So good afternoon and thank you for
joining us today for Liberty
Technology Advisors June webcast today
we're going to be talking about digital
transformation in the manufacturing
industry if this is your first time or
if it's you've been with us before just
a reminder if you have questions
throughout the webcast please don't
hesitate to go ahead and type those in
we will be taking a look at those
throughout the presentation and have
some time for Q&A at the end so with
that we'll go ahead and move on here
today we're going to be joined by Joel
Schneider, Joel is the president and
founder of Liberty Technology Advisors
here's a quick look at his background if
you like to take a look but Joel has
over 25 years of experience and has been
a part of countless digital
transformation projects over the years
and we're really glad that he could join
us today but before we get started just
a quick note on ltn who we are LTI is a
strategic management consulting company
based in the Chicago area but we do
business nationwide and also have some
some global companies that our clients
LTA is a hundred percent independent
which really allows us to truly find the
best solutions for your company and so
LTA is really here to help your company
here's a quick look at the services that
we offer we really cover everything from
technology advisory services cloud
strategy through BP our enterprise
software selection implementation and
project management as well as some
value-added services so here's just a
quick overview of really what it is at
Elte a that we do today we are going to
be covering digital transformation in
the manufacturing industry here's a
quick look at some of the
topics and without further ado I'd like
to introduce Joel Schneider president of
Liberty technology advisors and we'll
get started with the first question so
welcome - thank you so our first
question is what does digital
transformation mean and specifically
what does it mean in the manufacturing
industry well Brad thank you very much
for the introduction and everyone who's
listening in or watching it thank you
for joining us appreciate your time so
the first question is what does digital
transformation mean and really
specifically in the manufacturing
industry let's break this down just a
little bit first digital transformation
is just one of those great buzz words
that we hear all the time and we we need
to break this down just a little bit
digital transformation obviously can
mean different things to different
people or different things to different
companies simply put going from paper to
digital is a stage of digital
transformation so let's not over
engineer the word digital transformation
first things first digital simply means
an electronic system instead of paper or
manual processes basically it's the
elimination of unnecessary manual work
think of everyday occurrences with
digital transformation that you do today
think about just going to your coffee
shop and unnamed coffee shop that's
pretty popular you could actually order
your cup of coffee online they will have
it ready for you when you walk in the
door you can pay for it all
electronically and the transactions are
all done behind the scenes
electronically including payments and
reward points digital transformation can
be in your hands or for a manufacturing
company it's even to a greater extent
than a consumer so its connectivity or
it's connecting all the aspects of your
business
so think of all your machines on the
floor think of robots on the
manufacturing floor that are
all connected to your back-office ERP
system so all constituents work together
it's all your suppliers all your
customers all your business all done
electronically or digitally so think of
all your purchase orders all your sales
orders all your shipments all your
receipts even your electronic funds
transfer can be done digitally so even
financial transactions are done
digitally so it's all connected the
bottom line it's all about business
improvement or business performance
using digital tech
software and of course it's all about
using a cloud and mobile technology but
think of everyday stuff but I don't want
anybody think digital transformation is
anything more than the opportunity to
improve your business performance by
utilizing technology going away from
paper and manual processes into
technology which obviously utilizes the
cloud and mobile devices but I just want
everyone to think of everyday
occurrences that you use that you now
realize it's all about that digital
transformation great thanks a lot next
question why would my company or
someone's company want to look index key
executing a digital transformation so
why would any company want to look at a
digital transformation project over the
past 20 plus years 22 years of doing
this we didn't call the projects that we
did digital transformation today most
projects are about transforming a
company to improve their business
process so why would you want to look at
executing a digital transformation
strategy or a project or initiative it's
because you want to improve your
business performance you want you make
your company your business actually be
done better so you want to look at it if
you can leverage technology to
streamline your business processes and
take away manual steps and do it via
digital technology
think about streamlining manufacturing
processes it's all about your supply
chain if you will your smart supply
chain your inventory supply chain
production asset management better data
on your production line predictive
maintenance which would lead to more
uptime lower downtime lower costs and
most importantly better customer service
but if you look at digital
transformation because all the
information is now digital you're going
to get lots of data lots of real-time
data your goal with that data is to
analyze the data using digital tools to
assimilate tons of data to get
information get that information to gain
insight for better knowledge to make
better and quicker business decisions to
improve your business performance that's
why you want to look at looking into a
digital transformation initiative it's
all about to make your business better
streamline operations lower costs and
the connectivity of all your suppliers
your customers and all your other
constituents as part of that process
great so we've we've heard a lot in the
news and in business about the IOT
Internet of Things in industry 4.0 can
you tell us a little bit more about just
what those two things are so when we
when we started this digital
transformation webinar we mentioned
buzzwords and here's two great buzz
words the Internet of Things and
Industry 4.0 so IOT the Internet of
Things in a nutshell and very basically
our despair devices that are connected
to the Internet via a network back to
your system to analyze that data to get
better decisions the key here is these
devices that are connected are disparate
and they're the spirit by means anywhere
can be connected so you could get
information from them before the
internet it was very
to get devices connected so think of two
different areas one on a consumer side
and one on the business side or the
production side consumer side think of
your smart refrigerator that you may or
may not get or your thermostat that is
now connected to the Internet or smart
lights or your smart home
these are far-flung two-spirit devices
that are connected to the Internet that
you can control from another place on
the production side think of that a
machine an assembly line that might need
to run faster so you could be sitting in
your office you could they're sensors
and machines that are connected back to
your core system and you could control
those machines as they're running
real-time another example would be
trucks could be stuck in traffic you
could have real-time track traffic
information for delivery to get proof of
delivery to improve customer service and
communications once again everything is
connected if you have the technology in
place and the systems in place you can
actually gain insight into information
and provide better customer service and
react a lot better and be proactive to
your customers to your suppliers to
provide better information to them the
other half of that is industry 4.0 which
is a great buzzword because everyone
talks about the industry 4.0 well first
there was obviously getting machines and
steam power and things like that and
then came mass production if you will
the assembly line that was the second
thing obviously we didn't call it
industry 2.0 back then and then the
third way became the automation of
assembly lines that can be turned on and
off but industry 4.0 is taking the
automated assembly line and truly making
it smart because of the sensors that are
in the machine machines to get industry
4.0 you must have centers that are
connected to the Internet which is all
about the Internet of Things these two
tied directly together and if you put it
all together with this digital
transformation this is when you can
actually
enabling so really
proved perfect for your manufacturing
operations whether they're in your
office down the block or actually around
the world and that's really the power of
digital transformation by combining the
Internet of Things and that smart
assembly line so I just wanted to pull
this graphic up and see if you can maybe
talk a little bit more about some of the
trending you know fact components of a
smart Factory I know we've talked you've
talked a little bit about it with you
know maybe cloud storage and smart
sensors and things like this but know if
you had any any points to talk about
here so I'm assuming people that have
dialed in to this webinar can actually
see this chart where you have two sides
you have supplier and customer but in
the middle is you the manufacturing
company the actual organization but all
all these components are part of that
digital transformation that combines
automated systems and processes if you
will really intelligent cloud-based ERP
solutions to the sensors and the
Internet of Things to really create a
smart Factory but you have to get that
updated manufacturing system software
that could talk to and connect to all
these different devices far-flung or in
your a hundred feet away from your
office but it comes to self-driving
vehicles on the platform plant floor
think of automated guided vehicles in
your warehouse it's happens today and
they have sensors in them they know when
they run out of batteries they will dock
themselves and recharge they know
exactly what's happening so think about
the productivity improvements you could
have with automated guided vehicles that
do not run into each other every day
stuff
cyber security is important and because
of all the data that's being generated
out of us this is where cloud storage
the power of the cloud comes in because
of the enormous amount of data that's
being generated to this so if you
combine the supplier and the customer
with your smart
Factory you get tremendous opportunities
to improve your business performance and
I'm really excited about all this stuff
because it's finally all coming together
this is the exciting part you have the
internet you have ERP you have sensors
you have robotics you have the Internet
of Things all connected to the Internet
we've finally come to the point we could
enable all these technologies to improve
business performance do you have some
examples of how LTS helped companies in
the past with their digital
transformation projects over the past 20
years we could probably come up well
there's this webinar is not long enough
to talk about all those but just that
I'd like two of them without giving you
the client name remember it's all about
connectivity so think about your
suppliers your customers your factory
even your employees need to be all
connected so we have a client here in
Chicago that has a very large plant a
separate distribution center but they
are 100% in the digital transformation
they are processing very little paper so
they they take purchase orders sales
orders it could come through
EDI web interfaces they sell to mass
merchandisers they ship to them
they do all the asns all the information
is done electronically even customer
service and orders so they're really
lowering the cost improving customer
service for a local manufacturing
company here in Chicago now I want to
take that a step further for another
client we have that is a global
manufacturing company and where they've
not just connected their suppliers and
their customers but they have a dealer
network as well so they are able to
connect dealers customer suppliers into
one network and when their customer
wants to know when am I getting my
product they don't have to call somebody
they don't even go and say to a website
it's going to be shipped on this day
they could actually get visibility into
the
and where their product is being
produced when it's going to come off the
assembly line where is it in the final
check shipping and when it's going to
arrive there's tremendous visibility
that you could provide your customers
and suppliers to reduce cost and improve
communications and actually lower cost
because the cost to produce that
information will be just too great to do
without using digital assets if you will
to do it the whole digital
transformation again you have to combine
the Internet of Things cloud modern
updated manufacturing software systems
all into one thing and you have to think
about your business processes so it all
comes together to make your
manufacturing company more efficient
lower cost and improved customer service
we have case studies that we could share
with you but once again this is real
stuff this digital transformation is
happening today great so those were all
the questions we had prepared we'd love
to open it up for any questions in the
audience that you can go ahead and just
type that in either into the chat bar or
into the Q&A section and we'll be happy
to answer any questions that you guys
have
one what's your question Glenn you there
Glenn maybe if you have a question if
you could type that in we'll uh we'd be
happy to answer that
what role does LTA play and Internet of
Things projects from start to finish
can you repeat that question yeah sorry
what what role does LTA play and
Internet of Things or IOT projects from
start to finish so thank you for the
question
so LT A's role in helping our clients go
through the digital transformation
process including IOT which is I think
your specific question is the first
thing to do is understand your current
situation and find opportunities for IOT
to be utilized in your organization your
company or client your facility and then
determine the best way to implement
those and improve your business and find
opportunities to improve productivity
and business performance so the first
role would be we help you do the
assessment and then we lead you all the
way through the process including
through implementation change management
business process re-engineering we
actually call it not business process
re-engineering we actually call it
business process execution so IOT ERP
cloud cyber security connectivity
sensors our role is to put it all
together and lead you through that
process for a successful implementation
the first step is to assess small
process but get you going down the path
for improved business performance
glad want to have a follow-up to that do
you implement the sensors gateways etc
let's know LTA does all of that so good
question the answer is no we don't
actually implement the sensors we work
with you and suppliers to figure out who
the best organization would be to work
with you we don't sell this any sensors
or Internet I Oh T devices if you will
however we will find the best partner
for you to work with part of our job is
to evaluate and select the best solution
for you obviously there's lots of
players out there that can do this we
have to figure out the machines you have
in your floor the connectivity your ERP
software so our role would be to figure
out the best solution set for you work
with that company negotiate the
agreements with them and act as your
general contractor to get a successful
implementation so you buy the right
things for your company mmm asked if you
could talk about supplier efficiencies
through software was that the question
yeah you could talk a little bit more
about supplier efficiencies through
software so once again I'm not sure
about that exact question but supplier
efficiencies so if if you're the
manufacturing company you work with
suppliers I'm assuming that's your
question how do we make that more
efficient well right and once again I
don't know your company but if you're
issuing a purchase order to a supplier
you want to automate that process you
want to provide that supplier with
visibility and then you want to know
when they're going to be shipping that
product when it's going to be delivered
to you because you probably have
components or product to build based
upon the delivery of your suppliers
parts if you will that go into your
manufacturing operations so if we can
improve that supply chain if you will
and that's the common word out there is
your supply chain optimization we could
actually dramatically improve your
business operations think of lowering
your inventory levels and
improving your customer service levels
at the same time we could do that by
supply chain optimization and doing
digital transformation on the supply
side very common and a great opportunity
for most companies to do even if your
supplier doesn't have that technology on
their side they have basic
communications use the internet use web
portals use other technologies to create
that communications like so there's lots
of ways to do it even if your supplier
or even your company doesn't have some
of these updated manufacturing software
systems on the market today
perfect so another question here is do
you have an example of a time that a
client has tried to take the digital
transformation too far such as maybe a
customer service still needs to talk to
a person on the phone or had to keep a
paper manual process to meet regulatory
or legal requirements so the answer is
absolutely you don't want to take this
over the edge if you will there still
needs to be human interaction in
business people still do business with
each other so you cannot take away the
opportunity for a customer or a supplier
to talk with somebody you could have
emails you could text you could chat you
could do all sorts of e-commerce
capabilities but we always suggest there
has to be some way to talk to a person
because things do come up the other half
is regulatory there are a great deal of
clients that we work with in regulatory
could be food and drug the FAA etc that
have regulatory requirements it could be
Quality Assurance manual documentation
ISO documentation you may still have a
need for if you will paper files but
even those paper files can be digitized
even in today's regulatory environment
some may need a hard sign-off and you
could still digitize that hard sign-off
but yes I'm a big believer in not taking
away the human touch completely business
still is done from person to person and
even if you want to
made completely you still need the
ability to talk to a person even if they
just want to clarify something that they
might get electronically big believer in
that and that's a great question I'm
glad you brought that up you don't want
to go over the edge
you still have to make this so your
customer and your suppliers are
comfortable in what they are going to be
working with you on it's a great
question all right I want to be
cognizant of everyone's time so we have
one last question and feel free to keep
typing and we can connect offline but
the last question is does IOT work well
with all the ERP systems well so IOT is
interesting because if you think about
so the answer is yes it could but think
about IOT if I have a sensor it doesn't
mean it has to go directly into your ERP
system so if you have centers on your
plant floor it could go to a web or a
web interface that you create and
therefore your visibility that may not
actually touch your ERP software so
there are plenty of ways to create the
Internet of Things to go to older
technology or older systems or older ERP
software it's not a black or white
decision once again there was a previous
question about the first step in what we
do that would be that assessment phase
so before you jump in let's take a look
at your manufacturing operations and see
the opportunity to see how IOT may
improve your business performance it's a
great question once again don't jump in
do that assessment and see where the ROI
is going to be all right thank you and
with that we are going to wrap it up
again if you have any additional
questions that we didn't get to please
go ahead and contact our practice
director Joe Ambrose
Joe's information is right here is just
jo-ann burrows LT advisors comm we will
be sending out a recording of the
webcast today later this week
so feel free to watch that share that
with any colleagues and if you like what
you heard today in July we will be
covering system selections so be on the
lookout you can
check that out on the webcast section of
our website or we will be sending out in
invitation in the coming weeks again
thanks for joining and have a great rest
of your day thank you
