Our world is more connected than ever. Billions of intelligent devices, machines and tools are communicating with each other, generating massive amounts of data and bridging the real and virtual worlds.
New digital technologies are driving a paradigm shift. Data creates new insights and new business opportunities but also provokes new business models. In the future, successful companies will be those who know how not just to leverage their Big Data but to transform it into Smart Data.
But as well as creating challenges, the digital transformation also serves as the technology driver for new competitive benefits, enabling smarter products and solutions, higher efficiency and flexibility, as well as reduced time to market for new products. At the same time, it acts as an accelerator of business processes. The result is tremendous competitive advantages. Doing more with less. Creating better quality outcomes. Generating less waste. Learning from every situation and applying that learning to improve subsequent build and performance.
Technologies such as cloud computing, self-learning machines and devices, digital simulation, automation and data analytics promise greater productivity across the whole value chain from design and engineering, to operational functionality and manufacturing and to service and maintenance. The components, tools, machines, and conveyor systems in today’s advanced, automated factories are already equipped with sensors and communication systems that share and analyse a huge amount of data every single second in order to manufacture mass-produced products quickly, flexibly and efficiently. Over the next 15 to 20 years, this process is expected to further expand and gain speed all over the world, driven by the increased need of digitalisation and automatisation of production.
As digital transformation accelerates across market sectors, and customers feel the pressure to act, Siemens can offer its domain know-how and industry expertise to help them take the first steps into a new and exciting future.
But the necessary technological preconditions for the ultimate penetration of digitalisation could not be created ad-hoc. This could only become a reality step-by-step with the consistent effort of all us – manufacturers, researchers and users.
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The views expressed in this opinion editorial are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Emerging Europe’s editorial policy.
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