By Carlos Paiola *
According to data from the National Confederation of Industry (CNI), in June 2019, the industrial production index in Brazil was at the same level as that presented in June 2004. The economic crisis still has its impacts on the sector, but the opportunities for resumption of growth are real.
According to data from ABDI (Brazilian Industrial Development Agency), the cost reduction estimate for the Brazilian industrial market, if companies digitize their operation and enter the 4.0 world, is at least R$ 73 billion a year. This figure includes efficiency gains (R$ 34 billion / year), savings in machine maintenance costs (R$ 31 billion / year) and energy savings (R$ 7 billion / year).
In this way, the answer to the effective resumption of industrial development can be found in Industry 4.0. This new technological context can bring real operational gains, in addition to resulting in greater control of the business, protecting industries from possible economic instabilities in the market.
The time has come for the sector to embrace digital transformation to create new opportunities and reinforce Brazil's presence in the global industrial development scenario.
There are, however, several challenges. Based on what I observe in my daily work, many industries still do not have the integration between their internal systems, which makes it difficult to apply new technologies. Several companies also do not know how to handle their data efficiently, keeping a lot of information on paper or even ignoring information collected and stored digitally, making it difficult to diagnose their problems and possible opportunities for improvement.
To find out which stage of this digital transformation journey your industry is located in, a good diagnosis can be made through the Gartner maturity model in 5 stages for manufacturing excellence.
The model proposes a process that starts from the inside out, starting from an initial reaction stage, still within the environment of an industrial plant, that is, the use of solutions to answer the operational problems of a site. With the addition of more advanced technology and processes and a vertical integration of systems within a plant, the ability to anticipate the facts can come, bringing more efficiency and intelligence to your operation.
With this consolidated structure, companies can make the horizontal integration of their industrial systems, creating an intelligent manufacturing network, reaching the third stage of the model. From this point on, the process comes from the outside to the inside, the operational structure starts to work oriented to results, counting on the intelligence of the production chain and reaching the stage of collaboration between the factory floor and the corporate level. As a last stage, the operation reaches an orchestration level, where the general and integrated view of the business is possible.
Regardless of the industry's maturity level, promoting digital transformation presupposes three logical steps according to GE Digital:
Connect with solutions such as HMI / and SCADA (supervision system), facilitating data collection, visualization and control of the operation in real time;
Integrate operations vertically and horizontally, coordinating factories, their equipment, people and processes with solutions such as MES / MOM (production management system);
Optimize operations using, for example, solutions that employ artificial intelligence, such as APM (asset management system).
First of all, however, it is necessary to clean up the house: align the executive teams, define the resources, create commitment around the projects. There are many opportunities and the Brazilian industry has a long way ahead of it to complete the digitalization journey. How about starting now?
* Carlos Paiola, Commercial Director at Aquarius Software
Warning: The opinion presented in this article is the responsibility of its author and not of ABES - Brazilian Association of Software Companies
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