Industrial digitization, Industry 4.0 & IIOT
In digitization, information and process networks converge across legal, organisational and geographic boundaries. For one thing, this shift concerns the higher-level infrastructure, such as health, transport, energy, education and administration. For another, it also concerns economic value chains. Finally, it also affects the individual lives of people, which manifests in the horizontal and vertical development of social networks, new consumption patterns, or entertainment and information processes.
On the one hand, industrial digitization is concerned with the question of how the use of technologies and the principles of Industry 4.0 or the Internet of Things (IoT) can increase efficiency, quality and safety of processes and structures. The digital factory (smart factory) plays a central role in this. Through the comprehensive and consistent use of assistance systems, data technologies and autonomous, adaptive systems, global digitised value-creation networks are created all around the smart factory. These ensure horizontal and vertical integration of R&D, engineering, manufacturing, supply chain management and customer management, and allow highly individual, flexible and efficient manufacturing up to the economic manufacture of individual items.
On the other hand, industrial digitization pursues the goal of developing smart products and services to exploit the potential of the Internet of Things and cognitive technologies for new application and revenue scenarios. Smart products are able to perform autonomous tasks by exploiting integrated connectivity, sensors and computing capacities, coordinating centrally and decentrally via cloud platforms and adapting to changing environmental conditions and tasks. Smart products thus also form the basis for the development of smart services, such as predictive maintenance, data-based business models and higher-level future visions such as the smart city, smart agriculture, or smart healthcare.
Finally, industrial digitization means the introduction of new innovation, work and organisational principles including design sprints, MVPs, or crowd innovation in the supply chains of the manufacturing industry and their integration with lean principles. This process requires, on the one hand, a profound change in cooperation, culture and organisational forms and the development of new skills and competences. On the other hand, it makes the consistent development of the corporate strategy, a high degree of transparency about the digital maturity of the company and the definition of implementation-oriented digitization roadmaps absolutely indispensable.
Our servicesfor industrial digitization
ROI is one of the leading experts in industrial digitization, Industry 4.0 and Industrial IoT in Europe. Our multidisciplinary expertise is based on deep subject, methodological and technological expertise, as well as access to top digitization benchmarks through organising the renowned Industry 4.0 awards and our comprehensive experience from several hundred projects. ROI also operates its own learning factories/IoT factories in Germany, China and in the Czech Republic and is actively involved in committees and associations such as BitKom and IIC that are committed to the implementation of digitization. Our services for industrial digitization include the following:
- Design of digital transformation and the operationalisation of digital strategy
- Implementation of digital leadership principles and agile organisational forms
- Design sprints and minimum viable products (MVPs)
- Measurement and evaluation of digitization maturity levels (digital readiness)
- Planning smart factories (technologies, methods, structures, processes)
- Development and piloting of smart products and services
- Introduction of digital twins for products and processes
- Implementation of data analytics
- IT architecture & platforms
- Software development
- Systems life cycle management
- Training and qualification
