7 Ways to Make a Case for Industry 4.0 Technologies

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2. Focus on Defining Your Problem

3. Encourage Collaboration, Not Competition

When faced with different problems across multiple teams, resources and finances are often stretched thin. It’s tempting to gravitate towards a competition-like proposal process to make project selection easier. This proposal format typically requires each team lead to state a problem, vet a qualified vendor or solution, determine the project cost, and forecast the ROI.

Cross-departmental collaboration is at the core of Industry 4.0 technology. True transformation happens at the company level, not within individual teams or problems. Teams operating in silos will struggle with adopting digital transformation practices and processes. Changing your project-vetting process to encourage cross-departmental solutions is a great way to start bridging gaps between teams.

Looking at problems holistically is the most effective way to move the entire company forward. Setting broad company goals is a great way to kick-off collaborative efforts: wider initiatives, by their very nature, require multiple teams to help solve. These collaborative solutions are the key to moving your company forward by leaps and bounds.

4. Seek Out True Experiments

Let’s say one of your teams presents a proposal that practically guarantees a positive ROI. Any project with a high likelihood of success is not a true experiment: it is simply a way for teams to get funding for a known solution to a current problem. If there’s a 75% chance of success, you’re not taking a risk. You are merely implementing solutions that you already know will work.

Experiments, on the other hand, are projects that land on your desk and make you feel a little uneasy. They likely won’t have a definitive ROI or calculable financial gain, despite being comprehensive in their problem statement and goal.

This is because some of the biggest problems taking place on your factory floors can’t be solved with what you know right now. There is often missing data, a lack of knowledge-sharing, or insufficient information that makes it nearly impossible to understand a problem’s full complexity. You don’t know what you don’t know: that’s where experimentation comes into play.

As a manager, you need to be open to—and willing to support—true experimentation. Testing and learning at a smaller scale, especially when the outcomes are unclear, is vital if you want to uncover new opportunities. Your openness to experiments will trickle down to your teams and encourage them to think outside the box. They may be more inclined to share ideas even if they don’t know the specific outcomes, prompting others to contribute to the idea pool.

6. Include Factory Teams in the Vendor Selection Process

If possible, bring your factory teams into the vendor selection process. It’s important that project leads and factory floor employees are engaged end-users of any incoming processes or technology. Including these teams in the conversation and selection process gives them an opportunity to bring their specific knowledge and perspective to the selection process.

Additionally, asking for factory floor teams to participate early on will more likely result in their support of new technology during implementation. Gaining their support and enthusiasm early in the process will help training go smoothly and ensure a better adoption rate.

Factory teams are also more inclined to promote the value of a given tool if they’re invested in the selection process. Garnishing the support of factory teams is crucial to bringing in other digital transformation solutions. If your factory workers are promoting a given tool to upper management or executives, this helps you build a case for more Industry 4.0 resources moving forward.

7. A Smaller Project Scope Means Better Learning

Stating your problem in simple, reduced terms will also make it easier to vouch for the right solution. When the time comes to bring in an IIoT vendor for digital transformation, keep your initial pilot project small in scope. In addition to making the pilot easier to manage, it is also more likely you’ll get permission for smaller projects that might not require as high of an up-front cost.

Perhaps most importantly, a small scope enables you to understand where improvements are made and why. Set reasonable benchmarks and know them well so you can clearly convey the pilot’s ROI to management. It will be easier to convey successes to management when asking for more resources.

Get started with Industry 4.0 technologies

A comprehensive understanding of your entire value stream sheds light on where you can achieve quick operational wins and enables you to build a digital transformation framework. Work with your teams to identify the correct problems to solve and the right partner for your Industry 4.0 goals.

Including factory teams in the vendor selection process helps you start off on the right foot during implementation, ensuring early buy-in for a platform your employees selected. As factory employee enthusiasm and quick wins make their way to upper management, you’ll gain momentum for larger IIoT initiatives and true transformation.