Organizations in industry are under pressure from a relentless barrage of emerging and emergent digital technologies that threaten to disrupt and transform their business and operations. Organizations that fail to act on these threats (and opportunities) risk significant disruptions to their business and operations, exposing them to pressures from nimbler and more innovative competitors threatening to make them obsolete.
Digital transformation is a catch-all term that refers to efforts by organizations to leverage disruptive technologies and transform the way they operate and deliver value to the market. The overall objective is to deliver better outcomes to customers and shareholders and achieve better ROI, while maintaining compliance, security and trustworthiness throughout the transformation journey.
The term industry digital transformation (IDX) reflects the digital transformation context within industry. IDX is primarily a business endeavor focused on the coherent and innovative application of emerging and emergent digital technologies in a principled manner, and the strategic realignment of the organization towards the improvement of business models, industrial models, and processes and ultimately the creation of entirely new ones.
One important aspect of IDX initiatives is that they involve sensor-driven IoT solutions that by definition incorporate a digital/physical boundary. This results in concerns about the IT/OT divide and a potential convergence and integration between their respective operations. These concerns manifest themselves during the transformation journey and at multiple levels, including systems, procedures, best practices, compliance, organization structure and workforce.
Digital Transformation Enablers
Digital transformation enablers (DXEs) are specific digital technologies that can enable or accelerate the transformative effects of core processes, the enterprise and its operations.
A DXE playbook provides a description of a DXE (focused on a particular technology) and includes examples of the use of this technology in real-world applications, the issues that had to be considered and the concerns that had to be dealt with, and how. The document can also help a stakeholder understand ways in which this technology can transform a core process and ultimately a business, ranging from strategies and policies to frameworks, standards and technologies. DX efforts are driven by business initiatives that are often motivated by pain points, such as difficulties in uploading software to automobiles or the high costs associated with unscheduled maintenance.
Some DXEs apply to a specific set of application verticals, although many can be employed more widely. However, since adopters can generally understand examples pertaining to their own industry better than examples in other industries, DXE playbooks will include multiple examples to foster deeper understanding. The DXE playbook supplements associated frameworks by providing guide points rather than a map of the technical and architectural capabilities and considerations related to the technology.
How to Use a DXE Playbook
The following diagram highlights the steps involved in using a digital transformation enabler:
Figure: Steps involved in using the DX Enabler. Source: IIC.
These steps are typically executed in the following order:
- The reader reads the DXE playbook.
- With the knowledge gained, the reader’s organization begins ML-specific tasks (design, implementation, operation) that support the DX journey.
- This transformation enables the organization to achieve a transformative outcome.
- The organization is now equipped to fulfill new goals in a way that were not possible before the transformation.
- The reader can now perform a gap analysis to see in which ways the organization can be improved.
- This analysis drives the creation of new requirements.
- New requirements may call for the deployment of a new technology that has not yet been previously considered.
- The reader obtains another DXE playbook focused on this new technology and restarts the process again at the first step.
Each DXE playbook is aligned with the viewpoints of the industrial IoT as defined in the IIC Industrial Internet Reference Architecture (IIRA). It is also aligned with the specific technology frameworks that are regularly published by the IIC. For example, the Industrial IoT Analytics Framework, the Industrial IoT Artificial Intelligence Framework and Industrial Internet Security Framework.
DXE Playbook for Machine Learning
The first playbook published by the IIC is the Digital Transformation Enabler (DXE) playbook. It provides a high-level description of digital transformation and of machine learning (ML) technology (artificial intelligence). It offers examples and insights into ways this technology has been successfully deployed in industrial IoT environments to transform those businesses and their operations digitally.
It also provides technical guidance that helps organizations to uncover new and transformative ML-based solutions to deal with customer problems, enabling the creation of value-added services that drive new revenue streams.
Playbooks and templates are available for free. To create a Digital Transformation Enabler playbook for your organization’s featured technology, you are invited to download the MS Word templates:
- Digital Transformation Enabler: Machine Learning
– From the Industry Working Group and the Digital Transformation Working Group - Digital Transformation Enabler Playbook Templates
>Digital Transformation Enabler – MS Word Template
> Digital Transformation Enabler – MS Word Template for Your Technology Example (Playbook Section 3)
– From the Industry Working Group and the Digital Transformation Working Group
For further information about digital transformation:
- Digital Transformation in Industry, IIC Industry White Paper
- Digital Transformation Journey in the Enterprise and its Leadership from the IIC Journal of Innovation
