Driving business transformation in manufacturing industry

In an interaction with Asia Business Outlook, Ketan Lodaya, AVP- Business Transformation, Yokohama off-Highway Tires, shared his views and thoughts on how manufacturers can enhance their supply chain operations to be more agile and responsive to market demands as well as how manufacturers can leverage digital technologies to enhance operational efficiency and drive innovation. Ketan is a business and technology leader with over 24 years of experience driving change and growth. He excels at leveraging emerging technologies, identifying opportunities, and leading strategies to improve operations, develop innovative products, and enhance marketability. Combining deep business expertise with technical experience, Ketan fosters next-generation ideas, development, and implementation for forward-thinking companies.

The manufacturing industry is undergoing a profound transformation driven by digital technologies, how can manufacturers leverage digital technologies to enhance operational efficiency and drive innovation?

Considering changes in demand and diversification in supply, flexibility in manufacturing is becoming more and more relevant. Therefore, to maintain highest level of operational efficiency, innovation and cost optimization, it is imperative for manufacturing to adopt digital technologies. What today’s technologies offer is what a human mind at that point in time cannot do from a decision-making standpoint and that is a key differentiator. Implementing technology for the sake of implementing does not make sense. What use cases we need solve from efficiency, performance, utilization, energy and waste reduction as to be clearly defined. Through the industrial revolution journey, manufacturing has been adopting digital technology; the key is to accelerate the effort that delivers exponential results.

The shift towards smart factories is reshaping the manufacturing landscape. What are the key components of a smart factory, and how can manufacturers overcome challenges in implementing these technologies?

Industry 4.0 technologies have completely revolutionized the idea of Smart Factories. IIOT forms the basis of Smart Factory, which enables measuring every possible process parameter at the shop floor and derive real time insights by leveraging cloud infrastructure, real time analytics and augmented analytics. The ability to take real time decisions is better than ever because of these technologies not just at line / plant level but we can actually scale this up to multiple factories and look at performances for similar Equipments or manufacturing line across the plant network. This provides an ability to learn and apply best practices across the network and bring significant standardization and operational efficiency opportunities. The idea of Digital Twin elevates the intent of Smart Factory to the next level by having a real time digital model of the plant and by leveraging ML/AI capabilities to recommended best approaches to manage the operations. In addition, Mixed Reality applications are significantly changing the way we onboard work force in the environment. The key is to truly understand where our opportunities are which becomes the basis of Measure, Analyze, Optimize and Scale.

Change management is crucial for successful business transformation in manufacturing. What best practices should manufacturers follow to effectively manage change and ensure smooth transitions during transformation initiatives?

Taking people along in a transformation journey is the ultimate key for a successful transformation. It starts with meeting people where they are, truly understand and empathize why they do certain things and taking them along in the change journey. Change Management has to be personal, it is critical to understand “What’s in for them”, and drive change action plans to accelerate the journey with a continuous feedback and improvement mindset. In addition, identifying Change Champions and empowering them with right set of tools is critical as it brings confidence in the team or a function who they can look Upto and learn. I would summarize by saying that in reality change management is a difficult and time-consuming processing but with a positive mindset, ability to navigate the organization with right tools at the right time and focusing on continuous communications and reskilling / upskilling the team will drive change.

Supply chain optimization is a key area of focus in manufacturing business transformation. How can manufacturers enhance their supply chain operations to be more agile and responsive to market demands?

Certainly, Supply Chain is the heart of business processes and optimizing Supply chain should always be a key focus area for any manufacturing organization to drive business transformation. Businesses are expecting Supply Chain to be more agile, flexible and resilient and with Geo-political and regulatory compliances from sustainability standpoint continue to evolve, Supply chain is becoming more complex than ever. My view is that Supply Chain should focus on becoming more and more predictable from planning and execution standpoint. This requires Supply chain to have Inside-Out and Outside-In data points across the network to assess risks, conduct scenario planning to manage at cost, cash and service. Integrated Planning, well matured, and evolved S&OP processes are the key building blocks to ensure smoother execution from production, procurement and logistics stand point. The idea of control tower should always be there in any Chief Supply Chain office to take a data driven and tech platform approach to manage expectations and risks. Supply chain planners should upskill to become data scientists and focus on expectations instead of planning on a daily / weekly basis.

Workforce transformation is essential for adapting to new technologies in manufacturing. What steps should manufacturers take to upskill their workforce and ensure they are prepared for the technological changes ahead?

We actually have two unique situations here. First, we have the experienced aging workforce who have the process know how but are not tech savvy and then we have the Gen Z getting into the workforce who are tech savvy but will have to be skilled to build expertise on manufacturing processes. Micro learning is the way to go for both kind of the workforce to ensure effectiveness from Learn-Do-Teach-Master model. Also understanding the preferred way an individual consumes knowledge and applies is also important to understand that defines the learning methodologies, personalization is key.