The Guide to What Everyone is Doing in OT Digitalisation: Manufacturing

Welcome to Nukon’s series, the “non-influencer’s guide” where we look at what each industry is doing in the OT digitalisation space. If you haven’t read the first part, where we looked at digitalisation in energy, make sure you check it out!

For part two, we’re looking at manufacturing.

Gareth Williams has spent close to 20 years working with manufacturing clients, the last 10 of those years were working with Australian manufacturers implementing industrial digitalisation.

His focus during that time has been helping companies to better leverage their investments in operational technologies and helping the C-suite to find alignment and drive digital transformation in manufacturing.

Now is when we answer the big question: what’s everyone else doing in manufacturing?

You might be surprised because it’s not as much as you might think.

Watch Gareth’s video or keep reading below.

The truth is, if you’re a manufacturer in Australia and can release an order from your ERP, have it executed by your OT environment, and send a confirmation message back to the ERP that you’ve made it, you’re already in the top 10-20% of manufacturers.

That’s the reality of manufacturing in Australia right now. It’s all pen, paper and Excel worksheets.

Progress is slow in this space due to tight margins and the effort needed to prove ROI on digital initiatives.

What are Australian manufacturers doing to digitally transform?

They are digitising batching processes.

So long manual mixing processes. Now, automated workflows connect human and machine tasks, reducing the risk of operator error and improving traceability.

They are getting stuck in and building digitalisation strategies.

They are looking at real-time data to make smarter decisions and planning how to connect systems effectively.

They are integrating data from equipment to the cloud.

Then to platforms like Azure and AWS. This shift is largely driven by corporate analytics teams pushing data insights to the business.

They are upgrading legacy systems for cyber compliance.

IT departments are driving these improvements in OT for a more secure environment.

They are adopting cloud-based MES and ERP.

These are reducing barriers to entry and speeding up ROI, allowing even smaller manufacturers to access MES, ERP, and paperless systems.

They are focused on improving production planning and scheduling.

This helps to reduce continued reliance on key people and to optimise material usage.

Is Industry 4.0 a reality for Australian Manufacturers?

While much of the industry often talks about implementing Industry 4.0 initiatives, we’re not as advanced as we could be. And honestly, let’s not even get started talking about Industry 5.0!

For example, IoT just isn’t being implemented as much as you might think, as it’s often easier to just wire in a sensor.

Another initiative is AI. Artificial intelligence can’t be implemented if your processes still rely on a clipboard, you need that data to be digitised!

ROI is a massive roadblock in this sector, so let’s take a look at it.

So, what should manufacturers be aiming for with digitisation? It’s getting to a place where you have near real-time visibility into your operations without needing to ask someone or check a clipboard.

There are three key levers every manufacturer has, and this is the return on investment on transformation projects.

1. Reducing raw material spend by producing at the highest quality and highest yield to ensure the highest return.
2. Reducing labour overhead by better production planning and scheduling and reducing downtime directly lower labour costs.
3. Reducing utility costs like power, steam, and water represent significant costs, so optimising their use makes a big impact.

The manufacturers who are ‘getting it right’ are doing the following:

• They are using MES platforms and recipe management - products like Ignition, TilliT, MESTech, and Plex give operators instant feedback, helping prevent errors before they happen.
  
  
• They are connecting siloed systems. There are so many platforms to bridge different systems and enable information flow from even the oldest systems. This might be FactoryTalk Data Mosaix acting as a cloud connector, Ignition used as a data concentrator, and platforms like AWS feeding data to dashboards. With the right tools, event-driven integration is more achievable than ever.
  
  
• They are using open-source solutions to innovate. Tools like Grafana for dashboards and open-source historians to pilot real-time initiatives.
  
  
• They are leveraging real data for decision-making, not made-up data! With accurate data—not just clipboard logs—manufacturers can track real downtime, utility costs, and operator effort to make targeted improvements and smarter resource decisions.
  
  
• They are working with IT. End-to-end can’t happen without IT, data flows can’t happen, security can’t happen, and integrated manufacturing can’t happen. The more harmonious and aligned the IT and OT teams are, the better the outcome.

To sum up, manufacturing is a challenging space with digitisation. All the tools are there, and the return on investment is there. What is needed is a whole-of-business approach to digitisation.

This was the second part of a short content series that we’re dubbing "The Guide to What Everyone is Doing in OT digitalisation”, where we’ll be looking at key trends and the emerging challenges of digital transformation across industry sectors. 

If you found this blog or Gareth’s video valuable, make sure you check out the first article on energy insights and follow along for the next piece. 

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Where are you at in your digital transformation compared with where you could be?

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Learn how far along your technology, process, and organisational capabilities are compared with industry leaders in the digital transformation space, and identify the areas of improvement that will benefit you the most. Discover your organisation's strengths and identify what to do next with The Digital Diagnostic.