The investment in Digital Transformation of the Smart Factories is a bet on the future for Spanish industry. According to a report by the consulting firm Capgemini, all these improvements implemented within the factories will achieve up to 27% increase in productivity over the next 5 years. This significant increase is directly related to the strong commitment of many companies to the digitization of their production plants, the benefits of which are beginning to be seen in the medium term.
Smart Factories' investment in disruptive technology, the key to success
The big bet of the Spanish industry has been the IoT, data analytics, Artificial Intelligence and also robotics.. This does not mean that all companies have committed to each of these aspects of Digital Transformation, but it does mean that many of them have are aware of the usefulness that the most disruptive technology brings them. It is true that in the short term the investment required is very high, and has additional costs linked, for example, to the total or partial shutdown of production. This is the reason why many company boards are reluctant to implement such improvements, but the results are there.
Investing in IT technologies and infrastructures provides a series of added values that only become effective over time. In the long run, moreover, they will be essential to be able to compete with other companies at a national and international level.:
- FlexibilityIndustrial automation, for example, generates great flexibility in adapting to market changes that are directly related to production. Thanks to this type of technology, the heaviest industries can make changes quickly without affecting their plants too much.
- EfficiencyBig Data Analytics: The massive processing of data through Big Data Analytics generates efficiency, as it makes it possible to establish production and consumption patterns through which it is possible to create cost-saving strategies. Thanks to this type of solution, companies in the industrial sector can save a significant percentage and increase their profit margins.
- ProductivityArtificial intelligence or robotics boost the productivity of plants and workers, generating improvements in production times, as well as significant savings in fixed inputs when creating products.
Therefore, the investment in digitization within Smart Factories is reflected in the emergence of real-time alerts, The system is equipped with a number of sensors, which alert supervisors to the need for intervention to repair damage, by introducing agile methodologies work; or with the selection of patterns based on large volumes of data that allow important business decisions to be made.
The aforementioned study states that by the year 2022, 21% of the surveyed companies forecast that their production plants will be intelligent. This will have a direct benefit for all of them: a significant reduction in operating costs, thus increasing profit margins.
Another significant finding of the study is that only 16% of the companies in the industrial sector have not yet initiated any type of technological improvement. The question is, therefore, how long will they survive in an ultra-competitive market that relies on technology to stay on top?