128 FEATURE that space. Similarly, when you look at the operational technology executives, they are more focused on outcomes in terms of quality of product, cost of product, outages and service levels. OT is much closer to the business impact in terms of the plant.” IT, OT and ET decision-makers are collaborating more than ever, with Microsoft well positioned to help with its strategy of partnership and driving adoption through a manufacturing ecosystem. “Our investments in Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing will focus on these capabilities in terms of data model extensibility, composability in terms of low code/no code, making sure that our partner ecosystem is coming along with us, and making it easier to roll out those solutions to the cloud.” Key findings from the ARC Advisory Group survey What we learned Operation Technology Engineering Information Technology Manufacturing leaders who work handson in factories leverage operational data and technology. Executives surveyed care about making sure their equipment is up and running and increasing output. Engineering focuses on improving technology and efficiency using new, innovate solutions like AI or Digital Twin. Executives surveyed are not as concerned with safety and output as their counterparts. IT focuses on execution of technology that Engineering chooses to implement. Executives surveyed are looking to improve productivity with technology and make their jobs simpler and more automated. 55% 39% 3 in 5 40% consider increase in overall equipment effectiveness as highly important prioritise integrated security tools as a technical criteria for an industry partner have experienced improved quality after deploying digital transformation technology consider technical superiority/innovation a top criteria for their cloud partners 2 in 5 highlight easy integration to productivity and collaboration tools as an important technical criteria 76%plan deployment of AI technologies using a private or public cloud within the next three years 48% consider customer service and support a top three criteria for selecting an industry cloud partner 1 in 3 have experienced increased uptime after deploying digital transformation programmes 55% say that digital transformation has increased productivity 1 in 2 consider ‘implementation capacity’ as a top three criteria for selecting an industry cloud partner 78%anticipate deployment of condition monitoring and predictive maintenance via off-premises cloud in the next three years 89% prefer to work with cloud hyperscalers or software vendors Digitalisation priorities Digitalisation is the key to achieving excellence in manufacturing today. It’s clear that many manufacturers are well under way in their modernisation journey, but they also recognise the need to accelerate to remain competitive. Information technology and operational technology must work together to successfully digitalise and transform the factory. In practice, this means recognising and reconciling the differing skill sets, priorities, and partner preferences of each group. Manufacturers need to migrate many of their factory systems to the cloud as part of their modernisation journey. The need for climate action has made sustainability and energy transition a top priority for manufacturing, and this also necessitates digitalisation. Technologies like Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing can play an essential role for manufacturers who must now actively support a broad mix of technologies. Greg Gorbach is vice president of digitalisation and IoT at ARC Advisory Group GREG GORBACH: ARC ADVISORY GROUP
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