Keeping digitalisation simple and goal orientated

27 June, 2019

Walker believes that only once this is established can a business truly look at what systems can help. “Fortunately, establishing these areas of limitation involves extensive communication with different aspects of the business, which means leadership can identify overlap between departments. This makes it easier to avoid investing in multiple systems that achieve the same thing,” he said.

Walker explained that because Novotek UK and Ireland is an industrial automation specialist, it is often called into businesses where it finds there is overlap between the field service monitoring software and plant SCADA systems. “These systems provide fundamentally similar performance insights from equipment, but neither the field technicians nor plant managers were aware of the other’s system,” said Walker. “The result of this is bloated networks and expensive, complex automation systems. This can be avoided simply by defining business goals first and working backwards from there, making technology an enabler rather than an emphasis.”

The concepts and technologies surrounding the Fourth Industrial Revolution are constantly changing, but, as Walker emphasises, they shouldn’t change a company’s focus. Technology should primarily be an enabler to help you achieve your business and operational goals rather than something that becomes a morass of unnecessarily onerous technical complexity.

Ed Holden, Editor