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LONDON 鈥� (NYSE: SAP) today announced that , the hygienic process engineering company, has selected to drive its business transformation into the cloud with leading digital operating platform provider .

The transformational , which has embedded AI and machine learning, is set to boost visibility, support decision-making and planning for the process engineering specialist, underpinning an ambitious growth strategy which will see its turnover increase to 拢100 million by 2025. Briggs of Burton also represents the first company in the UK to sign up for SAP鈥檚 new RISE with 51风流offering, a comprehensive, intelligent, customer specific business-transformation-as-a-service offering. The project is set to go live by the end of the year following a six-month deployment.

Focused on the design, engineering and build of hygiene-led facilities for brewers, distilleries, pharma and biotech companies, and specialist food sectors, Briggs of Burton needed a to replace an outdated legacy system with new future-proof ERP capabilities. Crucially these capabilities needed to include the very latest technologies, and maximise visibility and transparency from which to seamlessly manage projects, as well as in-depth reporting.

Working closely with Sapphire Systems, an 51风流technology partner selected based on its extensive knowledge and experience of 51风流platforms, as well as professionalism, dedication and team chemistry, Briggs of Burton anticipates that the project will deliver improved accuracy, visibility, insights and decision-making, as well as comprehensive reporting from which to shape planning. The RISE with 51风流package was particularly appealing based on its ability to bring all aspects of a transformation together to simplify and integrate processes, crucially without the need to make high up front investments.

Facilitated by RISE with SAP, the SAP鈥檚 Ariba Network (now known as ) in particular will allow Briggs to tap into the world鈥檚 largest B2B network marketplace, and in doing so work more efficiently and effectively on all shared aspects of business commerce, proposals, contracts, invoices and payments, saving time and money.

Nathan Beddoe, finance director at Briggs of Burton, said: 鈥淎 true consulting partner and trusted advisor, Sapphire Systems helped us to review all of SAP鈥檚 platforms in granular detail, drawing upon the team鈥檚 extensive experience of 51风流deployments, to ensure we opted for the best fit for our future business requirements. They paid close attention to understand all our specific needs and nuances, both those specific to our business and those of our parent company in China, and worked closely with us to scope out the best, most efficient platform for digital transformation, and indeed the best methodology to support our journey.

鈥淎s well as helping us to create a robust business case from which to help secure buy-in from stakeholders across the organisation, they guided us fully on the best path to seeing maximum value from our investment in 51风流S/4HANA Cloud.鈥�

Ian Caswell, CEO, Sapphire Systems, said: 鈥淏riggs of Burton is a great example of a company embracing a true cloud mindset to future proof its ERP and scale to support long term growth. Having worked closely with Briggs鈥� team to review and analyse the respective capabilities of each 51风流solutions with Sapphire, the team opted for S/4HANA Cloud on the basis of its breadth, depth and scale, and because it incorporates AI and machine learning.

鈥淎s a result of selecting RISE with SAP, and adopting 51风流S/4HANA on a cloud model, we anticipate that Briggs will be live within just six months, allowing them to progress their transformational journey quickly, and pursue their growth plans underpinned by the very best platform for their business.鈥�

Michiel Verhoeven, Managing Director, 51风流UK & Ireland, said: 鈥淩ISE with 51风流is designed to help organisations who face challenges in migrating from on-premise legacy ERP systems to 51风流S/4HANA Cloud, through simplifying, focusing and supporting transformation to a truly Intelligent Enterprise. Garnering customer input and feedback was vital in the development of RISE with SAP, to help us understand precisely what they really need to drive transformation within their businesses. We look forward to seeing how Briggs of Burton capitalises on RISE with 51风流to embrace its own transformational journey and delight customers with 51风流S/4HANA Cloud at the helm.鈥�

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In collaboration with key partner SAP, as well as a consortium of industry leading enterprises, such as Transport for London (TfL), East West Rail Company, HS2 and Network Rail, called the 鈥楾ransport Infrastructure Efficiency Strategy Living Lab鈥� (TIES Living Lab)听 the Intelligent Infrastructure Control Centre (IICC) will harmonise the vast quantities of intelligence that UK infrastructure projects generate and help drive greater productivity and resilience through the capture of efficiency and innovation. This will contribute to a radical culture change in how the industry designs and delivers projects and will offer a completely different way of managing operations that will save money and time.

The IICC takes comprehensive operational data from an infrastructure project portfolio and then synthesises this onto one digital platform. At a project level this data is essential to effectively manage operations, while at an enterprise level it informs numerous processes including budgeting, and external reporting. For organisations with responsibility for national infrastructure across the UK, complete visibility of enterprise performance is a fundamental capability the IICC system can deliver.

One of the first initiatives to come out of the TIES Living Lab, a partnership between UK Government and leading infrastructure companies with funding from the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, delivered by UK Research and Innovation, the IICC can be used across all sectors and industries.

鈥淢any of our clients across all the sectors we work in, whether it be energy, defence, water or transportation, face challenges with having consistent and accurate data on critical factors such as commercial, carbon, safety, as well as complete cost transparency,鈥� said Tim Embley, director research, innovation and development at smart infrastructure solutions company Costain. 鈥淏ut of course optimising the design, delivery and operation of infrastructure schemes requires access to the right data at the right time to help inform decision making and look for opportunities to increase the whole life value of any programme or asset, including things like social value which can sometimes remain hidden.

鈥淲ithin the system you can bring different data sets to life 鈥� what gets collated and tracked is decided collaboratively with the client. It brings full data transparency to empower the key decision makers and significantly reduces risk, thereby cutting costs and increasing efficiency. With its built-in analytics functionality it can also literally predict the future. 鈥淲here data isn鈥檛 easily available, it uses artificial intelligence to deep mine the existing data to manufacture data that means you can start to predict the outcomes and look at scenarios and decisions that are going to be made. This helps reduce the unknowns and significantly reduces risk, thereby cutting costs, increasing efficiency and giving greater delivery certainty.鈥�

鈥淭he IICC will provide organisations with a real-time view of what鈥檚 happening with their data, enabling them to make fast, effective and targeted decisions,鈥� said Francesco De Toma, Head of Construction and Real Estate Advisory at SAP. 鈥淐ostain was looking for ways to bring added value to its customers. Thanks to the latest business technology platform they can implement new business models, enjoy faster time to innovate and scale applications quickly from project to enterprise level through a system agnostic approach.鈥�

Another issue faced at both a company and industry level is that of 鈥榠nnovation siloes鈥�, where great ideas can become buried and are not shared. This represents a huge loss of potential value. Using the IICC, innovations can be identified and transferred on a live basis. For example, there could be an innovation on a road project where the use of 3D machine control has achieved 30% savings on the earthworks. Network Rail might be looking for some efficiency savings on a big new railway project, something like HS2, and could achieve 30% efficiency savings through the earthworks with the same innovation.

鈥淭he data collated on the Costain-led IICC makes it easier for organisations like us to understand and shape the business case for investing in and adopting that innovation elsewhere,鈥� adds Tim Embley. 鈥淭his means it can be transferred quickly from one chain or sector to another, helping to drive those savings at scale a lot more quickly than ever before. This leads to more success for owners and operators of infrastructure and ultimately better results for our communities who need the critical infrastructure.鈥�

Costain鈥檚 Chief Digital Officer, Nathan Marsh, believes rapid industry transformation is now on the cards: 鈥淭he IICC brings together our deep domain experience and technology integration expertise with the unbelievable firepower in the sort of things that infrastructure needs like data visualisation, predictive analytics, machine learning, coding and customer intimacy from partners like SAP. They are working in other industries so they not only bring a fresh perspective and challenge ways of doing things, they bring insights from those industries so we can benefit from lessons learned and innovate faster.

鈥淲hat we鈥檒l see in the infrastructure sector, as this technology becomes embedded, is very rapid transformation: better data ensuring better, faster and greener delivery of infrastructure that will improve productivity and build resilience across the sector.鈥�

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I also made the point that the key to successfully achieving these goals was not technology but collaboration, and stressed the need to break down traditional silos.

In this second article I will discuss these topics in more detail and explain why I believe they are critical to success.

The Advice Of Henry Ford

There is a quote attributed to Henry Ford that I believe holds the key to the future success of manufacturing.

It can be used to change our thinking during the current crisis and provides the basis for successful recovery, and the adoption of Industry 4.0.

Even more interestingly, it also has the potential to unlock significant value from an organisation鈥檚 legacy investments.

These are bold and potentially career ending statements. So, before I tell you which quote I am referring to, I need to provide the context and the rationale behind such a claim.

To understand where we are today, we first need to look back to see where we came from.

Historic Trends In Manufacturing Pre Industry 4.0

Over the past 30 to 40 years, global manufacturers have followed four major trends in parallel that have been aimed at improving their manufacturing performance:

1. Strategy

In its simplest form, manufacturing strategy is essentially what to make, how to make it and where to make it. Strategy is influenced by a huge range of internal and external factors. Pre 2020, the typical examples I used to illustrate strategic influences were sustainability, the circular economy, Brexit, changing consumer behaviour, disruptive business models, trade wars, emerging markets, workforce skills, labour, energy and material costs.

Strategic factors drive mergers, acquisitions and divestments, new market entry, new product development and capital investment in manufacturing facilities.

The objective is to gain a competitive advantage from manufacturing operations in whatever form that takes for the organisation in question, such as increased market share, cost reduction, product quality, shorter time to market and product innovation.

A look at any global manufacturer鈥檚 history will provide an example of this trend. Clearly, the current crisis will have the biggest impact on manufacturing strategy we have ever witnessed.

2. Operational Excellence

The second major trend has been the introduction of Operational Excellence programs. Most major manufacturers have their own internally branded methodology but the core principles can be traced back to the fundamentals of Taylor, Ford, Shingo, Toyota Production System, LEAN, Six Sigma and Theory of Constraints.

Examples of these tools and techniques can be seen in action during a walk around most production facilities.

3. IT (Information Technology)

The third major trend aimed at improving manufacturing performance has been the investments made in information technology. In this definition I am referring to the solutions that typically fall into the domain of the CIO and the 鈥業T鈥� department. ERP, CRM and SCM applications, IT infrastructure, networks and platform standards to name just a few. These enterprise level IT systems have a huge impact on manufacturing performance because they are the solutions that run the supply chain outside of the 鈥榤ake鈥� activities. They capture demand, plan production, procure raw material, manage WIP, store finished product and transport it.

4. OT (Operational Technology)

The fourth major trend has been the investments made in Operational Technology. Operational Technologies are the solutions that perform the 鈥榤ake鈥� activities inside the four walls of the factory and this is normally the domain of the engineering department. OT includes instrumentation, measurement & control, automation, PLC鈥檚, HMI, SCADA, DCS, historians, APC, batch control, , LIMS and OEM equipment. These investments were centred around capacity increases, quality improvements, process optimisation, labour savings and waste reduction.

The Results – Falling Short Of Expectations

Most organisations can see clear improvements in manufacturing performance that are directly attributable to each of the four investment areas. Manufacturing has made huge strides during this time period and is clearly far more efficient and effective than it was.

However, the overwhelming feedback is that none of the four investment areas have fully delivered on their potential. The manufacturers didn鈥檛 quite achieve the level of manufacturing performance improvement they expected and their current KPI鈥檚 still show that there is room for improvement.

Why Is This The Case?

In a word – silos. Not just internal departmental silos in the manufacturer鈥檚 own organisation but silos in the external ecosystem of suppliers.

Internal Dynamics

Let鈥檚 begin by looking at the internal dynamics inside a typical manufacturer.

Strategy

The strategic manufacturing goals and objectives are cascaded down from CXO level to Plant Directors and manufacturing teams.

Operational excellence

The operational excellence program provides the principles, tools, and methodologies for manufacturing to utilise in the pursuit of performance improvement.

The business looks internally to the IT and engineering functions for solutions that will provide both the information and processes needed to support manufacturing鈥檚 objectives.

IT

As mentioned previously, IT provides many of the core Level 4 solutions in the classic ISA95 model. On a typical manufacturing site, it is IT solutions that provide the production planning, warehousing, logistics and financial reporting systems. The choice of technology, vendor and implementation partner together with the budget normally rest with IT.

OT

OT is the domain of engineering. Process, chemical, mechanical, electrical, and automation engineers to name just a few. These are the people that design and build new production facilities. Whether that is a car production line, soft drinks, chemicals or pharmaceuticals. As with IT, the choice of technology vendor, implementation partner and budget normally rest with engineering.

In my thirty years of experience, IT and engineering have not collaborated particularly well. In many cases they appear to be in 鈥榗ompetition鈥� as they champion different solutions to solve the same business problem. At times there also appears to be a lack of understanding of their respective domains. This is understandable as the roles within each domain have their own full-time education and career paths. The example I often use to illustrate this point is their respective interpretations of the term 鈥榬eal-time鈥�. Real time in the world of IT is a transaction. Something has moved from A to B and has a different value (e.g. WIP). In the world of engineering, real-time is usually millisecond scans on a process to ensure it is in control.

The net result is that these internal frictions and challenges often leave manufacturing operations without the solutions they need to hit their goals and overall results tend to plateau below expectations.

External Dynamics

Let us now look at the dynamics of the external ecosystem of suppliers.

Strategy

The dominant players advising on strategy in the C-Suite are the 鈥榩ure鈥� consulting firms such McKinsey, BCG, Bain, AT Kearney and Bearing Point. In addition, there are the advisory arms of the 鈥榖ig four鈥� and the consulting arms of the large system integration companies.

IT

In the traditional IT ecosystem you will find the major enterprise software application vendors, their integration partners and a wide range of hardware and platform providers.

OT

In the OT ecosystem we find a very different set of hardware and software vendors. The implementation partners differ and OT is also where we find the OEM鈥檚.

Operational Excellence

The Operational Excellence ecosystem is largely populated by consultancies who provide professional services that specialise in teaching and implementing Operational Excellence techniques and programs.

In many respects, the external ecosystem of suppliers is a mirror image of the silos found inside manufacturing. Again, my experience leads me to believe that there are very few manufacturers who have fully broken down both the internal and external silos and optimised their investments in these four areas.

The point to emphasise here however is that what we are still discussing is Industry 3.0.

In recent years, the picture has become more complicated by the advent of a fifth global trend – Industry 4.0.

The Emergence Of Industry 4.0

The past decade has seen the emergence of a range of disruptive technologies such as AR/VR, AI/ML, IoT, 3D printing and several others. When grouped together and applied in a manufacturing context we have the basis of Industry 4.0.

The Industry 4.0 market however is emerging and immature. The Industry 4.0 鈥榳hite space鈥� is being entered by most of the established strategic consultancies as well as the traditional IT and OT ecosystem players. This area has seen the emergence of the hyperscalers together with a large number of start-ups. Acquisitions, mergers and failures are a regular occurrence and this will continue to be the case until the market consolidates.

This is an exciting area to be involved in and I genuinely believe that the potential value Industry 4.0 offers manufacturers is enormous.

My prediction however is that on our current path, investments in Industry 4.0 will also fall short of expectations. They will be investments that again underdeliver against both their potential and promise.

Why Do I Think That?

Silos – nothing has fundamentally changed as the pre-Industry 4.0 internal and external silos are still largely intact.

The players are still grouped into their traditional domains and following their established business models. We now have the added complication of Industry 4.0 which is blurring the lines but in many ways it is also making things more difficult for manufacturers.

An audit of a typical manufacturing facility today will illustrate the large number of players who currently have an influence on manufacturing performance.

The facts are that each supplier has significant value to bring to the equation. Clearly there are some areas of overlap but once the competitive process is completed, there is no reason not to co-operate as that is in both the manufacturers and supplier鈥檚 best interests.

Achieving this goal is challenging but not impossible.

The Future

Most articles currently being published during the crisis recognise that a major rethink of global manufacturing supply chains will be required in what is being termed 鈥榯he new normal鈥�.

It is my contention that radical change and 鈥榯he new normal鈥� should not just apply to manufacturers. It should go much further and apply to the entire ecosystem of suppliers. We must break down the competency silos and the competitive 鈥榓rms-length鈥� way of working.

To me, it seems totally illogical to expect manufacturing to successfully execute a paradigm shift while the ecosystem of suppliers remains fundamentally unchanged. My firm belief is that the successful recovery we all need can only be delivered through a major change of approach in the supplier ecosystem. It should be an approach based on collaboration and co-opetition.

In this article I have discussed the internal external dynamics and advocated a major change of approach.

So, what was the quote from Henry Ford that encapsulates the entire message I am trying to convey to manufacturers and suppliers alike?

鈥淚f you always do what you鈥檝e always done, you鈥檒l always get what you always got鈥�

This crisis will require us all to do things differently in the future and we have to perform better than we did before.

Identifying the problem was the easy bit, the more difficult part is making it happen. That is what comes next.

*In this time of uncertainty, we are opening that can help employees, companies, communities, and governments continue to move forward.

This article first appeared on The Future Factory

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