Maintworld 2/2017

EDITORIAL
Text: Emil Ackerman
Digitalize or die
RECENTLY, I WATCHED an interesting keynote presentation at a conference
with a topic ’Uber yourself before you get Kodaked’. This keynote
was not presented at a B2C conference or in a future-oriented management
forum. Instead, the theme of losing your business if neglecting
the digitalization around you was discussed in PaperCon, the world’s
largest technical conference for the paper and packaging industry.
Even the more conservative industries need to be aware of the fact
that digitalization can and will transform the ways to do business. It
might be that the core business stays the same, but in order to be more
efficient, to generate new revenue streams, to integrate yourself more
deeply into the value chain of your customer, and
most importantly, to gain or retain competitive
advantage, you need up-to-date information.
Information about what has happened, what is
happening, and what will happen are at the core of
digitalization. Knowledge, indeed, is power. Power
to direct your business into a more sustainable
future with competitive advantage.
However, activities related to digitalization are
not valuable per se. Every action and choice you
make should help you build a better business and better operations
than before, just like in all other investments. Keeping this in mind,
it is important to know that many digitalization-related ideas can be
tested and piloted quickly and at a fraction of the cost of machine investments.
Consequently, even big companies can now validate their
ideas quickly, or alternatively fail fast.
Once you know through pilots, what areas of digitalization work for
you, it is easier to make the final decision to invest in integrating the
areas into your routine operations. Come to think of it, five years from
now, no one will be talking about digitalization anymore; it will be business
as usual.
Emil Ackerman
Managing Director & Co-Founder of Quva Oy, Chairman of the IIoT
Committee of the Finnish Maintenance Society Promaint
Information about what has happened,
what is happening, and what will happen
are at the core of digitalization. Knowledge,
indeed, is power.
14
Planned
and scheduled
work is 20 percent
more efficient than
unmanaged work. And
it is safer.
4 maintworld 2/2017