How can you build a Value Team that will drive Industry 4.0 use cases to success? It’s key to remember that the future of manufacturing is not only about technology. Your organization needs motivational, influential, effective change agents to apply this technology in the most effective way possible – and secure buy-in every step of the way.
Backing the Right Tech With the Right Team, Workflows and Culture
Machine health can provide value in numerous ways. Measured quantitatively, this value appears as less downtime, lower maintenance costs, and improved overall equipment effectiveness (OEE). Measured qualitatively, it manifests as improved site safety, less reliance on reactive maintenance, and more skills on the maintenance and reliability team.
Manufacturing leaders must understand, however, that this value does not come about automatically upon implementing machine health technology. The tools are just one aspect of utilizing the machine health use case of industry 4.0. The rest of the process is about updating the people, workflows, and culture around that technology.
Manufacturers need an effective change management strategy to ensure new technology fits seamlessly into existing operations. They also need a value team to carry out that strategy. Otherwise, manufacturers cannot achieve significant value, quantitative or qualitative, from the machine health use case.
Building a Successful Value Team
Manufacturing leaders can populate their value teams with effective change agents from all levels of the organization. The team should position on-site leaders with hands-on experience servicing equipment. Alongside, they should also have corporate stakeholders who understand how machine maintenance fits into the broader business strategy.
Diverse skills and perspectives are important. But every change agent on the team should share a commitment to data-driven decision-making, optimism about optimizing machine health, and an ability to motivate and lead others in the company.
Once you have the right people recruited to move the change management strategy forward, assign them into the right roles. Ideally, the value team includes:
- Corporate Champion – This person brings a C-suite vision to the value team and holds the responsibility for enterprise-level results. They can help gain buy-in from the upper echelon of the organization to secure the right resources for the early success of machine health and industry 4.0 transformation.
- Corporate Enabler – A corporate enabler acts as a subject matter expert in whatever facet of manufacturing the machine health use case impacts — for example, the VP of manufacturing. Their role is to both add a unique perspective and advance the cause of machine health monitoring within the corporate structure of the company.
- Site Leader – Leaders of whichever sites will deploy machine health use cases should be on the value team to drive success at the factory level. They should also take charge of collecting the KPIs the previous two roles can use to sell the rest of leadership on the use case.
- Problem Solver – The value team will be showing technicians how to use, optimize, and troubleshoot machine health. Hence, it should include technicians who have experience using machine health data to practice predictive and prescriptive maintenance. Their firsthand know-how is vital for solving problems and explaining new concepts.
- Planner – The job of scheduling shutdowns to perform early maintenance falls to the planner. This person will also ensure that technicians and engineers have the tools and parts necessary to work through planned shutdowns as efficiently as possible.
Connecting On-Site With Corporate
The future of manufacturing is about much more than technology alone. Your organization needs motivational, influential, effective change agents to lead the charge and secure buy-in every step of the way. When the value team connects leaders from both the corporate and on-site levels, the team can influence the vertical and horizontal adoption of your use cases to achieve value companywide.
Everyone wins.
Learn more about ‘The Road Map to Value for Digital Transformation of Maintenance in Manufacturing‘.
