The Keys To Industrial Digitization and Digital Enablers

Market researcher IDC published in October 2021 that investments in digital transformation will constitute more than half of all ICT investments by 2024. The pandemic demonstrated the importance of digitization in many sectors, and here we explain the technologies and benefits of this process.

What is Industrial Digitalization?

Industrial digitization is the integration of technologies such as IoT or Big Data into traditional industrial processes. These technologies make it possible to collect and process data which, when analyzed, are used to make decisions. Digitization varies from industry to industry and from company to company.

What are Industrial Digital Enablers?

Industrial digital enablers are the technological tools that contribute to the digitization of industries and companies. Thus, among these digital industrial enablers, we can find sensors, robots, cloud solutions, or cybersecurity…

Benefits and Advantages of Industrial Digitalization and Industry 4.0

• Cost savings.
• Increased productivity.
• Process automation.
• Adaptation of production to needs and demand thanks to historical sales data.
• Improved process safety and ability to respond to unforeseen events.
• The collection, analysis, and processing of data allow us to discover new business opportunities or redirect the current ones.

Technologies for Industrial Digitalization

• Robots: A classic of factories and warehouses, in which tasks can be automated to be more agile and productive. The popularization of the two technologies we will talk about next, IoT and big data improves in them the automation and programming of tasks.
• Internet of Things (IoT): Devices and sensors connected to the Internet collect data sent to a central system. Thanks to this, the operation of machines or the supply chain can be known in real-time, and changes can be made if necessary. These devices and sensors are installed in machinery, household appliances, furniture, and security cameras…
• Big Data: As data is collected, it must be stored, managed, and analyzed. For the latter, business intelligence tools are essential, because they allow employees to make better decisions based on these data. Moreover, as the data is stored, it creates a repository that can be very useful in the future for detecting and analyzing historical series.
• Cloud Computing: Cloud computing reduces the number of physical servers while allowing workers to access corporate software or data from more locations.
• Digital Twins: Three-dimensional virtual reproduction of machines, constructions, and objects serves to make better decisions or changes to prototypes faster than on physical models.

In Which Areas Can Industrial Digitalization Be Applied?

Digitalization is not only for the production of products and services but also for:

• Administration: The management of invoices, receipts, and delivery notes… is automated. In addition, the information of these documents can be collected to prepare budgets or economic analysis.
• Logistics: The supply chain is improved, for example, by placing sensors in vehicles to optimize routes. Also, by analyzing the shipment of supplies, to check that they arrive on time or if there are any faults that can be corrected.

Why is Industrial Digitalization Important for Business?

Industrial digitization benefits the company for all the reasons we have seen before: cost savings, higher productivity, new ideas to shape the company’s business… Since technology allows to detect usage trends (what users search for on the Internet, what they need and what they don’t…), the company never remains stagnant and is always active in a changing market.

In addition, digitization also benefits workers, as technology eliminates their most tedious and repetitive tasks and, therefore, they can find themselves more satisfied within the company. Learning these new tools also helps to improve their digital skills.

How to Achieve Success in Industrial Digitalization

When considering the digitization of industrial spaces, the first thing to do is to know the current degree of digitization: spaces, and workers’ skills… From there, objectives are defined that can be embodied in a plan, whose actions must be measured to check that they are on the right track. It is also necessary to check what technologies are already available and how they are being used.

In this regard, Plain Concepts’ teams have extensive experience in technologies such as big data, Internet of Things, or cloud computing, which can be applied to companies in a wide variety of sectors.

If you already have these technologies in place, we work with you to make sense of them: storage, management, analysis, and visualization… We also guarantee the security of your data and devices. In short, how can we help you?