The Record - Issue 21: Summer 2021

118 www. t e c h n o l o g y r e c o r d . c om “The benefits of digitalisation are no longer questioned. It’s now about accelerating time to value and driving adoption at scale” D igital transformation has underpinned the manufacturing industry’s resilience amid unprecedented disruptions to supply chains, markets and operations in recent months. As companies look ahead, many are turning to cloud, artificial intelligence (AI) and the internet of things (IoT) to build a foundation for agile innovation, whatever the world throws at them. “It’s been a challenging year for manufacturers, but also an exciting one, as they’ve been able to respond and adapt by accelerating their digital transformation journeys,” says Colin Masson, global industry marketing director, manufactur- ing at Microsoft. “The benefits of digitalisation are no longer questioned. It’s now about accelerating time to value and driving adoption at scale.” Masson points to machining tools and tool- ing systems provider Sandvik Coromant as an example. It has combined human expertise with the compute power of Microsoft Azure IoT solution accelerators, Azure AI and Dynamics 365 for Field Service to create a real-time pre- dictive analytics solution for manufacturers. By integrating all elements of the production flow – people, machines, tools and data – the company optimises processes, planning and predictive maintenance scheduling to help man- ufacturers avoid downtime. “Customers such BY J ACQU I GR I F F I THS Digital transformation is enabling manufacturers to create innovative, value-added business models that keep them ahead of the competition, says Microsoft’s Colin Masson driven value Digitally F E ATUR E