of dollars in value.

Don’t settle for good when you can have excellence.

© 2021 EYGM Limited. | All Rights Reserved.

EYG no. EYG no. 001777-21Gbl | ED none.

Expect more.

EY: Alliance with P&G role model for operational excellence

Watch the EY and Procter & Gamble partnership

Unlock the potential of your business and elevate performance with EY’s smart factory A successful alliance between Ernst & Young (EY) and Procter & Gamble (P&G) which - achieves operational excellence in manufacturing - is now used in 400 smart factories resulting in savings of $15b.

accountability. Lean manufacturing focuses on: • A drive to zero losses • 100 per cent employee ownership

The 10-year partnership between consultants EY and household product brand P&G - best known for Pampers, Gillette and Ariel - focuses on improving the end-to-end supply chain with an Integrated Work System (IWS). This smart factory model is now helping other global manufacturers and SMEs optimise their business.

What is a smart factory?

“We’ve taken an industry leader in performance, coupled it with an industry leader in operations consulting and transformation and together we’re offering organisations the ability to deliver transformational results,” said Craig Lyjak, EY Global Smart Factory Leader.

“It’s great that we can go into a site and have significant capacity improvement in a short period of time,” said Lyjak who pointed out EY has now renewed the contract with P&G.

Uplift in performance

What is IWS? P&G’s IWS empowers every employee through a vertical line-centric model that establishes clear ownership and

Cyber-physical systems monitor the physical processes, provide analysis and automate controls and decision-making to improve manufacturing efficiency.

By boosting overall equipment effectiveness (OEE), the smart factory helps manufacturers increase revenue and defer capital investment.

“When you combine IWS and EY’s smart factory this can quickly accelerate and sustain performance,” said Lyjak.

“From a timeline perspective there is generally a performance change in about eight to 12 weeks and within four to six months, you will have broad acceptance that it’s not just a blip but will continue.”

Lyjak pointed out that it is not just solving one problem but taking it step-by-step to solve the next and continue that uplift.

Learn more now

PROCTER & GAMBLE

Proctor & Gamble: How IWS is driving operational excellence

were working from home, the the teams and digital tools are brain of the whole supply leveraged to support daily chain was practically intact work,” said Stawicki. when the pandemic hit,” One example of this said Stawicki. being put into practice “When we look at was a factory in India the performance of following the town going into sudden our sites during the pandemic we have lockdown. seen a relatively minor “We were able to impact. This can be restart the facilities measured in terms of only within a matter of days MACIEJ STAWICKI GLOBAL MANUFACTURING two to three per cent of the despite the fact the VICE PRESIDENT, overall equipment efficiency plant was only managed PROCTER & GAMBLE loss for a very short time. Then by a reduced `number of immediately we got back to target - this technicians while managers had to was clearly a reflection of the power of IWS.” work remotely. This was enabled by the These superior results were enabled by fact that every single person in the plant a combination of extraordinary people, knew exactly what standards to follow standards and digital (SEE INFOGRAPHIC). and, supported by the digital tools, did “All our people know their IWS tools and not require a manager behind them. This how to use them, standards are in place for is the power of IWS,” he said.

“P&G has multiple decades of mastery in manufacturing, supply chain excellence, and operations.”

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“We continue to progress a strategy to shorten our supply chains and to move our supply points from single source materials to materials that can be sourced from multiple locations. So the pandemic also accelerated this journey and helped us move faster towards our vision.”

Serendipitous strokes of genius by P&G’s people that have defined the brand:

EXECUTIVE BIO

OVERALL EQUIPMENT EFFECTIVENESS One of the most critical metrics of manufacturing excellence is overall equipment effectiveness (OEE).

“OEE is one of the key indicators we look at and compare performance across our plants as it has a major impact on cost and cash,” said Stawicki who pointed out that from a cost standpoint a high OEE performance means minimal losses and reduced waste.

“At the same time, operating equipment with a higher efficiency means we have much higher utilisation of our assets. So

FIRST BILLION DOLLAR BRAND

Pampers: When P&G researcher Vic Mills became frustrated with changing his newborn grandson’s cloth nappy he decided there must be a better alternative. In 1956 he asked R&D to work on developing the first disposable nappy. This led to the creation of Pampers - the number one nappy brand worldwide, serving 25 million babies in more than 100 countries and P&G’s first brand to generate more than $10 billion in annual sales. P&G now has 22 billion-dollar brands.

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we need less assets to produce the same volume. This means we are able to defer capital investments - often not only associated with incremental packing machines but sometimes associated with building a new plant - so this has a massive impact on deferring capital spending which is why OEE is so critical.”

Stawicki pointed out that one of the most important things of manufacturing excellence is preventing defects in a product which can be detrimental to building trust with our consumers in our brands, especially in the world of social media. “This is why ensuring that the zero defects are produced and shipped to the consumer is absolutely fundamental.”

TOUCHLESS FLOW OF INFORMATION P&G’s digital journey is also critical for the company to retain its competitive advantage.

“It can only be fully adopted when we create the right culture - what we think

ADVANTAGE OF P&G’S AGILE MANUFACTURING P&G’s manufacturing teams across the world harnessed their innovation capabilities to provide additional relief beyond their brands to help during the pandemic.

In Northern Europe, the agility of P&G teams enabled the production of 28,500 litres of hand sanitiser supplied to the WHO Formula 1 - the equivalent of 9.5 million hand washes.

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and what we look at – enabling us to engage and energise our people to achieve the current performance where certain losses like breakdowns and minor stops have been practically eliminated to zero,” said Stawicki.

“So as a next level loss, we look at the digital journey enabling touchless flow: creating end-to-end supply chain touchless flow of the information and in the other direction, touchless flow of the materials and product. Eliminating touches is the next vision we are progressing against and energising our organisation to deliver.”

STAWICKI POINTED OUT THE FOUR STAGES OF P&G’S DIGITAL ROADMAP: 1 | Build the right organisation structure in the manufacturing sites. This includes a strong partnership with the IT organisation and the right capability for the people in the organisation.

2 | Create the infrastructure, which is resilient and critically cyber secure, as well as ensuring everyone has the core set of solutions implemented as the foundation to build from.

3 | Harvest value creation with the integration phase. Unlock the significant benefits by integrating across the digital platforms and applications to drive a seamless flow of data to fully leverage the power of the digital transformation.

4 | Exploit what is possible in the amplification phase. The final phase is to leverage the power of the cloud to drive higher levels of analytics from digital twins and machine learning as well as enabling distributed innovation.

PROCTER & GAMBLE

“We had a strong first half of the fiscal year with impressive sales. This was enabled by the Product Supply organisation and practically uninterrupted operation of manufacturing sites driven by IWS” MACIEJ STAWICKI

GLOBAL MANUFACTURING VICE PRESIDENT, PROCTER & GAMBLE

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“All our people know their IWS tools and how to use them, standards are in place for the teams and digital tools are leveraged to support daily work” MACIEJ STAWICKI

GLOBAL MANUFACTURING VICE PRESIDENT, PROCTER & GAMBLE

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JOURNEY TO INDUSTRY 4.0 Stawicki explained that you can only leverage the smart factory and Industry 4.0 capabilities if you have a base fundamental excellence in place.

“If you have this in place then, of course, there are a lot of opportunities that come with a smart factory. The more advanced capabilities with machine learning or AI will get you to the next level and eliminate much more difficult defects that were not possible with the base human analysis.

“If you first maximise productivity gains through eliminating obvious work process inefficiencies and losses in the site, then bringing in automation makes sense. It builds on organisational gains and brings the next level of productivity improvement via automating high frequency, non-value added physical tasks. Similarly, you can leverage Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to eliminate repetitive tasks in the work processes.

“Finally, once you have a very reliable, predictable and agile E2E supply system you can effectively leverage extremely powerful capabilities across the end-toend supply chain like digital twins where you can model “what if” scenarios such as a pandemic,” he said.

Reflecting on what ultimately drives the company to future growth, Stawicki concluded: “The P&G mantra is that people are the main asset of the company. As our former CEO, Richard Dupree said: ‘If you leave us our money, our buildings and our brands, but you take away our people, our company will fail. But if you take away our money, our buildings and our brands, but you leave us our people, we will rebuild the company in a decade.’”

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AI & AUTOMATION

Understanding the VALUE of AUTOMATION in MANUFACTURING Manufacturing Global takes a look at the value of automation in manufacturing, the current trends and its future in the industry WRITTEN BY: GEORGIA WILSON

I

n the wake of COVID-19, industry 4.0 capabilities have become even more critical to manufacturing operations.

Industry leaders harnessing digital solutions are better equipping themselves to weather potential crises in the future.

Coupling the new challenges of COVID-19 with the continuous drive for greater throughput and cost reductions, manufacturers are looking to Industry 4.0 solutions - in particular automation - to increase efficiencies.

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The value of automation in manufacturing Speaking with Gavin Mee, Managing Director UK and Ireland at UiPath, on the value of automation for manufacturers he explains that “with time-consuming back-office tasks such as inventory management placed in the hands of software robots, employees can focus on value added activities that require human ingenuity and skill, such as customer communication and innovation. Automation can therefore improve efficiency and employee satisfaction simultaneously.

“Crucially, these robots can work 24/7 without fatigue or error, twice to fivetimes faster than their human colleagues.

Therefore, back-office processes can be performed around the clock, allowing for real-time monitoring of customer demand, production capacity and inventory levels.

This all leads to leaner, more efficient operations across the back office and allows employees to have the information they need, when they need it.”

For organisations to be able to unlock the value of Robotic Process Automation

AI & AUTOMATION

Mckinsey manufacturingglobal.com

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AI & AUTOMATION

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AI & AUTOMATION

Mckinsey

“ For the full potential of automation to be unlocked employees across the organisation need to be involved when adopting automation technologies” GAVIN MEE,

MANAGING DIRECTOR UK AND IRELAND, UIPATH

(RPA) in manufacturing, “employees must be brought along for the ride. Businesses must provide the training necessary for employees to understand automation and even know how to create and deploy their own robots,” explains Mee. “This serves two purposes. Firstly, people are more likely to embrace technology when they understand how it will affect

and improve their daily working life. By providing this crucial training, employees are more likely to get behind the possibilities automation offers. Secondly, IT teams lack the fundamental inside knowledge of processes required to understand individual needs. Therefore, for the full potential of automation to be unlocked, employees across the organisation need to be involved when adopting automation technologies in order to provide the necessary holistic view of processes.” manufacturingglobal.com

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AI & Automation: The Era of Intelligent Automation

“ Since the advent of the pandemic, the adoption of automation has accelerated and many are looking to RPA to save time and money all while keeping employees safe” GAVIN MEE,

MANAGING DIRECTOR UK AND IRELAND, UIPATH

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AI & AUTOMATION

What are the different types of automation?

Automation can be classified in mainly two different ways.

First, there can be a differentiation in three basic types regarding the production volume and product variety: fixed automation, programmable automation, and flexible automation.

• Fixed automation is the process sequence fixed by the equipment configuration. The individual processes are rather simple; complexity is generated through the integration and coordination of several such simple operations.

• In programmable automation the equipment is designed with a capability to change the sequence of operations through a PLC as required by different products.

• Flexible automation is often seen as an extension of programmable automation; the advantage is the flexibility used to have no changeover between different products, the system can produce various products instead of producing batches.

A second differentiation can be more process oriented and technology based, regarding the appliance of different automation technologies. In this view it can be broadly distinguished between robotics (considering all three previous types), advanced materials and additive manufacturing, simulation and modeling software and more generally all the new emerging technologies, often referred to as Industry 4.0 applications (Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, RPA).

Christian Haupt, Head of Group Business Development Technology and Global Director Continuous Improvement STAEDTLER

Use cases of automation in manufacturing “Many will have heard of the physical industry robots used to assemble, test and package products,” reflects Mee. “But automation can also be deployed in the back-office to help streamline operational processes. RPA is software that can work just like a human – but virtually. RPA software robots can take control of a screen, mouse and keyboard and operate a computer just as a human would. In other words, they are digital assistants on hand to help with rule-based and data-heavy processes.”

With manufacturers constantly handling time-consuming, data-focused tasks such as procurement, order management, inventory management and payment processing, “the rule-based nature of these tasks makes them perfect for RPA,” adds Mee. “Therefore, many manufacturing companies are turning to RPA to improve agility and streamline operations across the value chain.” manufacturingglobal.com

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Current trends and challenges in manufacturing automation Tuning into RPA and the possibilities the technology has offered in recent years, “many manufacturers were already exploring the technology in response to changing regulations and compliance measures prior to COVID-19. However, since the advent of the pandemic, the adoption of automation has accelerated and many are looking to RPA to save time and money all while keeping employees safe.”

Whilst adopting RPA “may seem daunting at first, in reality, you do not need a deep understanding of coding nor an entire ecosystem of software robots to get started.

The main challenge is to identify where to start.”

Though almost every process has a repetitive nature to it, “many may seem like viable candidates for automation. Process mining, task mining and task capture are a great way to understand which processes are most suitable for automation and which will offer the best return on investment.”

The impact of COVID-19 The advent of the pandemic has had a significant impact on the adoption of automation. Organisations around the world have turned to RPA to improve efficiency, digitise processes to reduce the need to be in the office, and deal with increasing workloads in areas such as customer service and data entry.

For the manufacturing industry, this was no different. There was immense pressure to survive in less than favourable economic conditions, all while employee access to offices and the factory floor was restricted by working from home guidelines. RPA has allowed manufacturers to improve efficiency and digitalise back-office processes, thus helping organisations to adapt to the new business climate.

For example, UiPath customer Schneider Electric restarted work at plants by automating personal protective equipment (PPE) dispatch and reporting processes—a critical effort in saving jobs and generating revenue again.

Gavin Mee, Managing Director UK and Ireland at UiPath

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AI & AUTOMATION

The future of automation in manufacturing Looking to the future, Mee contemplates that “the future is bound to bring even more automation to the industry. Many firms begin introducing automation to the enterprise by picking the low hanging fruit, namely those processes that offer high potential for automation and low complexity. These can quickly provide a high ROI and therefore are often key in firming up stakeholder and business user buy-in.”

“ You do not need a deep understanding of coding nor an entire ecosystem of software robots to get started, the main challenge is to identify where to start” GAVIN MEE,

MANAGING DIRECTOR UK AND IRELAND, UIPATH

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Industry 4.0 technologies were already transforming manufacturers’ operations before the pandemic.

Now adoption is diverging between technology haves and have-nots.

Mckinsey

Mckinsey

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“ The future is bound to bring even more automation to the industry” GAVIN MEE,

MANAGING DIRECTOR UK AND IRELAND, UIPATH

However after these are automated, “many start to ask themselves, ‘How can we make the best of automation?’ The answer should be end-to-end, enterprise-wide automation, where a business uses RPA, AI and other supporting technologies to their fullest potential.”

To achieve this potential Mee continues to explain that “a company can achieve full automation by joining all automation projects into an enterprise-wide programme, spanning multiple functions and disciplines, where processes get automated end-to-end and provide support from build to shipment. In other words, in a fully automated enterprise, all tasks that can be automated, will be automated. As a result, employees will be able to focus on value added front-office processes, whilst the business benefits from incredible levels of productivity and speed.”

While the technology is still in the early days for this to be fully realised, “it is certainly the future and many are already on their way to achieving a fully automated enterprise,” concludes Mee. manufacturingglobal.com

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RPG GROUP

RPG PUTS PEOPLE FIRST IN DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION WRITTEN BY: PADDY SMITH

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PRODUCED BY: JAMES BERRY

RPG GROUP

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RPG GROUP

RPG is a global diversified conglomerate headquartered in Mumbai, India. Samip Mutha, Vice President – Digital and Innovation, talks about how people are the key to a successful digital transformation

E

nabling digital transformation in a manufacturing business is no simple task. The manufacturing industry is exceptionally analogue by nature and has been working on multiple improvement frameworks like ISO, Six Sigma, TPM, WCM, Demings, TRIZ, etc, to name a few.

The success of Digital in manufacturing depends on your ability to take people along and raise its quotient across the employees in different functions, front line as well as backend.

For the shop floor, digital challenges are enormous. For legacy businesses with old plants, the need to embrace digital arises, especially with old assets and systems which obviously can’t retire overnight given the large capex involved. Digital in manufacturing is akin to performing surgery on a person, it needs to be highly customised, leave breathing space for recovery and have an airbag for side-effects.

To want to embrace Digital in its entirety and build future-ready factories without any stoppage or impacting business, the need to balance the approach of Plant-Wide building for future, the so-called Smart Factories vis-à-vis machine (critical), as well as the process-level tactic is a given. When the question of building a strong Digital core in large global and distributed manufacturing operations arises, it strongly resonates as more of a “when” as opposed to a “why” with Mr. Mutha.

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100% culture The 3 Ms of manufacturing, namely Machine, Method and Materials, are important, as are smaller concerns compared to the 4th M Man (Culture) according to Mr. Mutha.

“The digital success stories are 100% culture,” he says. “We are still a generation of people who are driving digital projects with an analogue mind, then blaming the technology, without realising our weaknesses. Every digital project requires an acceptance of the new normal. It merits believing unseen possibilities.

The letting go of age-old habits seems more arduous in comparison to embracing new and future-friendly practices. The operator who, so far, has been regulating the machineries in and out, is likely to face a mental challenge

“I’M NOT A FAN OF DIGITAL STRATEGY. WE HAVE A BUSINESS STRATEGY AND THE DIGITAL NEEDS TO EMBRACE THAT TO TRANSFORM OR BUILD NEW BUSINESSES” SAMIP MUTHA,

VICE PRESIDENT - HEAD OF DIGITAL AND INNOVATION, RPG

Samip Mutha, Vice president - Head of Digital and Innovation, RPG Manufacturingglobal.com

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RPG GROUP

RPG group CORPORATE FILM #hellohappiness​

Samip Mutha has four key characteristics for effective leadership:

ETHICS AND INTEGRITY HUMILITY COMMUNICATION ABILITY TO TAKE RISKS

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in adopting a whole new way of thinking, let alone accepting new possibilities that stand to enable, elevate, and boost the lives of people.

Business KPIs haven’t changed drastically, and will continue to remain constant. It was about 15 years ago that I started my career in Manufacturing Consulting, and OEE was good back then, just like it is today, and I am fairly certain that it will continue to remain so tomorrow. That said, what changes is your ability to command trust, bring transparency and give rise to transformation in terms of the ways in which the business has been running.

“So, in the said culture, believing in possibilities is imperative. It won’t happen overnight, irrespective of one’s credibility.

Digital is a journey, one has to live it, a journey of opening the mind to creative courses of action, establishing and showcasing success stories while also then scaling it up rapidly, making it a way of life. It tends to come more naturally if you start from the POV of business benefit and associated ROI for investors. If

RPG GROUP

"THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE IN DIGITAL IS ANALOG MINDS AND HENCE WORKING ON PEOPLE IS THE MOST CRITICAL LEVER FOR SUCCESSFUL ADOPTION"

SAMIP MUTHA TITLE: VICE PRESIDENT - HEAD OF DIGITAL AND INNOVATION COMPANY: RPG GROUP

SAMIP MUTHA,

VICE PRESIDENT - HEAD OF DIGITAL AND INNOVATION, RPG

The Digital Academy It was early on in our journey that we realised the importance of aligning as many RPGians to Digital as possible. In order to facilitate the agenda, RPG launched an in-house Digital Academy in 2016. “We identified seven or eight pillars in the universe of Digital, such as its use in marketing, manufacturing, and different key areas of our diversified businesses. Our people in every function had to go through it to understand the impact

EXECUTIVE BIO

you begin with the source of value for every stakeholder, then the chances of obtaining money run high. But more importantly, the adoption of new ways latch on too.

“CFOs or CEOs have always envisaged the outcomes of a business rather than the tech processes involved. Hence, for me, success doesn’t reach fruition simply upon the approval of a project. It’s the start of a new chapter in my professional book, the beginning of another journey.

Mr. Mutha has 17+ years of experience in Management Consulting, Digital Transformation and Innovation in various industries across the geographies. He is currently working with RPG Group as Vice President and Head of Digital and Innovation with focus on Smart Factories, Connected Customers, Digital at workplace and Smart Products across diversified businesses of RPG from rubber and tyres to life sciences, EPC and IT. Samip is on the Panel of Future of Technology, IET since 2018 whose focus is to develop the platform that will benefit stakeholders from student to government to SME in accelerating the Digital growth of India.

He is a renowned speaker in various forums including, CII, NASSCOM, IET, IOT Congress and many more along with leading B-schools on topics like IOT, Digital Transformation, Customer Experience, Industry 4.0 and Business Innovation.

During his Journey with RPG, the group has won prestigious awards including EY Mint Digital award for AI project, Golden Peacock Innovation award and most recent Best Innovation Company 2020 by Economic Times.

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We connect what’s now to what’s next.

Leverage a combination of business excellence methodologies (e.g., Lean, TPM, TQM) and technological enhancements (e.g., IoT, Predictive / Prescriptive analytics) to better address challenges of ‘waste’, ‘variability’ and ‘inflexibility’ across 4M (Man, Machine, Material & Method) dimensions and achieve next level of operational excellence across SQPCDM (Safety, Quality, Productivity, Cost, Delivery & Morale) aspects.

Hitachi Vantara: making intelligent manufacturing happen

Watch the 3 dimensions of industry 4.0

Hitachi Vantara’s head of global manufacturing consulting explains the approach of the company to intelligent manufacturing Hitachi Vantara is, in the words of Dev Ramchandani, Senior Director and Head of Global Manufacturing Consulting, “a global technology leader and a catalyst for sustainable societal change. We respond to global dynamic changes with insight and agility. Our unique approach helps deliver sustainable measurable business results and a better consulting experience.”

Ramchandani insists that while Industry 4.0 has been a buzzword, there are now material successes to point to. He breaks down the Hitachi Vantara view into three key areas. One: “We need to start with a business outcome or a business driven approach, not a technology driven approach. So we need to have the business objective in mind and then go ahead and identify the relevant technologies, which will help us achieve that.” Two: “We need to reimagine operations. We need to keep thinking of the technical limit in our minds, because that is what we are headed to. We need to figure out how we can disrupt the current cycle and reach there.”

And three: “People. This calls for a different skill set and we need to nurture people.”

In what he calls the “five-box model” – process, mindsets, capabilities, technology, data – Ramchandani sets out his blueprint for the company’s approach to “sustainable behavioural change”, leading to sustainable impact.

Hitachi Vantara is one of RPG’s most important partnerships, and Ramchandani calls the experience of working with the manufacturing group a “pleasure”.

“We at Hitachi have a very keen focus on harmony, sincerity and pioneering spirit, and these three elements are ingrained in RPG as well. Given the values were aligned, it has been an excellent journey working together.”

Two other key ingredients in the relationship are a win-win mentality and open and trust based communication.

That journey has been marked by a focus on ‘intelligent manufacturing’ leveraging a combination of business excellence methodologies, such as Lean, TPM and TQM, and technological enhancements like IoT, predictive and prescriptive analytics to better address the challenges of waste, variability and inflexibility across four key dimensions Ramchandani collectively refers to as “4M” (man, machine, material and method).

“I would say intelligent manufacturing for us is to find the next S-curve of operational excellence across the dimensions of SQPCDM (safety, quality, productivity, costs, delivery and morale). We go about doing that by addressing waste variability and flexibility. These are the core challenges, so we address waste variability and inflexibility across all the 4M dimensions. Each of these has some inherent waste variability and flexibility, so we try to address that in order to achieve the next S-curve of operational excellence.” hitachivantara.com

Learn more

RPG GROUP

30,000 +

Number of Employees

$4bn+ Revenue

1820

Year Founded

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RPG GROUP

“DIGITAL PROJECTS ARE LIKE LEGO BLOCK ASSEMBLY, YOU NEED PEOPLE WHO CAN THINK OF EXPONENTIAL APPLICATION OF TECHNOLOGY TO BUSINESS” SAMIP MUTHA,

VICE PRESIDENT - HEAD OF DIGITAL AND INNOVATION, RPG

and the change Digital can bring to their function or areas.

Mr. Mutha built on the Digital Academy to identify the torch bearers who would expand the Digital agenda and work with early evangelists to identify new opportunities.“There can not be better success for Digital Officers than other people talking about your project,” he says proudly.

What is digital strategy?

One of the challenges Mr. Mutha faces with the diversity of RPG’s portfolio is that there are more than 6 companies, with revenues ranging from ₹400 crore to ₹12,000 crore+ ($60m-$1.6bn), holding different positions in the industry in which they play, with varying financial muscles and appetite.

“I’m personally not a big fan of digital strategy,” he explains. "I think businesses already spend a lot of time thinking about three-to-five-year strategies and plans. The digital – and everything else – exists because the business exists. So, we have a business strategy, and the digital needs to wrap itself around it to evangelise and transform the way business is done. ”In addition, Mr. Mutha believes the pursuit of success is a core driver to making digital change. “If I take an analogy of, let’s say, the military, what motivates people is success. If you told people they were going to war to die, nobody would join.

What motivates them are success stories.

You need to celebrate success at every level.

It creates a pull factor within the organisation and acts as a booster shot in the cultural change as required.”

Changing business is changing humanity It’s a lot of change, Mr. Mutha admits, not least the shift from capex to opex as products become more service orientated.

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“WHAT MOTIVATES PEOPLE IS SUCCESS. IF YOU TOLD PEOPLE THEY WERE GOING TO WAR TO DIE, NOBODY WOULD JOIN” SAMIP MUTHA,

VICE PRESIDENT - HEAD OF DIGITAL AND INNOVATION, RPG

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A Recipe for Happiness | RPG Group Hello Happiness | 30 sec

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DID YOU KNOW...

SAMIP MUTHA ON PARTNERSHIPS...

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“I want to work with partners who understand the significance of the journey and have the flexibility to deal with the diverse layers of complexity. I always tell my vendors that the project will go beyond scope, timeline, maybe even the budget. I don’t condone negotiations. In digital, hard negotiation will give you instant gratification, but in the longer scheme of things, it will take away the mental mobility vital to such a project. After six or seven years, I still refuse to write a specific contract for digital. It’s easy to draw up contractual obligations and just “do my job” in theory, but that doesn’t help my inner purpose. We still have those unseen possibilities, and I see them every day. To that end, a partner who has the commitment to pull you through and make a successful journey out of the ingredients is what we all need.

April 2021

But the bigger transformation will be in the workforce. “One thing I see is that the rise in humanity will be a basis for the kind of work that is being done. People will break free from doing jobs that are unsafe, mundane, predictable, or overtaxing. It’s going to encourage a safer and healthier way of life, which is a win for humanity at large, a role that Digital is going to play. A massive democratisation of talent is going to take over, changing businesses fundamentally, and it’s important to understand those underlying changes happening in every industry that you play in.

RPG GROUP

“THERE CAN NOT BE BETTER SUCCESS FOR DIGITAL OFFICERS THAN OTHER PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT YOUR PROJECT”

“AI and analytics are going to be at the focal points of digital,” Mr. Mutha notes. Yet, he is certain that despite the said aspects being nothing short of vital requirements of motion in digital transformation, they need to be more intrinsic to it rather than separate strains. After all, nobody mentions programming languages when they talk about software. Why would they mention data and artificial intelligence? It’s the bottom line of any technology project.”

SAMIP MUTHA,

VICE PRESIDENT - HEAD OF DIGITAL AND INNOVATION, RPG Manufacturingglobal.com

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TECHNOLOGY

Data & Analytics: the Lifeblood of Digital Transformation With most applications today powered and enabled by data, we discover how manufacturers can realise the true potential of data and data analytics WRITTEN BY: GEORGIA WILSON

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D

igital transformation is “the most amazing challenge and opportunity that we have in industry today,” begins Francisco Betti, Head of Advanced Manufacturing and Production at the World Economic Forum (WEF).

“It’s a challenge because it's not easy to understand, to navigate your plants manufacturing, industry 4.0, digital transformation. But it’s an opportunity because we are seeing digital transformation becoming not just the enabler of the future for operations, but becoming the foundations that are allowing companies to develop and deliver new business models.

Digital transformation in manufacturing for manufacturers is at the heart of new value.

We're seeing more and more companies that as they transform themselves through the merger of OT and IT they're really setting the foundations for the development of new products and for the development of new customer experiences, by topping up existing products with services or becoming service providers themselves.”

TECHNOLOGY

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6 Ways Inventory Management Fuels Supply Chain Explore How Inventory Management Enables Supply Chain to Reach Its Fullest Potential For most businesses, the supply chain is not only the primary cost centre but one of the most challenging aspects of running a profitable operation.

This ebook examines the role of inventory management in each step of the supply chain and share best practices for how businesses can use inventory management to optimise and run a more profitable operation.

Download Ebook Now

TECHNOLOGY

Driving Digital Transformation with Data Analytics

DATA: THE LIFEBLOOD OF DIGITAL DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION “Data is the lifeblood of digital transformation; however we need the analytics – such as algorithms, optimisation and simulation models – to generate insights and value,” comments Daniel Küpper, Managing Director and Partner, and Stephan Bloempott, Project Leader at Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

“Data is the main enabler of digital transformation,” agrees Betti, “when you look at the fourth industrial revolution more broadly, most of the new applications that we are seeing are powered and enabled by data.

So in answer to the question: how important is data? I think it is key, but at the same time it’s the elephant in the room. We survey on a regular basis chief operating officers (COOs),

and what we have realised is that there are very few companies that are really able to get new value out of the data they are collecting.”

While there have been large investments made in technology that helps to capture data, Betti notes that “there are several roadblocks when it comes to making sense out of that data. So this is why data applications are extremely exciting and important.” In agreement with Betti Memia Fendri Project Specialist, Advanced Manufacturing, World Economic Forum (WEF) adds “all the applications from the fourth industrial revolution rely on data. So it really is the lifeblood of digital transformation, whether it's to increase efficiency, to empower the workforce to work more effectively, or dissipate any future disruptions and mitigate risks.”

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DATA IN MANUFACTURING: THE EVOLUTION OF ITS USE “If we take a step back and we look at the pre COVID world, companies and manufacturing companies have been investing in data for quite some time now,” explains Francisco Betti. Head of Advanced Manufacturing and Production at the World Economic Forum (WEF).

With trends such as the fourth industrial revolution, climate change, sustainability and geopolitical tensions, “forcing companies to find new ways to stay connected globally,” organisations are being pushed “to start exploring what data, data analytics, connectivity and cloud could deliver,” explains Betti. What started as a use case in a single production line within a specific facility, has evolved into the supply chain, “and now we are talking about this hyperscale ecosystem in which data is collected all the way through, so that there is a continuum data thread or digital thread to deliver new value.

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“Now, what COVID-19 implemented is a massive acceleration of all those investments and efforts that companies hadn’t put in place before the crisis started. So if you look at the past 10 years there was a progressive increment, that suddenly COVID created a sort of tipping point in which a major acceleration started to take place. I don’t know of any company that we work with that is not massively invested in data analytics today as they look at how to build resilience, be more efficient, more productive and mitigate risks in a post pandemic situation,” When it comes to data, Betti adds. contemplates that “what is interesting is that the way in which companies operate is no longer as standalone entities, they're already part of broader ecosystems and those ecosystems are hyper-connected. What is flowing from one company to the other is what is flowing across an entire supply and value chain. These hyper-connected value networks are going to be the rule for the way

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" In the longer term companies will seek to build more resilient, more productive manufacturing and supply systems, and 68% plan to accelerate their data and analytics efforts in the next 12 months" DANIEL KÜPPER/STEPHAN BLOEMPOTT

MANAGING DIRECTOR & PARTNER PROJECT LEADER AT BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP (BCG)

in which companies will operate, and will be powered and enabled by data.”

When asked why hyper-connectivity is needed, Betti comments “it allows you to develop efficiencies, improve performance, increase productivity and reduce costs. At the same time it allows you to think beyond your operations, to think about how you are engaging with customers and delivering value. This concept of connected value chains and hyper-connected ecosystems in which companies operate I think will be key when it comes to the future of manufacturers and digital transformation.” Echoing Betti, Fendri adds, “ as we now think of more hyperconnected value networks and supply chains, there needs to be an end to end flow, and that is a flow of data and information. So that’s really at the heat of the digital transformation, manufacturing and supply system.”

UNLOCKING DATA’S VALUE IN MANUFACTURING Outlined in a white paper produced in collaboration between Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and the World Economic Forum (WEF) – Data Excellence: Transforming manufacturing and supply systems – the two companies identify three core values that the manufacturing industry can gain from effectively using data and data analytics within its functions and operations.

The paper begins by saying that “manufacturing companies capture value from data and analytics using different mechanisms,” such as creating transparency in complex problems, predicting future developments, and autonomous decision making. Those that are successfully implementing cutting‑edge data and analytics applications and have developed effective data ecosystems are unlocking value in three ways: Manufacturingglobal.com

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" BCG research has shown that 67% of manufacturers say that the importance of cost-reduction has increased during COVID-19, but only 16% would prioritize data and analytics to address the short-term cost reduction, as opposed to traditional process improvement, light automation etc" DANIEL KÜPPER/STEPHAN BLOEMPOTT

MANAGING DIRECTOR & PARTNER PROJECT LEADER AT BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP (BCG)

1 | Productivity “A continuous improvement journey that helps companies gain efficiencies, reduce costs and optimise operations. Within that it's also about improving your speed to market,” comments Betti, who adds that “this is where value is sitting today, when it comes to the future of data, data analytics, data sharing and collaboration in manufacturing.”

Applications to improve productivity Predictive quality, generative AI-driven product design, data-driven integrated sales and operations planning can help improve these [Küpper and Bloempott].

2 | Enhanced customer experience “The concept of improved or better customer experiences by leveraging data, whether it's data coming from your products and the life cycle of your products or data coming from the usage that your customers have given to those products,” continues Betti, “this is really helping companies go to market with new customer experiences, which is extremely exciting.”

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Applications to enhance customer experience Predictive quality, generative AI-driven product design, data-driven integrated sales and operations planning can help improve these [Küpper and Bloempott].

3 | Positive impact on society and the environment Betti identifies this as “the most important in the post COVID-19 crisis, in which we are

talking about this concept of stakeholder capitalism.” Betti explains that “the need for companies to deliver value, not just for the shareholders, but for all stakeholders in society, shareholders, workers, society, the environment, and all the different actors,” can be delivered with the help of data analytics. “If you look at how you can optimise material consumption through data analytics or how you can reduce CO2 emissions you optimise your processes.

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Challenges for realising value In our survey, companies listed the following top three challenges: insufficient digital skills and capabilities; data-security and privacy concerns; and complex internal governance and processes.

These issues derive from the fact that organizational and technological enablers linked to the six priorities above are often not in place. Beyond that, many companies struggle in identifying the right, value-adding use cases to capture value in the three areas of increased productivity, enhanced customer experience and a positive impact on society and the environment.

I think that there's a huge promise there within the broader framework of this concept of stakeholder capitalism.”

Applications to have a positive impact on society and the environment Data sharing for traceability along a supply network, or using algorithms to predict and improve energy efficiency [Küpper and Bloempott].

SIX PRIORITIES TO UNLOCK THE VALUE OF DATA IN MANUFACTURING With the value to be had in harnessing data in manufacturing identified, BCG and WEF outline three organisational and three technological priorities for organisations to focus on in order to realise such value.

Organisational 1 | A clear data-to-value strategy and road map “When you talk to many companies still today, not all of them have a clear view on what they can deliver, still there are only a 114

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few of them who have clear roadmaps, and have the buy in from the top management to make digital transformation a reality and be able to leverage data and analytics at scale, across the entire organisation.

We often see companies being successful in transforming one specific facility, but I think that it's taking that to the next level and transforming that scale is the other challenge,” explains Betti.

“What we've noticed is that this really needs to be purpose driven,” adds Fendri, “you need to define what is the right application that you want to implement for your intended purpose and see how data plays a role in there, and that is often the main driver for success.”

2 | Incentivise internal and external ecosystem partners In BCG and WEF's report, the two draw attention to the need to work in a collaborative way with your internal and external ecosystem. “You need an ecosystem,” comments Betti, “whether it's because you want to develop new applications and therefore need access to startups and innovations who may be working on the latest state of the art technology that can leverage data, or whether it's because you need data that you may not have, collaboration on that front can help a lot.”

Betti goes on to explain that ecosystems can also help to scale up innovation, you need to be partnering with the broader ecosystem to open up your eyes, and be able to first, benchmark yourself but also come up with a new innovation strategy and develop the next generation of data-driven applications.”

3 | Build capabilities to capture and use data In order to build and maintain data and analytics applications, “companies need a

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80%

of executives consider data and advanced analytics important to improve productivity Overall, BCG estimates that data and analytics have the potential to reduce conversion costs by up to

20% 72%

of manufacturers state that the importance of data and analytics has increased over the last three years, and by now more than

93%

of industrial companies have implemented at least one use case in the last few years. Despite this, only

39%

of all companies manage to scale applications beyond single value streams

new skill set that combines digital skills with sector‑specific manufacturing know‑how,” explain BCG and WEF. With technical infrastructure becoming increasingly complex, and more and more decisions are made by algorithms, “it becomes more important for companies to have the data

science skills to build applications and understand the insights generated by these algorithms,” adds BCG and WEF. By having the right combination of digital and manufacturing skills companies can translate insights into actions for factories and supply chains. When it comes to such Manufacturingglobal.com

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capabilities, Fendri explains that “data collection is one thing, but there's also a lot of processing of the data, the cleansing of the data, and also being able to generate insights and make meaning out of this data. These capabilities really need to be in place either within the organisation or by partnering with experts.”

Technological 1 | Implement an open platform to unlock data silos With many applications requiring bidirectional data flows from different companies or different systems within a company, BCG and WEF explains the complexity in achieving this due to data often being stuck in silos.

“A cloud‑hosted platform helps companies overcome this barrier by facilitating the sharing of data both within the company and across company boundaries with suppliers, customers and other ecosystem partners.”

Complementing the report, Fendri adds “If we want to unlock data silos and we think of hyper-connected value networks, open platforms allow for this information flow either within a company's boundaries or across a company’s boundaries.”

2 | Enable connectivity for low‑latency, high‑bandwidth data flows In addition to many applications requiring bidirectional data flows, many also need uninterrupted, low latency, highbandwidth data transfers, specifically continuous wireless connectivity is crucial for autonomous decision making. “Wireless connectivity allows companies to have highly flexible factories within which they can easily adjust the layout. It also makes it possible to constantly connect mobile assets and goods to a central platform, enabling an uninterrupted stream of data.

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In addition, wireless connectivity is a key enabler for the plug‑and‑play use of sensors and cameras, which can be used to upgrade older machines,” states the BCG and WEF. Emphasising the importance of connectivity, Betti adds, “connectivity across the entire organisation is not a negligible point. Connectivity remains a challenge for many global companies, especially when you have facilities in both developed and developing countries.”

3 | Ensure data security and privacy “Data, data security and privacy is really the most important one,” says Fendri. “Preventing data breaches, knowing also how to protect sensitive data so that you don't lose competitive advantage, as well as preventing the misuse of data you need to be able to

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control the usage and prevent it from being used for purposes that you might not want.”

“You need to focus on privacy and security, you need a plan to future proof your manufacturing, supply systems and data ecosystems against cybercrime,” adds Betti, “I think that’s probably one of the concerns that people still have in mind.”

DATA AND DATA ANALYTICS: ITS FUTURE IN MANUFACTURING Contemplating the future for the use of data and data analytics Betti starts by says “something that is interesting is that if you look at the future, and you look at the trends for climate change, geopolitical tensions etc they are intensifying, which means that crisis in the future, and likely going to happen more often. So,

leveraging data and analytics to future proof operations is a must have for every company in this war.”

Circling back to the pandemic and the effects it is having on industries and economies, Betti adds that “at a time in which we do not know how long this economic crisis that has come with the pandemic is going to last, I think that it is often easier to make the most out of the investments you have already done, rather than going for new capital investments or new equipment. But we are seeing in a postcrisis scenario investments on data analytics application solutions is one of the main things that took off because they did not require a massive investment. It actually was all about making the most or making more, directing new value out of data that was already available within facilities and across the supply chain.”

Looking beyond the post crisis scenario, Betti believes “there are still a lot of pain points that companies will need to address because new degrees of cross company collaboration of data sharing are going to be required. If we want to continue this evolution journey that started 10 years ago, that became a tipping point with COVID, companies can really go to the next level in the near future.”

Echoing Betti’s thoughts on the future, Fendri adds “after the COVID-19 crisis, we see the need for more visibility in the supply chain, understanding who the supplier of your supplier is and how they're being impacted by crisis or disruptions. The other element that we saw is a higher need to free up liquidity for future investments and here data can really help with increasing operational efficiencies and realise operational improvements making them more productive.”

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CGI NETHERLANDS

DATA HARVESTING: Key on journey to smart manufacturing Smart manufacturing is achieved by harvesting data, says Coen Huesmann, CGI VP, Consulting Services Manufacturing Center of Excellence WRITTEN BY: JANET BRICE

O

ne isolated glitch in a manufacturing process could be the difference between life and death as pharmaceutical giants race against the clock to produce vaccines to fight COVID-19.

CGI is leading the way in consulting global manufacturers – from chemical plants to dairy companies to discrete manufacturers – on how to take the next step on the digital journey towards Industry 4.0 – a move which would also ease production problems. CGI’s IT and business consultants help enterprises harvest data to create agile, resilient supply chains which are responsive enough to identify and quickly correct operating issues.

Coen Huesmann, Vice President Manufacturing of CGI Nederland agrees the pandemic is putting a strain on companies and highlights the need for manufacturers to start moving away from a silo approach to an integrated end-to-end process.

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PRODUCED BY: KARL GREEN “Many customers have manufacturing sites that have been operating since the 70s or 80s and it's about bringing these in line with Industry 4.0 – lifetime of data in a manufacturing company cannot be ignored,” said Huesmann.

“This month we heard that vaccines in the Netherlands are delayed because one of the big pharmaceutical companies had an issue in their factory. And now everybody wants to know, why did this problem occur? But it's not easy to get these answers as a factory operates in a big ecosystem. Aside from the fact that vaccines contain living organisms.

You have a lot of different machines, and any of these machines can lead to an error. And all that information is sitting in silos and it is information without context,” he said.

Huesmann leads a team at CGI which helps manufacturing companies optimise operations and build agile supply

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Coen Huesmann - key on journey to smart manufacturing

chains using a strong methodology called Manufacturing Atlas, providing innovative solutions to address new market realities and meet customer needs.

Bridging the gap between OT and IT “Harvesting information from all systems is key to providing all the answers that are necessary to run a factory and is vital in helping them achieve their end-goals and strategic vision,” points out Huesmann.

“Many older factories still have a lot of labour-intensive processes in place. We help our clients to identify their next steps and support them in their journey to automate processes from order to production to quality control to delivery. Taking in processes across the end-to-end value chain including logistics, quality control and production steps, while also maintaining the equipment in a factory. Together with our clients we increasingly focus on safety and sustainability.

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“For these as well as for their efficiency and productivity goals, they need to make decisions based on facts. Manufacturers want to use their data to make better decisions. Factories are the biggest generator of data, and it is hard for manufacturers to make sense of it. First you must collect it and then context it so you can unlock its value.”

Huesmann explains more about the automation of Operational processes and how CGI is bridging the gap between

“ We secure devices in different ways so we can dig the gold without exposing it to the external world” COEN HUESMANN

VICE PRESIDENT MANUFACTURING, CGI

CGI NETHERLANDS

COEN HUESMANN TITLE: V ICE PRESIDENT MANUFACTURING

45th

Anniversary of CGI

INDUSTRY: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LOCATION: UTRECHT, NETHERLANDS

400

Locations worldwide

EXECUTIVE BIO

operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT).

“We have a strong methodology for helping our manufacturing clients on their journey of becoming more mature in their processes and automation in their factories,” he said.

“An example of this is one of our chemical customers where we have built a fully integrated plant. Orders coming in from their SAP system trigger production in the plants. Every production step is executed in an automated way up until the truck that is steered in its navigation system to the right silo to pick up the finished product and deliver it to customers.”

“For this client we have programmed the programmable logic controllers (PLC’s) on the shop floor that drive pumps and valves and vessels, right through their decision control systems in the control room and in the manufacturing execution systems (MES).

We are able to track and trace, weigh and dispense, learn how to improve efficiency and more. At this moment we are working to connect this to the outside world by integrating the factory with logistics.”

“That is how many manufacturing operations can improve, but only processby-process or machine-by-machine. We try to really understand where the value of this process is from an end customer's

Coen leads the Manufacturing competence centre of CGI based in the Netherlands. Together we realise safe and sustainable solutions and improvements in the core of our manufacturing clients. Our customers percieve us as the trusted partner and expert of choice for realising their strategic manufacturing goals. As team we work together with COO's, site managers, production managers, IT and OT managers, continuous improvement managers and with the shop floor to improve manufacturing operations together. We are a one stop shop for • Manufacturing Consulting and analytics • MES implementation, transformation, service and support • Manufacturing Automation • OT security consulting and services

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Visit hexagonppm.com/emia/golden Email info.europe.ppm@hexagon.com

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Attain the Golden Batch with Digitalized Workflows In today’s marketplace achieving more with less, known as Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP), has become increasingly important. Despite this, in the food and beverage industry alone nearly 90% of wasted food is lost within the supply chain - and batches that fall outside quality specifications become a loss that costs many companies up to six figures a year.

When each stakeholder is demanding an increase in resource efficiency and sustainability, the onus is on companies to reduce losses and strive for the golden batch in every production.

Accomplishing that golden batch requires a production where everything goes smoothly to create the maximum yield of the greatest quality. It is not an easy feat in practice where operations are dynamic and constantly changing.

Batch manufacturing industries have invested heavily in their quest towards this perfect production – using advanced data-driven approaches such as multivariate data analysis (MVDA) coupled with data historians and optimization simulations. However, human procedures are often an area that is not fully digitalized, preventing the best possible understanding of what really makes a golden batch.

Most operators still follow paper-based procedures, but where there are multiple products - each following a very similar structure - reducing batchto-batch variation itself is a challenge, let alone achieving the golden batch.

Hexagon’s PPM division is working with CGI to connect human input into manufacturing procedures, enabling the customization of MES (manufacturing execution systems). Working with CGI, and other partners, Hexagon has helped companies optimize their batch processes by digitalizing their workflows – allowing for a more

controlled, consistent work process. Connecting human processes to a data historian platform enables operators to know the full history of batches in production.

Neil Singh, Industry Consultant, Hexagon’s PPM Division, explains: “Digitalizing batch production and including the operator’s input gives companies the ability to truly understand the real consistency of their operations, and make the best use of their human sensor-generated information. This is very important for businesses where dozens of different batches are produced each day in flexible production environments.

“By digitally optimizing the production operations for each individual recipe, the process can be automated to alert the operator on the basics.

These include items such as changes to process profile, to more insightful elements such as lessons learned during setup, all the way to understanding patterns in operator responses, to help produce that golden batch each time. The goal is to increase safety, efficiency and agility - and ultimately enable sustainable production.”

Through providing digitally tailored and fit for purpose instructions to operators, they can better anticipate to batch-to-batch variances and ensure that production meets specifications each and every time.

To find out how Hexagon can help your business to optimize your production, visit hexagonppm.com/ emia/golden.

The goal is to increase safety, efficiency and agility - and ultimately enable sustainable production.

CGI NETHERLANDS

perspective. We can really save huge amounts of money for our customers, and improve the quality of the process at the same time. If you automate processes, you automatically improve the safety.”

Manufacturing Execution Systems But how do you go about harvesting old data over multiple sites within wellestablished manufacturing operations dating back 50 years?

“Factories are being renewed at a completely different speed compared to IT systems. So, we are building platforms that can connect all the data sources in a factory to a platform regardless of age and technology. These then enable

“ Many customers have manufacturing sites that have been operating since the 70s or 80s and it's about bringing these in line with Industry 4.0 – a lifetime of data in a manufacturing company cannot be ignored” COEN HUESMANN

VICE PRESIDENT MANUFACTURING, CGI

our customers to make well informed decisions,” explained Huesmann.

“Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) and these data platforms combined are enabling our customers to not only harvest traditional information that was already connected, but also access and harvest information from pumps and vessels and all things in the factory that were previously never connected.”

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1976

Year Founded

76,000 Number of Employees

$3.02bn

Q1-F2021 performance highlights revenue

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DID YOU KNOW...

WHAT IS THE FOURTH INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION?

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Industry 4.0 refers to the transformation in the way goods are produced and delivered – moving on from industrial automation and the flexible factory towards fully connected factories, based on the application of new technologies.

To have a competitive edge, manufacturers have recognised they must leverage digital technologies post-covid-19.

New technologies are developed at an increasing speed; Enabling ways of working that were not possible before. Technologies also enable each other: self-service analytics, IOT, AI, cloud, mobile, quantum computing, 5G, combined with a strong vision and process will enable and enforce manufacturers to become more agile and more responsive.

As an example, a secure wireless connectivity in connection with affordable sensors enables it to retrieve data from manufacturing segments that were never

April 2021

measured before. Feeding back the information to PLC’s, empowers factory automation, making industrial automation possible on a much larger scale which will in turn increase productivity and performance.

With the computation power of the cloud, AI algorithms can analyse vast amounts of data and create learning from these data in an automated way. This learning can be used to optimise processes in factories in a way that was not possible up until several years ago.

Huge gains await industries that go digital – in manufacturing, it enables flexible production by allowing smart factories to rapidly changeover production lines to shorten lead times and quickly identify glitches.

To accelerate smart manufacturing, digital twins of machines and operations will be a necessity for safe simulation and intelligent optimisation, as will factory automation and real-time control of equipment and tasks.

CGI NETHERLANDS

“ Harvesting information from all machines is key to providing all the answers that are necessary to run a factory and is vital in helping them achieve their end-goals and strategic vision” COEN HUESMANN

VICE PRESIDENT MANUFACTURING, CGI

“Then we add sensors to equipment, for example for heat exchange and to measure the vibrations or flow. So, factories are never just old technology. They're always a mix of old and new technology and they communicate in various ways. We make the connections to get data, but then we also bring context to the data.”

CGI regularly checks-in with customers on their digital experience and their MES experience via their MES survey. “This autumn, we will launch a new MES survey that will enable us to explore and present the latest trends,” said Huesmann.

Key partnerships on the journey to Industry 4.0 CGI’s partnership with SAS is an important one for both parties.

Huesmann said: “The MES systems are providing core information about factories to help our clients improve manufacturing processes. SAS is a platform for analytics that is uniquely positioned. They have a process of continuously harvesting data, analysing data and improving processes through our platform.”

“AI is an integral part of their platform.

When implemented in the right way this is where the real data from manufacturing

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CGI NETHERLANDS

CGI Manufacturing

“ Factories are never only old technology. They're always a mix of old and new technology and they communicate in various ways. We make the connections to get data, but then we also bring context to the data” COEN HUESMANN

VICE PRESIDENT MANUFACTURING, CGI

is harvested. The time to play around and proof concepts with AI is behind us. We see organisations are scaling AI and for that you need a strong platform partner like SAS. What we add as CGI is our technical knowledge and business knowledge to provide the right context and create value.”

CGI also partners with Hexagon, Aveva and Trendminer. “Hexagon is one of our partners in the automation of manual processes. For example for one of our manufacturing clients, we are jointly supporting the automation of the formulation of their products. With this solution our customer is able to bring new recipes to production in a standardised and automated way, making production and product change over safer and much more efficient.”

“With Aveva we have designed and built standardised MES platforms that support Manufacturingglobal.com

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INSIGHTS YOU CAN ACT ON In the year CGI marks its 45th anniversary, with new tagline, Insights you can act on, Huesmann gives his predictions for 2021.

DID YOU KNOW...

What is your top insight for 2021?

“Interaction between people and meeting on the shop floor will come back but not 24/7. Manufacturing is still key with new manufacturing operations built in each region.”

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What new technology do you think will have the most impact on manufacturing?

“I see the perfect storm for a range of new technologies to take off at this moment. This was confirmed last year just before the pandemic during a web summit attended by opinion makers, scientists, students, start-ups and politicians like Tony Blair and top CEOs and entrepreneurs. AI has been around for years but it is now being brought to a whole different level, enabled by other maturing technologies such as cloud and IOT. Quantum computing is not that big yet, but the amount of investment is huge and this will have an even greater effect on AI. We are about to see some very exciting things enabled by all of these technologies.”

Read more: (Leadership profile Link)

April 2021

standardisation of processes across factories.

AI is part of this platform for more mature plants to optimise quality, efficiency and safety.”

“Trendminer is indeed one of our key partners. Self-service analytics platforms like Trendminer are designed to combine data sources in a standardised way, once data is contextualised, they provide the insights to enable breakthrough improvements. Where SAS contain more advanced options for AI and deeper analysis, self-service tools like Trendminer are for more pragmatic use close to manufacturing.”

CGI NETHERLANDS

Cyber security in manufacturing protects the gold It is vital manufacturers not only plan for Industry 4.0 but also keep data safe, as they make the digital transition. Data is gold, so how does data remain secure during this data harvest?

“This is arguably one of the biggest themes we are active in. With our MES and analytics propositions we help clients to unlock the data from manufacturing operations. These platforms are generally well secured according to the latest standards.”

“The vulnerability resides more in the OT environment. In modern factories, almost

every new piece of equipment is nowadays connected but older devices are not always secured in line with the latest IT security standards.”

“Therefore, we try to ring-fence this kind of equipment. But protecting assets may never come at the expense of usage. We have OT security specialists that help our clients with hardening of equipment. We secure devices in different ways so we can dig the gold without exposing it to the external world,” said Huesmann.

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TOP TEN

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WOMEN

IN MANUFACTURING Manufacturing Global lists its Top 10 women in manufacturing that are paving the way when it comes to innovation, leadership and strategy WRITTEN BY: GEORGIA WILSON

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TOP TEN

10

Medeja Loncar CEO, Slovenia

Siemens

Medeja Loncar is the current CEO at Siemens (Slovenia). Her career journey began in 1997 working for the likes of Kovinotehna d.d. as Management Board Member (1997); and Si.mobil d.d. as Marketing director (2000), before joining Siemens in 2018.

Siemens has a global history of 170 years, pioneering electrical engineering. Starting as a 10-man business in Berlin, Siemens today is a global giant that has been a major innovator and technology force.

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09

Tanja Rueckert

President of the board of management and CEO

Bosch

Tanja Rueckert’s career in the manufacturing industry began in 1997. With 24 years of experience in the industry, Rueckert worked at SAP for 21 years, before joining Bosch in 2018.

As President of the board of management and CEO at Bosch Building Technologies, Pueckert’s role focuses on strategy, technology, innovation and business development in close collaboration with customers and partners.

Since joining Bosch in 2018, Rueckert has been awarded the IoT CEO of the Year Award 2018, and ranked among the Top 20 Industrial IoT influencers (2018) by IoT ONE.

TOP TEN

07

08

Leah Curry

Manufacturing Excellence Manager (Digital Factory)

Toyota

Irina Stiller Unilever

Irina Stiller, Manufacturing Excellence Manager (Digital Factory) at Unilever, has been working in the manufacturing industry since 2012. Prior to joining Unilever in 2014, Stiller worked for Daimler AG and PeopleMatters.

At Unilever Stiller strives to “establish a common methodology for implementing World Class Manufacturing (WCM) in the European Unilever factories by providing coaching, auditing and training activities,” as well as “supporting the implementation of sites improvement programs and responsible for the Unilever ManEx training in Europe.”

President, Manufacturing Indiana

With a career spanning 41 years, Leah Curry is the President at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indiana. Prior to joining Toyota in 1998, Curry was at Bristol-Myers Squibb for 17 years.

Studying industrial electronics at Ivy Tech Community College and Chemistry at the University of Evansville, as well as completing a three year TPC training systems apprenticeship in electronics.

Curry has also completed multiple technical classes for programmable logic controllers, robotics, hydraulics, pneumatics, electrical and welding.

In 2013, she was selected by the Manufacturing Institute as one of the 122 women recognised with the Manufacturing STEP award for excellence and leadership in manufacturing, she also helps lead the Women’s Leadership Forum as part of TMMI’s diversity initiatives.

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Stéphanie Rott

Supply Chain and Manufacturing Group Director

LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH)

Stéphanie Rott’s career spans 20 years, she is the current Supply Chain and Manufacturing Group Director at LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH). She has worked for the likes of L’oreal in 2001 as a production engineer before joining LVMH in 2004 holding three other positions before becoming Supply Chain and Manufacturing Group Director.

These included: Production Manager, Perfumes Factory (Guerlain LVMH), Purchasing Director (Guerlain LVMH), and Supply-Chain Director (Sephora LVMH, Italy).

05

Agata Choma

Head of Operations

Woodlands Home & Garden Group Defining herself as an “investor in people, coach, team builder and continuous improver,” Agata Choma Career in the supply chain and manufacturing industry in 2007. Choma has worked for the likes of Parker Hannifin (2013), Schneider Electric (2016), and Autoneum (2019) before joining Woodlands Home & Garden Group first as Head Of Production in 2020. Choma is now the Head of Operations at Woodlands Home & Garden Group.

At Woodlands Home & Garden Group, Choma helps customers to implement manufacturing and warehousing strategies and achieve strategic operational goals “to exceed customer expectations for product quality, cost and delivery, maximising efficiency, optimising production levels and driving operational excellence.”

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04 Tracey Countryman

Senior Managing Director, Global Industry X Manufacturing and Operations Lead

Accenture

Currently a Senior Managing Director and Global Industry X Manufacturing and Operations Lead, Tracey Countryman’s career spans 23 years. In that time, Countryman has worked at Accenture holding multiple roles within the organisation.

With multiple years of experience working on end-toend operational transformation, Countryman focus over the years has been in resources industries including chemicals, oil and gas, metals and mining.

She describes herself as a “strong business development professional with a BSc focused in management from Georgia Institute of Technology.”

Countryman helps Accenture clients “drive a step change in manufacturing performance leveraging operational excellence best practices and the latest digital innovations.”

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Beena Kothadia

Director of Manufacturing

General Motors

Results-oriented Beena Kothadia has a professional career that spans over 24 years of experience in manufacturing and quality functions.

Starting her career in 1996, Kothadia has worked for the likes of Sarang Spring and Precision Camshafts Ltd, before joining General Motors in 2008 as Quality Powertrain, Divisional Manager.

Kothadia’s goals are to achieve global Benchmarks of outgoing quality which surpass customer expectations by engaging with people and her “proven knowledge of process improvement, productivity improvement, and quality assurance.”

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Pamela Finch

Global Manufacturing and Supply

GSK

With a career spanning almost 30 years, Pamela Finch is the current owner of Pamsparty and Global Manufacturing and Supply MDI Manufacturing Operator at GSK. Finch began her career in 1993, working for the likes of Granutec Pharmaceuticals, Spring Arbor of Wilson (1999), US Department of Commerce (2000), Novo Nordisk (2000) and Kelly Chiropractic Center (2000) before joining GSK in 2002 as MDPI Operator, Certified (Assembly/ Packaging).

With a robust background in leadership, pharmaceutical, technology, healthcare, training, coaching, copy approval, validated computer systems, medical administration and project management, Finch describes herself as never being afraid to “challenge the status quo to evoke positive change for the betterment of business.”

“ Challenge the status quo to evoke positive change for the betterment of business” Manufacturingglobal.com

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“ A dynamic, decisive strategic thinker driven to succeed through teamwork, creativity, innovation and execution in complex business environments” 142

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Radhika Shukla

Global Account Director, US Manufacturing

Microsoft

Driving digital transformation and innovation in manufacturing, Radhika Shukla is a Certified Azure Advisor and Global Account Director for US Manufacturing at Microsoft.

Her career began in 2002 working for the likes of Amerisoft Corporation (2002), Addon Technologies Inc (2005), HTC Global Services (2013), and IBM (2014) before joining Microsoft in 2016 as Global Account Executive in the auto and manufacturing sector.

With more than 18 Years of experience in the industry, Shukla’s passion lies in helping customers solve their business challenges “through innovative digital transformation solutions and engaging experiences fostering strong partnerships in the tech industry along the way.”

Shukla describes herself as “a dynamic, decisive strategic thinker driven to succeed through teamwork, creativity, innovation and execution in complex business environments.”

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SIEMENS

INTEGRATING

ENGINEERING AND INFRASTRUCTURE

TO ENHANCE URBAN MOBILITY WRITTEN BY: DAN BRIGHTMORE PRODUCED BY: KARL GREEN

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Kunal Chandra Vice President, Shared Autonomous Mobility at Siemens Mobility

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How Siemens is developing a digital twin vehicle model for smart cities to help enable a safe and accessible future for autonomous transport.

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ow will the hard-fought vision of autonomous mobility finally be realised? Siemens has brought together two of its global businesses to achieve a goal that will pave the way for safer, greener more efficient modes of travel in our cities. Siemens Digital Industries Software is working with OEMs to guide the development of the hardware and software required for safe, highly autonomous vehicles. Allied to this, Siemens Mobility’s efforts to deliver the compute requirements and communication capabilities needed for the smart city infrastructure will allow vehicles to apply the information received and make intelligent decisions.

A challenge met through collaboration “Ours is a multi-pronged approach,” explains David Fritz, Senior Director, Autonomous and ADAS at Siemens Digital Industries Software (DISW). “At Siemens, we’re engineeringcentric and, with automotive, need to help our partners understand how to make the journey from the mechanical to the digital.

It's a big leap and the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio of integrated software and services is helping us make that jump, by providing our partners with the ability to transition many disparate parts into a cohesive system. This includes not only engineering level simulation, but also requirements tracking and traceability from concept all the way through to the production of the vehicle itself.”

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DAVID FRITZ TITLE: SENIOR DIRECTOR, AUTONOMOUS AND ADAS AT SIEMENS DIGITAL INDUSTRIES SOFTWARE (DISW) David Fritz joined Siemens with the acquisition of Mentor Graphics and is currently the Senior Director for Autonomous and ADAS systems at Siemens Digital Industries. David is focused on the modelling of autonomous vehicles and addressing the complexities that the automotive industry and its suppliers are encountering. Before joining Mentor Graphics, Fritz was Senior Director of Technical Program Management at Qualcomm. Previously Fritz worked for NVIDIA as a Tegra chip manager.

KUNAL CHANDRA

MEET THE TEAM

TITLE: VICE PRESIDENT, SHARED AUTONOMOUS MOBILITY AT SIEMENS MOBILITY

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Kunal Chandra is currently the VicePresident for Shared Autonomous Mobility in Siemens Mobility. In his role Kunal leads the development of autonomous mobility solutions for cities and public transport operators. Prior to this Kunal led the New Energy Businesses for Siemens energy where he was responsible for diversification of its portfolio into new energy value chains. In this role Kunal developed the hydrogen and Powerto-X portfolio. Kunal holds a Bachelor in Technology degree from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and an MBA (Hons.) from IMD Business School, Switzerland.

April 2021

Siemens Mobility is working to prove the concept of smart cities with governmental bodies and municipalities to deliver the future of mobility, particularly in urban environments. “Technology works best when it’s in the background,” maintains Kunal Chandra, Vice President, Shared Autonomous Mobility at Siemens Mobility.

“The purpose that a technology serves should be the driving factor. If you apply autonomous vehicles to public transport you can achieve much higher decongestion

SIEMENS

of cities. Right now, cities are designed around accommodating vehicles. Frankly, it's bizarre that we have so many journeys of two kilometers where a 75-kilo person is transported in a two-ton car. It’s a problem we’re aiming to solve while making that solution cost-efficient, safe, demand responsive, accessible, and convenient.”

Safety, Security & Reliability “If you're going to entrust your well-being to a computer, you want to make sure it’s

safe to do so,” reasons Fritz. “A big part of the problem is how you can actually show that the vehicle making decisions for you is making them with the appropriate amount of caution. We’re working with governments and regulatory bodies on solutions that make engineering and practical sense.”

Fritz explains his team’s approach is based around scenario level testing for safety. This is combined with security that goes beyond software, starting at the chipset level with integrated circuit design implementation.

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PAVE360

Architect, design, devlop, test and validate your next-generation vehicle years before SOP. Shift software left and improve quality, safety, security and reliability with Siemens’ comprehensive PAVE360 environment.

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“We’re working with governments and regulatory bodies on solutions for safety, reliability and security that make engineering and statistical sense” DAVID FRITZ

SENIOR DIRECTOR, AUTONOMOUS AND ADAS, SIEMENS DIGITAL INDUSTRIES SOFTWARE (DISW)

Reliability is key, because, he reasons, it’s no good having a safe and secure vehicle you can’t rely on to get you from A to B. “There are many standards emerging to address the key issues at various levels.

Therefore, getting involved in their creation and promoting those initiatives is key.

However, the big issue remains: How do you show safe, secure, and reliable? Today, everyone is aware of the likes of Tesla and GM, but it's going to take a fleet of hundreds of cars, decades, if not centuries, to drive enough unique miles and encounter enough unique situations to statistically show they're safer than a human driver.”

That approach is, of course, totally impractical and not the one preferred by engineers like Fritz and Chandra. “We’re leveraging the formalism and determinism of digital twins of the vehicle,” explains Fritz.

“It can then be shown to behave just like the physical vehicle it models, and it can be driven in a virtual world with all of its practical and complex scenarios validated.”

Digital Twin Using a digital twin enables Siemens to simulate thousands of scenarios to develop the learning that will ultimately support intelligent and safe decisions. In the virtual Manufacturingglobal.com

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world there are no boundaries to the scenarios the vehicle can learn from. “I can guarantee you that no autonomous vehicle is sitting at the base of a bridge in San Francisco waiting for an earthquake so it can drive across that bridge to ensure it behaves properly,” reasons Fritz.

“Yet, if you're in San Francisco and want to buy an autonomous vehicle, that's an important consideration.”

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need to be validated. Many of these are too unsafe or just too difficult to do in a physical vehicle, which is what makes the use of a digital twin so vital.

“Driving students are taught to watch out for pedestrians crossing the road between cars, we’ve all been through that standard process,” reasons Fritz. “If we take that process and identify 50 things you’ve got to learn, we can begin to set up the scenarios for autonomous vehicles that can deliver timeless learnings applicable in all regional settings. Sure, there

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“The purpose that a technology serves should be the driving factor. If we apply autonomous vehicles to public transport we can achieve much higher decongestion of cities” KUNAL CHANDRA

VICE PRESIDENT, SHARED AUTONOMOUS MOBILITY SIEMENS MOBILITY Manufacturingglobal.com

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“ The vision for this technology is to make our cities less passive. Cities need to become smarter and ready to interact with citizens, however they choose to travel.”

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are many thousands of potential variants of scenarios, but a new driver does not need to experience them all before getting a learner’s permit. What we are saying is that there should be a reasonable set of unsafe and practical scenarios that must be navigated virtually for an autonomous vehicle to earn its learner’s permit.”

Smart Cities Outside of the Middle East - Neom in Saudia Arabia and Masdar in the UAE being recent examples - there are very few cities that can be built smart from the ground up. In most cities across the globe it’s a case of brownfield development notes Chandra.

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“It’s important to accurately diagnose the current status of the system before you can implement change. You might want to deploy autonomous shuttles across Paris, but without understanding the overall impact it will have on the city, we might end up creating many unpriced externalities. Therefore, it is crucial to create a digital twin of the city before you implement any large-scale changes to be able to properly evaluate the overall system impact of the changes. Paris is already on track with this approach, and countries like Singapore are building on the work already done with analogue twins.

The synergy between the digital twin of the autonomous vehicle and the smart city it will operate within needs to be nurtured. “By interfacing with a digital version of the smart city infrastructure we can show that when these vehicles are produced in reality will behave properly in thousands of important scenarios,” adds Fritz.

The ability to communicate across that environment will be supported by cloudbased data handling that allows vehicles to understand, recover and re-use information.

Chandra highlights that fast data requirements will rely on low latency communications, which the advent of 5G will further enhance.

“The next step would be to take a vehicle into a real urban environment for testing,” continues Fritz. “In effect, the vehicle would have earned its learner’s permit in the virtual world before it is tested to ensure the physical vehicle behaves as the digital twin predicted it would. This requires the application of a practical methodology based on engineering principles to deliver a safe vehicle.”

To gain traction, Siemens is working with major metropolitan municipalities to develop this synergy and put together a certification process to provide a pathway for autonomous vehicles to get their learner’s permit. “It’s the same process your smartphone has to go

Siemens – Driving the future of mobility

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“ By interfacing with a digital version of the smart city infrastructure we can show that when these vehicles are produced in reality they will behave properly in thousands of important scenarios” DAVID FRITZ SENIOR DIRECTOR, AUTONOMOUS AND ADAS, SIEMENS DIGITAL INDUSTRIES, SOFTWARE (DISW)

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1847

Year Founded.

293,000

Number of Employees.

€57bn Revenue.

through before it can be placed on a network,” says Fritz. “There are environments used to show correct operation before you could take that device to market and connect up to a carrier’s network. Obviously, vehicles require many more checks and balances, which is where the digital twin can help us demonstrate correct interoperability with the smart city infrastructure that will support safe operation.”

A new vision for mobility Siemens aims to deploy solutions that give back more space to people in cities so they can actually use it to live. “In the long-term, we need to tackle the peak hour problem,” maintains Chandra. “There are certain hours of the day when the demand placed on the entire city infrastructure is high. Yet, as this demand starts to plateau, much of this peak hour infrastructure is sitting there without being utilized.”

Chandra believes it’s vital to make it extremely easy for people to move from one place to another, without having to find a parking spot, or match their schedule with this peak hour problem. “We have to make things demand-responsive,” he says.

“The vision for this technology is to make our cities less passive. They need to become smart and ready to interact with their citizens, however they choose to travel.

With the development of fast, low latency communications, we can actually make our cities talk. And with sensors everywhere to monitor the quality of life, to monitor all aspects of mobility, this information would enhance the driving experience and ultimately lower accident rates. Cities can tell us so much, we just need to embrace the opportunity to listen.”

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Optimising Service through ASSET CENTRICITY WRITTEN BY: WILL GIRLING PRODUCED BY: JAMES BERRY

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Kieran Notter, VP of Customer Transformation, describes how the company is helping customers adapt to change and guide service according to their assets

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he beginnings of ServiceMax can be traced to Pleasanton, California, where co-founders Athani Krishnaprasad and Hari Subramanian started a software as a service (SaaS) company focused specifically on bringing modern tools to field service technicians, which was a gap in traditional customer relationship management (CRM) technology at the time.

Originally called ‘Maxplore Technologies’, it was rebranded in 2009 to its current name, though its focus and dedication to improving field service management has remained the same. Offering customers an equipment-centric approach built on Salesforce cloud technology, ServiceMax can provide a complete view of assets to field service teams, providing technicians with the tools they need to ensure uptime on critical assets.

When Kieran Notter, VP of Customer Transform-ation, joined the company in 2016, he relates that the business immediately set itself apart: “I think it’s quite an interesting group for a software company, because I’m not a software person; I come from a service background.

ServiceMax is actually quite novel in that it wanted people from the service domain to help it create service products.” Although service is his current specialty, it was supply chain logistics to which Notter became accustomed to early in his career. It was attempting to reconcile these two sometimes mutually contradictory sectors, he

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AQUANT IS HELPING TURN YOUR WORKFORCE INTO SERVICE HEROES AQUANT WORKS WITH SERVICE ORGANISATIONS TO HELP THEM DELIVER THE BEST SERVICE POSSIBLE, as CEO and co-founder Shahar Chen explains. "Every service provider wants a roster full of experts. Service leaders monitoring cost, customer satisfaction, and other KPls want to send out their best technicians because they know that the most experienced field engineers complete jobs quicker and at a lower cost. But there aren't enough experts to go around."

This is where Aquant comes in. The technology helps shrink the skills gap and create a dream team of expert problem solvers. Right now, there's only a small number of standout experts or service heroes in every organization. But they are overwhelmed. They can't be in the field doing what they do best while simultaneously training new employees.

Aquant takes all the information about how the best field service and call center agents do their job, combines that with vast amounts of other service data, and analyses all that information-quickly. Aquant then makes all that insight available to everyone across the service organization.

We then use the information to create smart recommendations, which allows someone who joined the organization yesterday to gain the experience of someone at the job 20 years," adds Chen.

Aquant is a key partner for ServiceMax, having worked together for several years. "From the beginning, we found there was a common language between the companies. It stems from the fact that both companies grew from field service management," says Chen. "We address the same market, reach out to the same kind of

companies, and talk about the value in almost an identical way, but we attack these challenges from different angles."

The two approaches are inherently complementary. "Aquant takes data from existing systems, including ServiceMax, analysing that information in order to identify patterns and then suggest the most likely solutions to each problem."

Going forward, Chen expects the role of Al in the industry to increase, but he emphasises that this is not at the expense of people. "There's a common mistake that Al is here to replace people. Instead, Al works alongside your team, helping them do what they do best-solve complex problems and make the smartest decisions based on each service situation," says Chen.

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explains, that fuelled his overall interest in field service management. “I needed to understand both and then try and find a mutually beneficial solution.Moving to a cost-centric approach made it very enjoyable. Technicians generally become technicians because they want to fix things.”

ServiceMax’s pioneering adherence to improving customers’ service distinguished it from other software providers early on, and this dedication encompasses an ethos of specialisation. Not content to be a “jack of all trades”, Notter insists that it chooses to do one thing exceptionally and with authority, “Customers come to 164

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us for a perspective that is going to help them build their company. We challenge and help them deliver, using best practice all the way through.” ServiceMax’s mission statement - ‘We help our customers keep the world running’ - is more than just words, particularly as an increasing number of their clients have a role to play in the cold supply chain delivering COVID-19 vaccines; it is an enabler of superlative service that maintains the vitally important work of its customers.

Achieving this end, in Notter’s view, is contingent on encouraging ‘asset centricity’, a cultural shift that favours consulting asset-based data with greater diligence.

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“ServiceMax is actually quite novel in that it wanted people from the service domain to help it create service products” KIERAN NOTTER

VP OF GLOBAL CUSTOMER TRANSFORMATION, SERVICEMAX

KIERAN NOTTER

In today’s environment, companies across all industries are rethinking their approach to service. Requirements for equipment performance have intensified, the pandemic has put more focus on outcomes, and customer expectations continue to rise.

Organisations must advance beyond the standard ‘break-fix’ model to ensure uptime for important assets in a safe and compliant manner. Service teams must prioritise efficient asset performance, as well as the customer experience they provide.

“Factually, if you rely on people, studies have shown that humans tend to exaggerate, add their own bias, or forget information. The

EXECUTIVE BIO

TITLE: VP OF CUSTOMER TRANSFORMATION Kieran Notter is acknowledged as a service industry domain expert with 30 years’ experience. He specialises in field service revenue and working capital improvements, with a particular passion for supply chain operations. He is highly effective at partnering with customers to deliver tangible, practical results across their service operations. Having previously worked for companies including Kodak, Bell & Howell and, most recently, Pitney Bowes he understands the importance of a logical approach that is supported by real-time analytics. His expertise is in recognising a client’s challenges and facilitating solutions that lead to sustainable growth.

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DID YOU KNOW...

AQUANT: “A GREAT PARTNERSHIP”

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One of ServiceMax’s key digital transformation partners is predictive AI and workforce knowledge management company Aquant.

Founded in 2016, this New Yorkbased software specialist’s service intelligence platform is capable of learning its clients’ idiosyncrasies and building an AI-driven decision-making framework around them.

Providing essential analysis and unstructured data optimisation, the company strives to empower teams with enhanced problem solving, faster decisioning and more accurate results.

“What I like about working with the guys at Aquant is they don’t just give you a solution: they actually help you mine and understand data,” says Notter.

“It’s a great partnership and it brings ServiceMax many different benefits.”

April 2021

“ Customers come to us for a perspective that is going to help them build their company.

We challenge and help them deliver, using best practice all the way through” KIERAN NOTTER

VP OF GLOBAL CUSTOMER TRANSFORMATION, SERVICEMAX

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Asset 360: ServiceMax & Salesforce

asset doesn’t do that,” he explains. Praising this data for its capacity to encourage collaborative partnerships between ServiceMax and its customers, Notter states that this can make the difference between managing ‘potential failures’ proactively instead of solving ‘functional failures’ reactively.

“If you look at a car production line obviously the cars represent revenue, but if the production line fails a company can’t produce cars. Therefore, if our client needed to increase the volume of cars to make more money, then the production needs to become more efficient. The only way to achieve that is to understand the asset and how it interacts with everything. A 360degree view into the install base means customers gain granular insights around service contracts and asset performance to maximise equipment uptime and reduce maintenance costs. This ad-vanced insight empowers customers to shift from selling

products to adopting outcome-based strategies that propel businesses forward and help drive operational results.”

Focusing beyond cost, asset centricity, through improved product knowledge and workforce/technician distribution, can have a significant effect on maximising revenue streams. It’s a game-changing re-evaluation of service priorities and clearly identifies ServiceMax as a company that isn’t hesitant to try new ways of operating or addressing a problem. This philosophy served the company in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted industry norms and thrust remote working into the limelight.

“A lot of companies might have originally had only 5% of their work orders remotely fixed, but then, suddenly, they needed to do up to 95%. Those that started the digital transformation months or years before were much better placed to actually meet this remote need,” says Notter. ServiceMax was one such example; as a vendor of Manufacturingglobal.com

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2007

Year Founded

500+ Number of Employees

CEO

Neil Barua

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“ The only way to achieve [production efficiency] is to understand the asset and how it interacts with everything” KIERAN NOTTER

VP OF GLOBAL CUSTOMER TRANSFORMATION, SERVICEMAX

field service management solutions, it was devoid of any legacy infrastructure that might have encumbered field service teams and readily embraced Zoom for its customer-facing interactions and utilised tools from Salesforce and its own real-time communication tool, Zinc, to effortlessly transition into a remote working paradigm.

Notter relates that this was also necessary to ensure ServiceMax practices what it preaches, “We can’t go into an environment trying to sell digital transformation to a business if we haven’t been on the journey ourselves.”

Although remote working methods could never replace the in-person ‘ride alongs’ that ServiceMax used to understand customers’ business objectives pre-COVID, Notter still praises the definite benefits that new workplace trends are bringing.

For example, one of the current problems facing service providers is a rapidly aging workforce. Remote working gives older employees the ability to gain a better worklife balance and reduced physical strain. This development, he believes, will ultimately lead to greater knowledge retention within service companies generally and subsequently improve the training cycle for Manufacturingglobal.com

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“ ServiceMax is customer obsessed. Therefore, our ultimate goal remains to help keep the world running” KIERAN NOTTER

VP OF GLOBAL CUSTOMER TRANSFORMATION, SERVICEMAX

new employees.

Reflecting on the rise of intelligent service chains, Notter states that the ability to collect, analyse and unlock the value of data will be crucial for the industry, particularly as data flows become increasingly complex and voluminous. “AI (artificial intelligence) is going to be hugely important because you need to grab that data and turn it into something actionable. 5G and IoT (internet of things) are also going to make a difference, and it’s great having all this technology, 170

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but understanding where and when to use it and how to grow with it is also vital.”

This is where ServiceMax helps make a difference to its customers: by challenging thought processes behind the desire to implement new tech-nologies, it can learn clients’ desired outcomes and guide their development accordingly. “There’s no point in having the separate components of an intelligent service chain if you don’t know how to use them,” emphasises Notter. “It should be about managing expectations

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and learning from other people’s mistakes; you don’t have to make your own mistakes to learn.”

Looking ahead to 2021, Notter says that the drive to continually improve the service of its customers will be ServiceMax’s main goal. With a headstart on its competitors in terms of tech infrastructure and cultural alignment, the company will be pressing forward to accentuate the importance of service and promoting the integrity of assets as a guide for optimising it. “We have to

keep innovating our product to remain at the cutting edge of what’s needed, making sure that it’s both viable and available to any service business that requires it,” he concludes. “ServiceMax is customer obsessed. Therefore, our ultimate goal remains to help our customers keep the world running.”

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Your Best Defense is a Good Offense WRITTEN BY: LAURA V. GARCIA PRODUCED BY: KARL GREEN

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Rick Moroski, VP and COO for Americas at Schenck Process on the power of AI, robotics and digitisation in mitigating risk and improving efficiencies

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had the pleasure of sitting down with Richard Moroski, vice president and chief operating officer for Americas for Schenck Process, who shared his experience on leveraging tech as an offensive move, allowing you to switch your gameplay from reactive to proactive, mitigate risks and improve service levels while increasing efficiencies.

"I was fortunate enough to participate in a session where Michael Porter from Harvard, one of the foremost strategists in the country, discussed how digital is still the key differential advantage for the US and how we must continue our pursuit of digital transformation.

"What everybody has to understand about the digital journey is that you're not buying a refrigerator. You don't just plug it in, set the temperature and expect to be good to go.

To achieve a digital transformation, you need to understand your processes, understand your data. There's a lot of prep work that has to go in place before you start on your digital journey, and then it becomes incremental.

"For Schenck, that journey begins with our engineering team, from drawings to standardisation of documentation parameters and controlling of master data."

Although implementation may not be as simple as plug and play, in hearing Moroski speak, it's apparent the benefits outweigh the initial workload.

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A single source of truth When it comes to change management, most especially when handling critical documents such as product design drawings and specifications, ensuring accurate working documents is imperative to mitigating risks. A simple misreading of a handwritten document, for example, can be a costly error.

Digitisation allows all relevant parties, including external partners, to have access to a single source of truth at any given time, lessening the chance of quality issues and mitigating the risks and associated high costs that stem from inaccurate data and cumbersome workflows.

"When it comes to manufacturing, streamlined approval workflows and having a single digital thread that's accurate and reliable reduces lead times, can decrease costs and results in a better quality product," says Moroski. Why is this single source of truth so critical? Moroski explains, "Because as you're building or preparing to build 176

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a product, customers can change their requirements on the fly and want to change the specifications" Managing these changes through a manually paper-based system is a slow and arduous process that is highly susceptible to errors and has inherent risk as production, or other stages of the manufacturing process may be happening simultaneously. This can lead to waste and inefficiencies.

"If product configuration changes midway through production, we've wasted materials, machine time and labour. The supply chain could also have materials in the funnel that's affected, or we could have inventory on our floor, either in raw materials, work in progress, or finished goods.

There are very high costs associated with the mismanagement of rev level changes, and it's something manufacturers struggle with. Digitisation in this area brings massive advantages that can heavily impact the organisation’s outcomes."

SCHENCK PROCESS

RICHARD MOROSKI TITLE: VICE PRESIDENT AND CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER FOR AMERICAS COMPANY: SCHENCK PROCESS Prior to joining Schenck in 2019, Richard Moroski, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Americas for Schenck Process, spent time working for Boeing, Johnson & Johnson, GE, Orbital ATK and the Triumph Group. Having enjoyed stints in Operations, Engineering, SupplyChain, Procurement and Program Management, Moroski knows by experience the importance of remaining results-focused and has a proven track record of achieving successful transformations.

Whether facing complex global issues, changing market conditions, or adopting new technology, Moroski maintains an unrelenting focus on achieving aggressive company objectives, despite the challenges. His energy, adaptability and mental agility allow him to lead with strength and maintain a winning corporate culture during times of adversity. “I believe culture is a mirror for leadership. Good or bad, it’s a reflection of who you are,” says Moroski.

“ I believe culture is a mirror for leadership. Good or bad, it’s a reflection of who you are” RICHARD MOROSKI

VICE PRESIDENT AND CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER FOR AMERICAS, SCHENCK PROCESS

EXECUTIVE BIO

Managing the curve, from reactive to proactive "It's easier said than done, but leadership has to be able to foresee what's going to happen.

They asked Frank Reich, the head coach for the Indianapolis Colts, what the most important attribute of an elite quarterback in the NFL is and the terminology he used was accelerated vision. They can see the patterns

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IT SEES IT UNDERSTANDS IT WELDS

No one else has robotics equipment that functions so fully autonomously. It means you’ll never have to place a perfect part in a perfect way, never worry about weld quality or rework, and never program a robot again. www.path-robotics.com

PATH ROBOTICS: DIGITAL PATHFINDERS TO FUTURE GROWTH

Watch Schenck Process & Path Robotics

Path Robotics’ Andrew Lonsberry explores the exciting partnership with Schenck Process and how its digital solutions provide a true path to future growth Path Robotics is an AI robotics company with a difference. It is pioneering the future of smart robots that take automation and digital transformation in the manufacturing sector to the next level, providing a frictionless path to growth built upon innovation and collaboration.

“We specifically focus on making robots learn how to do human-based tasks,” says Andrew Lonsberry, the co-founder and CEO. “Making robots smart enough to be able to understand how to perform their operation autonomously so that humans can focus on harder contextual problems.”

The company partners with leading manufacturers to power their digital transformation journey. As a partner of Schenck Process, Path plays a vital role in alleviating bottlenecks and underpinning its growth ambitions, providing a “digital thread” that runs throughout the end-to-end manufacturing process.

“What Path does specifically is help Schenck Process to create a solution that allows them the flexibility to be able to run thousands of different parts through a robotics system completely on its own,” Lonsberry explains.

“It doesn’t matter what part the Path Robotic system is looking at, as long as it fits within our weld cell, we see it, we understand it and we weld it.”

Path collaborates closely with Schenck Process to assist its growth plans in a strategic partnership that Lonsberry foresees strengthening in the coming years.

“We see this partnership growing over the next five to 10 years,” he says. “We see Schenck Process continuously growing internally and continuously taking on more. That level of dedication to growth is something that we want to mirror, and we want to match. The commitment we’re making to this partnership is that today is just the first phase of a journey together, Path and Schenck Process, to implement an end-to-end digital thread throughout the manufacturing process and the business. We are excited to be a part of this groundbreaking effort.”

Learn more now

SCHENCK PROCESS

evolving. They can see the adjustments, they can see what's going on in the field, and they can see it as or before it's happening. And they can respond at a moment's notice.

"I transfer that same philosophy to leadership and agility. It’s important to see patterns evolve with market conditions and learn to anticipate what's going to happen.

It allows you to begin planning your moves, find your funding and plan your resources.

It's the difference between being proactive rather than reactive, and it can be a huge competitive advantage.” As they say, the best defence is a good offence.

Safeguarding your continuity of business However, when it comes to manufacturing, proactive gameplay is also about mitigating risks and detecting possible part failures or machine issues as quickly as possible, preferably before they impact your efficiencies or affect your customers. Key parameters can be ongoingly monitored and fed to maintenance engineers or quality leads digitally, removing the need for them to be on-site and allowing for faster dispositions and response times.

"When you think about it from a customer service viewpoint, you want to provide your customer with a system that enables their business to not only run but run better by being ahead of any issues. And I think that's where the IoT solution comes into play. It's one thing to provide a good high-quality product to your customers and competitive pricing, that's all-important, but today, you have to extend yourself beyond just those things.

"Everybody brings good equipment and good solutions. How could I make that equipment functioning in a way where it gives our customers an advantage for how they compete in the market? I think that's critical.

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Richard Moroski describes the Schenck Process

"When it comes to manufacturing, streamlined approval workflows and having a single digital thread that's accurate and reliable reduces lead times, can decrease costs and results in a better quality product" RICHARD MOROSKI

VICE PRESIDENT AND CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER FOR AMERICAS, SCHENCK PROCESS

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“ I think that's where the IoT solution comes into play. It's one thing to provide a good high-quality product to your customers and competitive pricing, that's allimportant, but today, you have to extend yourself beyond just those things” RICHARD MOROSKI

VICE PRESIDENT AND CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER FOR AMERICAS, SCHENCK PROCESS

"You want to help them avoid downtime and maintain production flow. This, to me, is an opportunity to leverage predictive analytics in order to remain in front of a situation. You can also provide your customer feedback on how their operation is running. Are they hitting their production rates? Is there a quality issue? Generating key data points can make your operation run more efficiently. That can be a huge competitive advantage and make for a valuable market differentiator."

Fighting the labour challenge with AI AI is another technology that can bring massive benefits, says Moroski. "Why? Because with AI, the robot is self-teaching.

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Let's use welding as an example. Our application with Path Robotics is a welding application. How did we justify that? First of all, welders within the United States will become the number one skill shortage within the next two years. So that means if you are in a fabrication industry and require welding as a skill set, you may likely be facing a human resource shortage. AI and robotics can help dampen the potential impacts of that.

"We have just kicked off the beginning of our journey with Path Robotics and will be bringing in their robots this year.

We're very interested in seeing the results.

We’ve received tremendous support and collaboration from Joe Onderko, Vice President of Business Development and Marketing, as well as their CEO Andrew Lonsberry, and I fully expect we will see what I call a step level change in productivity. There have always been robots within manufacturing, but an AI robot is the cutting edge of technology.

"That ability to mimic what a person's doing through repetitive trials and improve through feedback and correction allows us to teach the robot how to weld as a human would. It will learn the path of welds, know how much heat is required, etc. We'll also be able to equip the robot with visual capabilities, so it will be able to inspect its own welding. The potential added benefits AI brings are astounding."

"They open up a whole different world, one where you can take work cells and convert them over into robotics, and you can now mitigate all the things that were a challenge over the last year. They don't need to wear face masks. They're not going to need a temperature check. They run as long as we feed them the right data and the information.

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1881

Year Founded

1,001 - 5,000 Number of Employees

Weighing & Feeding Manufacturing Industry

" It's easier said than done, but leadership has to be able to foresee what's going to happen… It's the difference between being proactive rather than reactive, and it can be a huge competitive advantage” RICHARD MOROSKI

VICE PRESIDENT AND CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER FOR AMERICAS, SCHENCK PROCESS

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Kick-off; The transformation journey "For Schenck, there are two critical partners who have helped us kick off our transformation journey, Path Robotics and PTC," Moroski says. "Together, they encapsulate the entire business, giving us the bookends we need to be successful."

"We've been working closely with Kevin Williams, VP of Global CAD Sales for PTC, and he's been invaluable to helping us on this journey. We first started with bringing in Windchill as our product lifecycle management system (PLM).

Windchill collects all of our engineering and technical data, creating a central repository and providing us with that critical single source of truth.

"In addition to that, we're also now using Creo, their 3D product design software, allowing us to pull away from disparate systems and standardize how we design.”

When it comes to ensuring effective partnerships, Moroski says supplier relationships are about open collaborations and transparency. "It's important to be transparent about what your issues are, what you're trying to solve and be open-minded to the technology that they're offering. We understand that they've done this and are leaders in their fields, and so, we value their opinion and listen to what they have to say and appreciate their guidance. Conversely, they are also very interested in what we have to say and what we're trying to solve.

So for me, we could not be teamed with two better partners."

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J - TEC MATERIAL HANDLING

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DRIVING

GROWTH

IN ASIA

Process know-how, open control systems and independence from suppliers is leveraging business growth for J-Tec Material Handling in South-East Asia

WRITTEN BY: JANET BRICE PRODUCED BY: THOMAS LIVERMORE

O

pen control systems, an independent approach to suppliers and the skill to design tailor-made solutions is helping J-Tec Material Handling leverage its growth throughout South-East Asia.

Just three years after the Belgium-owned company - a wholly-owned business unit of its parent company Katoen Natie - put down roots in Rayong, Thailand they are driving growth across SEA as a process engineering partner to clients in the food and chemical industry.

“Part of our business plan focused on the possible synergies with Katoen Natie who have been in Thailand (and Asia) for more than 20 years,” said Arnaud Nelissen Grade, Sales Director Asia at J-Tec Material Handling.

“Aligning ourselves with Katoen Natie allows us to share resources like IT and HR more efficiently. But more importantly, it has resulted in a closer cooperation between the existing business units here which now makes our group quite unique in the region in terms of what we can offer to our clients.

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“ In terms of growth we just got started, but we've already exceeded most company targets and expectations that we set up three years ago.”

ARNAUD NELISSEN GRADE SALES DIRECTOR ASIA, J-TEC MATERIAL HANDLING

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“We were also attracted to Thailand because it is a big market with a lot of investments going on in the food and the chemical industry. On top of that, J-Tec previously had some success with significant projects in Thailand - so we felt that we could easily build on those to gain momentum.”

For more than five decades, J-Tec has focused on its customer-centric approach and has retained its competitive edge in handling solids and liquids due to the fact it is totally supplier independent and offers clients open control systems moving away from the more standardised approach of most of their competitors.

“This means we can guarantee a customised solution for every challenge,”

J - TEC MATERIAL HANDLING

ARNAUD NELISSEN GRADE TITLE: SALES DIRECTOR COMPANY: J-TEC MATERIAL HANDLING LOCATION: ASIA

said Nelissen Grade who bridges the gap between Europe and Asia as he spearheads the rapid growth in the region.

Speaking from J-Tec’s Asian headquarters in Rayong, he said: “We don’t offer a onesize-fits-all approach; instead we listen to the client and use our in-house knowledge and tools to develop a tailored solution for their project.

“J-Tec acts as a partner during the complete process: from the conceptual design, on through detailed engineering, procurement and manufacturing, up until installation and commissioning, and if required training and maintenance.”

He pointed out the open control systems mean clients are not ‘handcuffed’ to J-Tec

EXECUTIVE BIO

INDUSTRY: INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATION Arnaud holds a Master Degree in Industrial Engineering from GroupT Leuven Engineering School.

Graduating in 2009, he spent most of his career abroad, mostly in China for Jan De Nul and in Rotterdam for Fabricom, working in various project and construction engineering roles.

After earning a Postgraduate Degree in Business Administration, he joined J-Tec in late 2014 where he immediately contributed to J-Tec’s success as a Sales Engineer.

In 2016, he moved to Thailand to spearhead J-Tec’s business development in SEA. Since then, he has devoted his time to putting J-Tec on the Asian map, taking the lead in Sales, HR and Strategy, establishing J-Tec Material Handling Ltd. as the regional HQ and focusing on building a sustainable foundation for J-Tec’s growth in the future.

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J - TEC MATERIAL HANDLING

“We have all the experience and all the competencies in-house at J-Tec but we just need to keep working on how to effectively apply this in Asia without really rushing it.”

ARNAUD NELISSEN GRADE SALES DIRECTOR ASIA, J-TEC MATERIAL HANDLING

if they want to extend the factory or system in the future. “Instead, we believe in delivering quality and that keeping this promise means J-Tec will hopefully be involved again in the future” he said.

Supplier independent Independence from suppliers is one of J-Tec’s key differentiators. “If we look back 50 years, J-Tec started as a representative of certain brands of component manufacturers. Over the years the projects became more complex and we evolved towards an engineering company,” commented Nelissen Grade.

“We knew our competitors and at that time, we made a very clear decision to start designing our own systems and become completely supplier independent in order to offer that additional flexibility.

“Today, in contrast with many of our competitors, we don't produce our own equipment. Most of the equipment in our systems are purchased from third parties, OEM for standard equipment and independent manufacturers for custommade equipment that we design ourselves, but is then manufactured by these third parties.

“The way we make a difference is by leveraging this strategy. We always focus on finding the real optimal process design for

any given application, which will then define which original equipment manufacturer (OEM) equipment we will source and where to source it. If it doesn't exist or if it needs to be custom made, we will design it and have it fabricated, typically in the region where the project is located.”

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Arnaud NelisseN Grade talks J-Tec Material Handling

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J-Tec is a company member of EHEDG The European hygienic engineering & design group.

“We are involved in several relevant associations related to our industry, the most important one being EHEDG. J-Tec is an active, contributing member of EHEDG and has been assisting in the development of the industry standards with regards to hygienic design for Dry Material Handling for more than 10 years now. Such collaborations help us stay up-to-date and highly relevant in what we do.”

1970

J-Tec Material Handling was founded in 1970.

140+

Number of employees

€50+mn Company revenue

Three-dimensional experience One way in which J-Tec is turning to technology to give them a competitive edge is offering customers a virtual tour of a proposed factory development. “By using the power of Virtual Reality (VR) we are able to elevate a factory design from a flat plan to a three dimensional experience,” said Nelissen Grade.

“It enables us to show the customer and let them discover their future factory before it's even built which also helps us in the design of our systems. If our engineers and our customers can walk around a realistic 3D representation of the plant, we can discover potential problems, find alternative solutions and adjust the design much faster and more efficiently which benefits both J-Tec and its customers.

“A small thing like being able to visualise their factory also adds an element of wonder for the customer,” he said.

Commenting on J-Tec’s digital transformation to Industry 4.0, Nelissen Grade said: “Like many companies, we have an Industry “4.0” plan that is being rolled out to improve and expand our services during and after projects.

“We are developing several technologies involving the use of big data related to the Manufacturingglobal.com businesschief.asia

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systems we build. This can, in turn, lead to remote monitoring of certain metrics and KPIs, preventive maintenance and the further expansion of our internal know-how on how to design the best possible systems with optimal performance using realistic process simulations.

“Furthermore, we have accelerated our remote assistance program, finding ways to support our global customers without needing to be physically present, for example using AR, which has become highly relevant due to the pandemic.”

Future technology trends “For our industry specifically, we do believe and invest in big data and remote assistance and see this as a trend across several industries,” said Nelissen Grade.

“Also, hygienic design, contamination prevention… are big trends and we are continuously developing solutions for our clients in this regard, particularly in infant nutrition.

“Lastly, automation is gaining momentum even in countries with a lower labour cost.

Automation has many advantages such as a higher efficiency and accuracy, improved working conditions… but especially in these COVID times, it limits the required manpower needed in factories and prevents The company's contamination to a large extent.” headquaters are located in Antwerp, Nelissen Grade helped Belgium spearhead the original business plan on the value of J-Tec moving into the Asia market.

Locations worldwide “The ultimate goal was to set up an entity in Thailand that acts as a regional headquarters. We will Year regional take the lead from here for our headquarters in Rayong, further expansion in the region. In Thailand openned

HQ

8

2018

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“This means we can guarantee a customised solution for every challenge,” said Arnaud Nelissen Grade, Sales Director Asia at J-Tec Material Handling, who bridges the gap between Europe and Asia as he spearheads the growth in the region.”

ARNAUD NELISSEN GRADE

SALES DIRECTOR ASIA, J-TEC MATERIAL HANDLING

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4 ADVANTAGES OF J-TEC’S OPEN CONTROL SYSTEMS

J

-Tec’s open control systems is just one of the key differentiators setting them apart from most of their competitors. Nelissen Grade explains the main reasons why this gives the company such an advantage.

“The first is flexibility - which is something we're proud of because we are independent. We are flexible in selecting equipment and in the same way, we want to make sure that that flexibility is translated into the control system. More often than not, our main competitors have more standardized control systems that are not very flexible, based on their own equipment. J-Tec is different in that we also have limited standards that guide us, but every system is completely custom made based on specific needs of the project. This results in a more lean control system with smaller and cheaper hardware.

“Number two is that our systems are “open”. We are not like some of our competitors who design “black box” type systems which means the client needs their intervention if they want to expand.

We had an example of this when one of our key accounts in Indonesia actually contacted us. They wanted us to do an expansion to their factory, but in the end, they were forced to go back to the previous supplier because the control system was locked which would be very costly to change. Instead, we offer open and transparent control systems using building blocks that are then ‘assembled’ based on the process design. The blocks themselves may be protected, but the program itself is open-source and can be accessed by our clients directly.

“Number three is the fact that our independence from suppliers means that we work with a large variety of different

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suppliers from all over the world. As a result, our experts have gained quite a significant understanding of how to control the variety of equipment. They often have a better understanding of how to control certain equipment as part of a broader system than the actual manufacturer of that equipment. This means that they can correctly use the specific characteristics of each equipment to optimise the performance through automation. And since these programmers are actually involved during commissioning on site, this greatly improves the efficiency, expedites commissioning and avoids all the hassle of finding bugs that would happen when using third-party programmers.”

“Finally, we are able to design a fully comprehensive control system involving all aspects of the production line, even for equipment that normally comes with its own control software. We can use our experience and know-how in using many different systems to program software for that equipment and integrate this in a single control system. As an example, whether the extruder itself is part of our scope or not, we can integrate it in a single SCADA system, avoiding the need for communication between various control systems from various suppliers.”

“In the same way Steve jobs did with Apple - controlling the product design from end to end: hardware and software - we are doing exactly the same with our control systems.”

“All these things means that we are very good at designing and offering control systems that are lean and simple - a single control system for the entire process, regardless of whether the equipment in that process is supplied by J-Tec or not.

J - TEC MATERIAL HANDLING

terms of growth we just got started, but we've already exceeded most company targets and expectations that we set up three years ago.

“One of the targets we had was to grow a local team to perform key client-oriented activities like Sales and Project Management more locally. And so we grew from a fulltime equivalent of two to about 13 people permanently based in the office in Thailand in just three years. We are still actively hiring but with the mindset that we have only got started, so we are slowly building the foundation of a durable business.

“We have all the experience and all the competencies in-house at J-Tec but we just need to keep working on how to effectively apply that experience and competencies in Asia without really rushing it. There's no point coming to Asia just to be in Asia, we need to do it right. That is what we are focusing on right now.”

“When it comes to highly advanced packaging systems, we have worked with Statec Binder on various occasions.

They share a lot of our values such as high quality and an impeccable service.”

ARNAUD NELISSEN GRADE

SALES DIRECTOR ASIA, J-TEC MATERIAL HANDLING

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Partnership with Statec Binder Although we don’t have fixed partnership agreements with any supplier – one of our core strategies – we do have a list of preferred OEM that we tend to work with.

This follows a rigorous supplier selection process to make sure that our approved suppliers can support us and our customers in the best possible way.

“In the same way Steve jobs did with Apple - controlling the product design from end to end: hardware and software - we are doing exactly the same with our control systems.”

ARNAUD NELISSEN GRADE

SALES DIRECTOR ASIA, J-TEC MATERIAL HANDLING

One of J-Tec’s preferred suppliers is Statec Binder who offer high-performance packaging systems for open-mouth bags, FFS machines and related palletising and bagging systems used in a wide variety of industries for packing different products worldwide.

“When it comes to highly advanced packaging systems, we have worked with Statec Binder on various occasions worldwide. They share a lot of our values such as an impeccable service and a high quality and performance level. I hope that the global partnership can continue for many years to come.

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AMCOR

Left to Right Rahul Chande, Ranga Mulabagula & William (Bill) Pfeiffer *Photo taken Example of before COVID-19 an image caption

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AMCOR

SMART, SUSTAINABLE PACKAGING FROM AMCOR Protect, preserve, promote – Amcor Vice President of Procurement and CPO, Ranga Mulabagula discusses the journey to ‘procurement excellence’ WRITTEN BY: JANET BRICE

P

rotect, preserve, promote has been the driving force of global packaging company Amcor for the past 160 years, but they are now heading for the next level of sustainability as they accelerate their digital journey towards procurement excellence.

Amcor is the world’s biggest packaging company – generating close to $12.5 billion in annual sales. Amcor Rigid Packaging (ARP), is the $3 billion business group focused on the rigid packaging market. Originally a beverage-centric packager, the global rigid packaging organisation has now extended its range to develop differentiated products and services to protect food, healthcare, wine and spirits, home care, personal care and technical applications.

PRODUCED BY: THOMAS LIVERMORE Amcor is now focusing on its green credentials following a pledge three years ago to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation that its packaging will be reusable or recyclable by 2025. This includes their polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles which could be a game-changer due to their recyclable credentials, current health crisis and concerns over hygiene. Each PET bottle is capped and sealed to keep beverages protected from pathogens like viruses and bacteria.

But this is just part of the sustainability story for the Australian-American company – which puts customer centricity at its heart – as we learn from Ranga Mulabagula, Vice President of Global Procurement, ARP from their offices in Ann Arbor, US. Manufacturingglobal.com

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AMCOR

Ranga Mulabagula at Amcor talks about smart, sustainable packaging

“ We are making a distinct difference in a positive way.

Our goal is to make 100 per cent of our products, recyclable, reusable, or compostable by 2025” RANGA MULABAGULA

VICE PRESIDENT OF PROCUREMENT AND CPO, AMCOR

The journey to procurement excellence started for Mulabagula in 2013 when he was approached by Amcor, who were impressed by the work he was doing at General Motors (GM) managing global commodity purchasing and supply chain teams by leveraging GM scale, scope and using first-time analytical modelling and forecast capabilities to predict supply chain bottlenecks.

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Mulabagula, points out Amcor deploys its expertise and knowledge of customer products and value chains to produce packaging that is more functional, appealing and cost effective for customers and their consumers, and ultimately more sustainable for the environment.

“We are making a distinct difference in a positive way. Our goal is to make 100 per cent of our products, recyclable, reusable, or compostable,” said Mulabagula who pointed out it is Amcor’s aim to drive at least 10 per cent of recycled content across the product portfolio by 2025 along with eliminating all plastics like PVC and PVDC as they are more difficult to recycle.”

As head of global procurement in ARP, Mulabagula is leading the organisation to the next level of procurement excellence, managing six global category directors and 43 co-worker strong global procurement teams with responsibility for a $2+ billion spend.

AMCOR

Mulabagula collaborates with his global teams to define and drive the current (FY20-22) and next Horizon (FY23-FY25) procurement objectives, strategy, priorities, metrics, policies, processes, systems and talent for accelerating the ARP "procurement excellence" journey through collaboration, technology enabled sourcing, master data governance (MDG) and procure-to-pay (P2P) solutions for a sustainable performance and “indirects category” transformation.

“ARP is a major converter in the North American packaging industry,” said Mulabagula. “We convert raw materials into the containers and provide services that brand owners (like Pepsi and CocaCola) want and aspire based on their market segment preferences, technical and functional requirements.

“Our geographical reach is global, being the biggest packaging company in the world. And the biggest converter, not just from a size point of view, but the technical know-how, innovation and value we bring to the table. We deliver through a customer centric approach coupled with excellence in operational, technical and value performance, which is why our customers keep coming back to Amcor.”

RANGA MULABAGULA TITLE: VICE PRESIDENT OF PROCUREMENT AND CPO INDUSTRY: PACKAGING & CONTAINERS LOCATION: UNITED STATES

EXECUTIVE BIO

Ranga Mulabagula has been with Amcor for nearly eight years driving the global packaging company’s sustainable procurement-to-pay excellence.

As Vice President of Procurement in Amcor Rigid Packaging (ARP) he is leading the organisation to the next level of procurement excellence. He manages six global category directors, 43 global procurement teams and is responsible for a $2+ billion spend.

“I'm currently leading Amcor’s global rigid packaging procurement excellence journey while striving to meet aspirational sustainability objectives – that is what’s driving me – I have been part of four acquisitions in the last seven years, which has been a fantastic learning and growth opportunity” said Mulabagula – a results driven supply chain and operations leader.

AMCOR

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201.836.0372

AMCOR

BOTTLE WITH LOW CARBON FOOTPRINT

Drive to sustainability Amcor invests $100 million every year in research and development (R&D) to ensure a top-notch pipeline of innovations to tackle the biggest technical and practical barriers to sustainable packaging as the world moves towards the goal of Net Zero by 2050.

PET bottles often have the lowest carbon footprint and according to Amcor their production results in up to 70 per cent less greenhouse gas emissions than packaging materials like aluminum and glass. “The problem lies in plastic recycling. So, I think once we accurately define and align on the problem, it's not the plastics packaging per se, but the lack of recycling infrastructure, incentivising and educating the end user where the challenges reside and the solutions exist,” comments Mulabagula.

DID YOU KNOW...

*Photo taken before COVID-19

Amcor is the industry leader in the use of post-consumer recycled (PCR) PET with over 15 years of experience.

PET, which stands for polyethylene terephthalate, is a thermoplastic polymer resin of the polyester family. It is extruded or moulded into plastic bottles and containers for packaging many different product categories including foods, beverages, personal care, dairy and spirits and wine products.

PET bottles are lightweight, shatterproof, re-closable, resealable, reusable and infinitely recyclable (with existing technologies including chemical recycling).

PET bottles often have the lowest carbon footprint and according to Amcor their production results in up to 70 per cent less greenhouse gas emissions than packaging materials like aluminum and glass.

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AMCOR

*Photo taken before COVID-19

1860 Year Founded

$12.5bn Revenue in US Dollars

47,000 Number of Employees

10% Target for PCR across its portfolio by 2025

230 Global presence in 40 countries with 230 sites

$100m Invested every year in research and development (R&D)

1,000+ Packaging assessments are carried out each year

83,917 Tonnes last year tonnes of recycled plastic resin (PCR)

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AMCOR

“The basic needs of packaging have not gone away, which is to protect, preserve, promote but sustainability and end of life requirements are added and enhanced” RANGA MULABAGULA VICE PRESIDENT OF PROCUREMENT AND CPO, AMCOR

AmLite HeatFlex Recyclable | Recyclable flexible retort packaging

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AMCOR

*Photo taken before COVID-19

“One example, US recycling rates of highvolume plastic bottles are still in the lower thirties, meaning, we are talking significant amounts of waste going to landfills that should not be there. And our challenge as a packaging industry is to accurately define the problem, align with key stakeholders in the value chain and take a leadership position across a multipronged solutions approach to address this issue,” he said.

One example of Amcor’s sustainable products is the ESL (aseptic/extended shelf life) plastic bottles which are revolutionising the packaging of dairy and juice. Amcor’s barrier technology protects against ultraviolet light, maximises the product’s flavour and provides up to a year of shelf life.

Master Data Governance Amcor’s digital transformation is being accelerated with the Master Data Governance (MDG) process along with a P2P solution 208

April 2021

through SAP Ariba. “The biggest opportunity for any P2P program resides where the fragmentation or non-standard materials or services is the maximum – if you do it right that’s where the biggest value is,” said Mulabagula.

“The journey started in 2015 with MDG, a process through which we can standardise our materials and services. For example, a product specific application – if we talk about green colored bottles, well, define green? Green can come in different shades and different tones. So, classification and standardisation of that SKU is very important.

And what MDG enables us to do – through the SAP platform – is to standardise material groups to define what the classification criteria is and applies them consistently across the spend.”

“Once the standardisation was in place, we then launched a P2P Ariba program, initially starting off with a high value, high

AMCOR

“ The biggest opportunity for any P2P program resides where the fragmentation or non-standard materials or services is maximum - if you do it right that’s where the biggest value is” RANGA MULABAGULA VICE PRESIDENT OF PROCUREMENT AND CPO, AMCOR

RAHUL CHANDE TITLE: DIRECTOR, PROCUREMENT SYSTEMS AND TACTICAL EXECUTION INDUSTRY: PACKAGING & CONTAINERS

EXECUTIVE BIO

LOCATION: UNITED STATES Rahul Chande is an executive member of Amcor Rigid Packaging procurement leadership team (PLT) and a champion for digital procurement transformation.

Since September 2015, he has led a global team of 14 professionals to successfully manage a portfolio comprising of digital transformation, global master data and analytics and tactical procurement operations.

He brings more than 20 years of industry and big four consulting leadership experience; in creating business cases for change and leading executive mandates for digital supply chain and procurement transformation.

Previously, as Associate Partner with Deloitte Consulting, Chande successfully

problem areas in “Indirect Categories”; maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) management and then scaling to secondary packaging, professional services,” said Mulabagula who points out ARP is coming to the end of their first leg of the journey to digital procurement excellence.

“Once you have that visibility and transparency, then everything else comes into play in terms of putting in processes, operational resources and dash boards for compliance, consolidation and making sure we deploy back end robust procurement commodity strategies and processes to maximise the value return for our spend,” he said.

implemented 12+ full lifecycle, technology enabled, global supply chain and procurement transformation programs at leading consumer and industrial products organisations. He helped his Fortune 100 clients achieve up to 200 per cent ROI leveraging digital technologies and deployment of center led governance and managed services models; with robotic process automation, advanced analytics, visualisation.

A “published” playbook of business processes, rules books, policies, standard operating procedures, roles and responsibilities, training guides and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure progress was critical to Amcor’s MDM/ P2P journey.

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AMCOR

“ Our geographical reach is global, being the biggest packaging company in the world. And the biggest converter, not just from a size point of view, but the technical know-how, innovation and the value we bring to the table”

WILLIAM PFEIFFER TITLE: SENIOR DIRECTOR, PROCUREMENT AND LOGISTICS INDUSTRY: PACKAGING & CONTAINERS LOCATION: UNITED STATES

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April 2021

RANGA MULABAGULA VICE PRESIDENT OF PROCUREMENT AND CPO, AMCOR

For example, given this unprecedented visibility and transparency, ARP streamlined and consolidated the supply base by 75 per cent during this transformational journey, while deploying robust supplier onboarding processes across it’s spend.

ARP digital procurement transformation journey has reached the “advanced basecamp” stage in its roadmap. ARP has achieved 70 per cent automation of indirect procure to pay processes, significantly improved indirect spend under management to 95 per cent, adherence to negotiated contracts with

EXECUTIVE BIO

William Pfeiffer is a performancedriven senior leader with more than 20 years of comprehensive experience and recognised success in all areas of Supply Chain Management including Procurement, Transportation, Logistics, Customs, Material Planning and Plant Operations.

Pfeiffer is an innovative, ambitious change agent with a demonstrated track record in the development and execution of business strategies to improve productivity and profitability. Proven ability to develop accountable, collaborative, engaged, result driven teams focused on continuous improvement.

He is highly effective and skilled in strategic sourcing, negotiations, contract management, supplier development/ quality, packaging, demand forecasting, production planning, inventory control, physical distribution, data mining/analysis, cost reduction, cash flow improvement, program/ project management, process and system/ technology deployment and improvement.

*Photo taken before COVID-19

AMCOR

“Ensuring sustainability throughout the entire life cycle and end of use of product is equally as important, hence these requirements are accelerating the sustainability journey in the industry and driving unique business and technology partnerships with strategic vendors.”

*Photo taken before COVID-19

preferred suppliers and sourcing improved to over 75 per cent.

Commenting on how Amcor has risen to the challenges of providing packaging during the pandemic, Mulabagula said: “The basic needs of packaging have not gone away, which is to protect, preserve and promote but sustainability is being added and enhanced even prior to the pandemic”.

DID YOU KNOW...

AGILE IN THE FACE OF COVID-19 “It's been a challenging, but at the same time, very rewarding experience given the paramount importance of safety and health of our co-workers,” said Mulabagula.

“We started off importing PPE and masks from China. And we were the first organisation in Amcor to import and manage this complex supply chain to keep our plants and facilities running. So, we didn't miss a beat from a business continuity point of view, but we realised this was not a sustainable solution in the long term.”

Asset lifecycle assessment Asset is an Amcor tool that helps brand owners assess and accurately communicate their carbon footprint of their packaging products backed by independent verification and labelling from the renowned “Carbon Trust”.

Amcor is driving awareness in sustainability packaging with their Asset lifecycle assessment tool. Detailed packaging lifecycle reports provide fact-based criteria to identify lower environmental footprint options, enabling brand owners to make informed packaging decisions. The company conducts on average 850 packaging assessments for its customers each year.

“So, in collaboration with a strategic vendor we started our own new product line at our New Jersey facility, where we now make our own face masks that we commissioned in 12 weeks. And that was a record by itself.

“I'm really proud of what the team has accomplished, working tirelessly and seamlessly with stakeholders to rapidly install a new manufacturing line. We are now self-sufficient in our face masks and have started charitable donations to local nonprofitable organisations in communities we serve and operate. So that's been a fantastic and rewarding journey and a new experience for all of us at ARP.”

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AMCOR

*Photo taken before COVID-19

DID YOU KNOW...

GLOBAL ORIGINS MAPPED OUT FUTURE FOR AMCOR

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Amcor’s 160-year history touches almost every corner of the world as the founder Samuel Ramsden, a stone mason from Yorkshire, travelled to Australia in the 1860s to make his fortune by opening a paper mill in Melbourne.

Around the same time, in St Louis, Missouri, Judson Moss Bemis founded bag manufacturing J M Bemis & Company, which by the end of the 19th century was among the largest enterprises of its kind in the world.

April 2021

Amcor was historically known as APM, or Australian Paper Manufacturers, for more than a century, and in 2019 it acquired the Bemis & Company.

These two complementary companies have gone on to create the global leader in consumer packaging, with the footprint, scale and capabilities to drive significant value for shareholders and deliver the most sustainable innovations for the environment.

AMCOR

“I'm currently leading Amcor’s global rigid packaging procurement excellence journey while striving to meet aspirational sustainability objectives – that is what’s driving me – I have been part of four acquisitions in the last seven years, which has been a fantastic learning and growth opportunity” RANGA MULABAGULA VP OF GLOBAL PROCUREMENT, AMCOR

“This is a unique service from Amcor and important to our customers, who can be assured their product assessment is verified and validated by Amcor and Carbon Trust,” said Mulabagula.

Competitive advantage But what other factors are giving Amcor the competitive advantage? “We continue to focus on value creation for customers and markets – developing unique technologies to serve customer needs, pursuing acquisitions that expand our presence in emerging markets, and help improve the industry structure so we can enhance the value delivery across the packaging value stream.”

“We work closely with brand owners to make sure we are aligned with their corporate sustainability goals and promote our capabilities to accelerate their journey towards this important objective. So that collaboration, innovation, consolidation and communication leads to significant opportunities for customers and Amcor,” he said.

Alliance with Oakwood packaging Amcor works with many vendor partners but the partnership with Oakwood Packaging

is a unique one. “We buy secondary packaging but the relationship is broader than a typical “buy-sell” arrangement. We provide strong value for one another through collaboration in catering to markets we operate and customers we serve.”

“We are also embarking on a journey to make these products more sustainable – how can we drive more recycled content in the bags? Can we collaborate and standardise end of use solutions after consumption of these bags?

“So, there is significant opportunity in terms of re-using the products and also making sure we are putting sustainable materials in these products to start with,” said Mulabagula.

Another partner crucial for Amcor’s digital procurement initiative is Grainger who provides MRO parts and services through P2P enabled Ariba catalogs.

“I believe our ongoing digital procurement journey has set us up beautifully to take the next logical step in deploying future ROI driven solutions (ex: robotics process automation, machine learning, AI tools) in alignment with both internal and external stakeholder needs,” said Mulabagula.

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