Gunter Beitinger and Petra Monn with Siemens
On this week's Industrial Talk we're onsite at IoT Solutions World Congress and talking to Dr. Gunter Beitinger and Petra Monn with Siemens about “Digital Transformation Value to the Enterprise “. Get the answers to your “Digital Transformation” questions along with Gunter and Petra's unique insight on the “How” on this Industrial Talk interview!
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DR. GUNTER BEITINGER'S CONTACT INFORMATION:
Personal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gunter-dr-beitinger/
Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/siemens/
Company Website: https://www.siemens.com/global/en.html
PETRA MONN'S CONTACT INFORMATION:
Personal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petra-monn-19a85b79/
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PODCAST TRANSCRIPT:
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
digital transformation, factories, digitalization, siemens, petra, people, iot, industrial, shop floor, software, problem, industry, technology, solutions, logic, enterprise, bucket list, armas, world, insights
Industrial Talk is brought to you by Armis. Yes, you were in the digital transformation game. Yes, you need to find trusted companies, trusted individuals to help you along with that journey. The Armis platform delivers complete asset intelligence, you know what that means, insights into your connected assets, you're in the digital transformation game, you have to have that insights into what is connected, go to armis.com find out more, you will not be disappointed. Also Industry IoT Consortium. At industrial talk, we always talk about education, we always talk about collaboration, we are always talking about innovation. And if you're a business that has any desire to be resilient to the future, you need to be able to educate, collaborate, as well as innovate with other industry professionals. That's a must. Industry IoT consortium brings that all together, you need to be a part of this community, you need to be connected with these leaders that are all apart the industry IoT consortium, go out to ai consortium.org. Find out more again, you will not be disappointed, you're just going to be happy. Hey there, and welcome to industrial talk. And you're saying to yourself, Scott, where's that jazzy intro that you normally have for your podcast? Well, this is a series. This is a unique series of interviews that were conducted on site at the IoT solutions World Congress in Barcelona. Excellent event, excellent venue, incredible professionals all focused on solving problems, helping us navigate these waters of digitization, and it's all happening at the IoT solutions World Congress, you need to put that on your bucket list. So with that said, let's get on with the interview.
To experts, Siemens as a company, we're going to be talking to Gunther, and Petra, specifically around the value to the enterprise with digital transformation. As you guys are all caught off guard, you didn't realize that's how I roll it. You guys do it. You have to Yeah, good time. Good. Good conference. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Just just yeah. Thank
you. Thank you for inviting us good. Yes. We already enjoy it here. The conference, walking over the floor and looking what is new.
Actually, it's also very nice that it's in Barcelona.
That no problem, isn't it? That's not That's not a bad thing. It's, it's a plus I keep on telling everybody. Yeah, once you come to Barcelona, make sure that you make this part of your bucket list to come to this particular conference. But yeah, Barcelona, we're going to a secret bar tonight. You want to know about it. Secret one, I see a hush hush. I'll share it with you guys if you want to, because I will. That's how I roll their toe. But we're gonna. So for the listeners out there. Let's start with you, Petra, and give us a little background. How long have you been with Siemens? And what's your background? As a professional?
Well enough to many years actually enough? Been a customer of Siemens before that that's been working in the aluminum industry? Oh, yes. Really? Yeah, we were flat rolling aluminum for can makers to make a lot of cans for beer, and other beverages, of course. So I've been a customer of Siemens, and then I changed sides. We recruited you. Well, I sort of wanted to know, you know, how they're all doing that. And then they told me I should try to actually unify a little bit of their portfolio because they're having lots of software. Since around about 10 years, they've been investing heavily in software, and they want to unite that software portfolio with their hardware portfolio. And that's a challenge.
Yeah, you're sort of soft pedaling. It's a big challenge. And it is something that has to happen in the world of digital transformation. If digital transformation is the sort of this solution to make you more efficient, create a business that's far more resilient, be able to give you insights, all of that good stuff. You need. need people like you to be able to make that happen because apparently you execute what about you? Gunther? Give us a background. Dr. Gunther?
Yeah, so yeah, I'm was research collaborator in a university there is where the doctor comes from, and now I'm since Yeah 99 with Siemens, but in different roles and in different areas. I started with Siemens, automotive, then Siemens healthcare. And then now so large drives and now with digital industries. Yeah, I've worked in The US and Mexico and also in other countries. So now I'm making stronger digital transformation.
Yeah, mad streak right now. But one of the questions I do have, and when we start talking about digital transformation, let's say I'm a manufacturer, okay? I'm Scott manufacturer. And and I hear about all this digital transformation stuff, everybody say, Hey, you got to do there, got it, you got IoT, you got the edge, you've got thin edge, you've got far edge, you've got near edge, you've got all of this stuff. And it's, it's just this lexicon of just things and all I care about is making my business more efficient. Getting some insights, and I don't want a headache. And I need to trust somebody to do it. Because all of a sudden, IoT for I O T is like this miscellaneous file now. And it includes everything doesn't include my laundry, but it does include everything else. Money never know. Sure, come next year, and Scott, we're going to be dealing with your laundry, IoT. So how do you how do you approach someone with the with the fact that this is the market that you navigate through? And how do you begin to instill this to Guntur? How do you instill some confidence in trust? Knowing that, yeah, you're the one.
First of all, because we are running our own factories, and we are using also our solutions in our factories. So this is what we also can show and demonstrate to our customers when they are visiting our factories. And yeah, by circumstances. Some of our factories are internationally also known as digital Lighthouse factories, and recognized by this also by the World Economic Forum. And as we are using our tools and implementing them, of course, we are able to develop them really, so that they are bringing the value to our customers.
Outside of the fact that I was pretty geeky about digital lighthouse. I like that word analogy, because I believe there are many out there that that we talked to use cases was like, hey, there's a new use case here. Here's a technology that is new, and we have this one. And then we created a new use case that apparently this is a problem. And we just sort of keep on going. But with Siemens, there's there's there's, there's real, it's, it's real, and I can me, I can say, hey, I want to go there, and I'm going to see it in action. Right?
Absolutely. And I think what it really adds value to all of this is really fast, we can not only talk about use cases and technologies, but we can also talk about what you need to make it happen. To implement it, we can really give some hints as to how high the efforts are, what kind of people you might be needing, and, and all the stuff that you need to think around. Yeah, you know, making the tap. And also,
you brought up another good point and we can sort of pull on that string just ever so briefly, is that there is a workforce component here. And there is a need to because this is so new outside of the fact there's a velocity that exists here with this technology. Yesterday, it was this and now today it's that and and the workforce itself has to have that, you know, upskill reskill, do we have the right people, how do we plan going forward? What is that going to look like? How do we begin to address that from a Siemens perspective? Because, again, you come to me and say, yep, digital transformation is going to create this business that's going to be more efficient, you're gonna see this you're going to do this you're going to be more resilient than whatever, but I can't find people what do we do with that?
Yeah. Now you have, how we address this with the staff we have on board and the other aspect was what you mentioned how we can find people Yeah. So, of course, we have to deal exactly with the same problems as anywhere in any any other company out there of why we are implementing these digitalization in this digital transformation as this is why it's called transformation. Of course, we have to think about our staff, our people and how to communicate this transformation to them. So from our point what we are doing is we have continuously communication with our people in our shop floor meetings, what they are going to expect what we are going to do and what we are going to address to stay competitive, to stay on the yeah ahead of technology and why we are doing Of course, we are offering all our staff rescaling and upskilling programs, as we are developing these technologies, and we are also imperiled developing rescaling and upskilling programs. And everyone, every every employee at Siemens has the possibility to log on our platform, which is called the solution platform and also the learning world where they are, can find their individual reskilling upskilling paths According to her, and his individual job profile. So for example, if you are a maintenance technician, and you would like to stay up to date ahead and be attractive for your employee, then you go into this learning world, you will find a path, a learning path individually for this career. And then it tells you what will be maybe expected from you in the future and how you can upskill yourself. So you have individually the possibility to create and to follow up, and you do it when you want. So also this is new ways of working you do it when you have the time you do it when you have the Yeah, yeah, when you would like to do it, because then also then when you are percepts, or when you have the perception, and this is how we address them.
Because that is excellent, you're absolutely spot on. I like that. Because the reality is, is that there's this velocity, this buzz, this thing that exists with in today's technology that is sped up fast, and therefore there is I can't see a time when, hey, I'm good. I'm all I'm all educated, I'm good to go. And it would seem to me, that is a continuous education, because there's going to always going to be some new technology, there's always going to be greater value in whatever is getting and it's going to we're going to roll it out. Petra, how did you sort of you're semi new, but you've come from the aluminum industry, that's a heavy duty manufacturing centric type of business. How did that that business deal with this digital transformation? Were they wrestling with it at that time? Well,
I, of course, it's a different type of manufacturing in aluminum. And so I would say they were probably a little bit behind Siemens also, because if you look at Siemens, as a company, it's a very engineering driven company. Of course,
a lot of companies are behind Siemens. So sure, if that's a problem,
totally, you could see that, you know, you would have all these very curious engineering driven people in the factories also. And now here comes a very special element that we have, with the digitalization of our own factories, it is that we can add even more purpose to what the people are doing. And putting in all this effort into digitizing our own factories, it is that they can actually help to make our own products better. So they have an extra purpose in what they are doing every day. They do not only make our factories better, but they help the solution providers that we have in house in Siemens who provide software for industry to make that software better. And so I think that adds a little extra spark in their little extra motivation, especially also to the already highly skilled workers and engineers in the factories. And it also adds obviously, a little bit more speed simply just because you're exposed to to higher pressure also or you want to you want to show off, you know, not only for your factory, but also towards the towards the solution provider.
So, go until we start talking about digital transformation. There's a lot of people talking about it. Yes, it is a word that is bantered back and forth. But I like the fact that you mentioned the need to bring value to the enterprise. In that process going to do is sit down with an organization can you say hey, let's take a steineke tiny step, move forward there. Or how do you how do you approach an organization to saying you need to do it let's bring value let's do it this way.
Yeah. As we are wanting to bring value to the digital transformation to digitalization, we are not coming from the technology. We are coming from the most pressing topics of our factories. So, we are going into our factories and together with them, we are working out what is the what are the most pressing topics and how can we how digitalization can support to solve these, and we cut out a piece of a maybe a bigger problem and make the life on the shop floor for the factories easier. And so, this is how value comes into the approach what mostly, we see is done wrongly that you address it by technology, hey, how about using Blockchain how to use edge technology and then what is the value now, you have to address it from the problem and and while you are really solving a problem together with the factories, you are leverage the motivation, the acceptance at the same time. So coming back to our people, and also the value is directly there. The next thing is if you are looking for solutions on the shop floor, and you do it in many different factories, you get a feeling of which solutions are scalable. So yeah, so you develop a solution, which can then be rolled out over the factories, and you multiply it and then digitalization has a much higher impact on the company. And while you are looking for such scalable solutions, so the step, bringing this to the market and have an even an enterprise impact while you are offering a solution, which is tested in your environment by a problem is then something which brings also value to the customers.
So one of the things that I've really, I can appreciate it, it seems that this IoT, this conference, there is a there's good and bad with a pandemic got it, I understand the bad, but the good. I've come to realize that there is a necessity to collaborate more, there's a necessity to be able to have greater conversations and what you just painted Gunther is said, we're going to sit down with your customer, we're not going to we're not going to say hey, here, this is the device you need this is this and and and you just sort of do this. No, you're there to have that dialogue to say, Okay, what is that pressing problem, we can slice it out. And then we can say, all right, it's gonna work, scale it, and then be able to create greater value, which is your ultimate effort. You don't want to just do something and say, Yeah, that's it, man. Good luck. That's a headache. And we know that there are a lot of legacy systems out there that fall into that category. So Petra, where do you see? Where do you see that going? I mean, I'm just telling you right now, two years ago, or three years, when we're when I was here last three years ago, maybe that's and then we hit the pandemic. So it's been four years. God, it's been three years. Yes. I just became older. Anyway, the conversation has changed so dramatically. I mean, it has to where it was like, Hey, we can put this device on this asset, and we can pull data. Now it's complete. That's like, yeah, that's, yeah, we can do that. But now let's start looking at the data, slicing the data, making sense out of the data, creating tactical recommendations. From here, where do you see it going? I mean, this, this is exciting. I don't have a future. What do you think it's going?
Yes, I think you're so first of all, yes, I think you're right. I mean, we've really shifted from a hive discussion into a, you know, sort of no nonsense discussion. So people are really working on many of these use cases, and they have the people that it takes for it. So where are they going? I think what we see now more and more is that we go away to be going to a very data driven logic. And that also means that we start to start to slowly shift a little bit away from that engineering driven logic logic, which is an if then logic where we think we can sort of control everything in that sequence. But to turn obviously, to statistically driven logic, some some start to call it AI and then go into all these algorithms and so on and so forth. So where we go into data clustering, and then really, you know, have all these these data scientists also on our shop floors, I'm looking into our data. So that is definitely something that I can be that I can see another thing that I believe is happening to is really this convergence of OT and it Oh, that's a huge, that's a whole nother topic. Yeah. So, so we were having all these people who were really, really good with all the machines and, you know, have their their very own programming logic in there. And now this programming logic from the from the machine level needs to fuse into the logic that we have in software. And that blink brings such a whole lot of changes we did, that's not just on a technical level, actually, that really also goes into how we're driving projects. Because software, people tend to have a lot shorter innovation cycles, they're, they're all working in that really HL mode. And that's something that from the hardware world, we don't know as well, because we are very used to hardware needing to really, you know, stand too many limits, and really stand up too many quality tests, and so on and so forth. So we are not used to put out into the world some piece of hardware, which is semi functional. Whereas we might bring some semi functional software onto the market, just because we can very quickly and very easily in short cycles improvement. So
that's, that's why when Microsoft launches a new update, they know that they're going to have bugs, and then that's already out there, whether they like it or not, they're going to have the user community saying that's not working. Hey, thank you very much. It's corrected now. You know, that's, that's the reality. And one last question to go into. This is all interesting, from my perspective, the reality is this available from the small to midsize businesses as well or is this just a, this whole digital transformation is only for the big boys and girls, and it's available for the small amount
that will be there, the whole digitalization aspect is nothing. Just for big enterprises. I would sometimes also name it, digitalization pushes lean to the limits. So you start from the shop floor, you implement smart solutions, small solutions, which make a great impact. Even a small algorithm who predicts maybe machine breaks down a few hours or a few hours before it really happens, brings a lot of value in small companies. It's very easy to deploy a very easy installed. And the big solutions, of course, installed over factory networks. Yep, that is then for enterprise companies.
All right. I gotta run off to another meeting that can you believe it? Well, yeah. And go on into the auditorium. You're gonna see me over there. And thank you for having us. So let's, let's for the listeners, how do I get a hold of you, Petra, talk to us. How do I how do I connect?
My name is Petra, mom. I'm looking forward to meet you.
That's right. That's M O N. N. And Dr. Gunther? How do they get ahold of you?
You can also find me on don't biting their nails.
You guys were fantastic. Thank you very much for saying yes. I enjoyed this conversation. Excellent job. All right, listeners, we're gonna wrap it up for today. This is day two, the end of day two, at the IoT solutions World Congress. It is an exceptional event. Put that on your calendar. And if you have any issues, comments or concerns about the contact information for your night, it's going to be at the industrial talk.com. And we're gonna wrap it up on the other side. So stay tuned, we will be right back. You're listening to the industrial talk Podcast Network. All right, once again, thank you very much for joining industrial talk. And as you can tell, we were broadcasting live from IoT solutions World Congress in Barcelona, what a great opportunity. It was a lot of fun. I gotta tell you to meet incredible professionals, why Cooter, Petra and others that are really focused in on solving problems making the future bright, for lack of a better term? All right. Put that on your bucket list. Yeah, why I now we're going to have all the contact information out on industrial documents. But we're also pulling together a just an ever expanding ecosystem of professionals like gouner and Petra, and others that are really focused in on delivering value, thinking differently. So please, support industrial talk, support the individuals that are out there, support the sponsors that make this happen, like Armis, like cap logistics, and please be that we're gonna have another great conversation from IoT solutions World Congress, so stay tuned.
Transcript
Industrial Talk is brought to you by Armis. Yes, you were in the digital transformation game. Yes, you need to find trusted companies, trusted individuals to help you along with that journey. The Armis platform delivers complete asset intelligence, you know what that means, insights into your connected assets, you're in the digital transformation game, you have to have that insights into what is connected, go to armis.com find out more, you will not be disappointed. Also Industry IoT Consortium. At industrial talk, we always talk about education, we always talk about collaboration, we are always talking about innovation. And if you're a business that has any desire to be resilient to the future, you need to be able to educate, collaborate, as well as innovate with other industry professionals. That's a must. Industry IoT consortium brings that all together, you need to be a part of this community, you need to be connected with these leaders that are all apart the industry IoT consortium, go out to ai consortium.org. Find out more again, you will not be disappointed, you're just going to be happy. Hey there, and welcome to industrial talk. And you're saying to yourself, Scott, where's that jazzy intro that you normally have for your podcast? Well, this is a series. This is a unique series of interviews that were conducted on site at the IoT solutions World Congress in Barcelona. Excellent event, excellent venue, incredible professionals all focused on solving problems, helping us navigate these waters of digitization, and it's all happening at the IoT solutions World Congress, you need to put that on your bucket list. So with that said, let's get on with the interview.
To experts, Siemens as a company, we're going to be talking to Gunther, and Petra, specifically around the value to the enterprise with digital transformation. As you guys are all caught off guard, you didn't realize that's how I roll it. You guys do it. You have to Yeah, good time. Good. Good conference. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Just just yeah. Thank
you. Thank you for inviting us good. Yes. We already enjoy it here. The conference, walking over the floor and looking what is new.
Actually, it's also very nice that it's in Barcelona.
That no problem, isn't it? That's not That's not a bad thing. It's, it's a plus I keep on telling everybody. Yeah, once you come to Barcelona, make sure that you make this part of your bucket list to come to this particular conference. But yeah, Barcelona, we're going to a secret bar tonight. You want to know about it. Secret one, I see a hush hush. I'll share it with you guys if you want to, because I will. That's how I roll their toe. But we're gonna. So for the listeners out there. Let's start with you, Petra, and give us a little background. How long have you been with Siemens? And what's your background? As a professional?
Well enough to many years actually enough? Been a customer of Siemens before that that's been working in the aluminum industry? Oh, yes. Really? Yeah, we were flat rolling aluminum for can makers to make a lot of cans for beer, and other beverages, of course. So I've been a customer of Siemens, and then I changed sides. We recruited you. Well, I sort of wanted to know, you know, how they're all doing that. And then they told me I should try to actually unify a little bit of their portfolio because they're having lots of software. Since around about 10 years, they've been investing heavily in software, and they want to unite that software portfolio with their hardware portfolio. And that's a challenge.
Yeah, you're sort of soft pedaling. It's a big challenge. And it is something that has to happen in the world of digital transformation. If digital transformation is the sort of this solution to make you more efficient, create a business that's far more resilient, be able to give you insights, all of that good stuff. You need. need people like you to be able to make that happen because apparently you execute what about you? Gunther? Give us a background. Dr. Gunther?
Yeah, so yeah, I'm was research collaborator in a university there is where the doctor comes from, and now I'm since Yeah 99 with Siemens, but in different roles and in different areas. I started with Siemens, automotive, then Siemens healthcare. And then now so large drives and now with digital industries. Yeah, I've worked in The US and Mexico and also in other countries. So now I'm making stronger digital transformation.
Yeah, mad streak right now. But one of the questions I do have, and when we start talking about digital transformation, let's say I'm a manufacturer, okay? I'm Scott manufacturer. And and I hear about all this digital transformation stuff, everybody say, Hey, you got to do there, got it, you got IoT, you got the edge, you've got thin edge, you've got far edge, you've got near edge, you've got all of this stuff. And it's, it's just this lexicon of just things and all I care about is making my business more efficient. Getting some insights, and I don't want a headache. And I need to trust somebody to do it. Because all of a sudden, IoT for I O T is like this miscellaneous file now. And it includes everything doesn't include my laundry, but it does include everything else. Money never know. Sure, come next year, and Scott, we're going to be dealing with your laundry, IoT. So how do you how do you approach someone with the with the fact that this is the market that you navigate through? And how do you begin to instill this to Guntur? How do you instill some confidence in trust? Knowing that, yeah, you're the one.
First of all, because we are running our own factories, and we are using also our solutions in our factories. So this is what we also can show and demonstrate to our customers when they are visiting our factories. And yeah, by circumstances. Some of our factories are internationally also known as digital Lighthouse factories, and recognized by this also by the World Economic Forum. And as we are using our tools and implementing them, of course, we are able to develop them really, so that they are bringing the value to our customers.
Outside of the fact that I was pretty geeky about digital lighthouse. I like that word analogy, because I believe there are many out there that that we talked to use cases was like, hey, there's a new use case here. Here's a technology that is new, and we have this one. And then we created a new use case that apparently this is a problem. And we just sort of keep on going. But with Siemens, there's there's there's, there's real, it's, it's real, and I can me, I can say, hey, I want to go there, and I'm going to see it in action. Right?
Absolutely. And I think what it really adds value to all of this is really fast, we can not only talk about use cases and technologies, but we can also talk about what you need to make it happen. To implement it, we can really give some hints as to how high the efforts are, what kind of people you might be needing, and, and all the stuff that you need to think around. Yeah, you know, making the tap. And also,
you brought up another good point and we can sort of pull on that string just ever so briefly, is that there is a workforce component here. And there is a need to because this is so new outside of the fact there's a velocity that exists here with this technology. Yesterday, it was this and now today it's that and and the workforce itself has to have that, you know, upskill reskill, do we have the right people, how do we plan going forward? What is that going to look like? How do we begin to address that from a Siemens perspective? Because, again, you come to me and say, yep, digital transformation is going to create this business that's going to be more efficient, you're gonna see this you're going to do this you're going to be more resilient than whatever, but I can't find people what do we do with that?
Yeah. Now you have, how we address this with the staff we have on board and the other aspect was what you mentioned how we can find people Yeah. So, of course, we have to deal exactly with the same problems as anywhere in any any other company out there of why we are implementing these digitalization in this digital transformation as this is why it's called transformation. Of course, we have to think about our staff, our people and how to communicate this transformation to them. So from our point what we are doing is we have continuously communication with our people in our shop floor meetings, what they are going to expect what we are going to do and what we are going to address to stay competitive, to stay on the yeah ahead of technology and why we are doing Of course, we are offering all our staff rescaling and upskilling programs, as we are developing these technologies, and we are also imperiled developing rescaling and upskilling programs. And everyone, every every employee at Siemens has the possibility to log on our platform, which is called the solution platform and also the learning world where they are, can find their individual reskilling upskilling paths According to her, and his individual job profile. So for example, if you are a maintenance technician, and you would like to stay up to date ahead and be attractive for your employee, then you go into this learning world, you will find a path, a learning path individually for this career. And then it tells you what will be maybe expected from you in the future and how you can upskill yourself. So you have individually the possibility to create and to follow up, and you do it when you want. So also this is new ways of working you do it when you have the time you do it when you have the Yeah, yeah, when you would like to do it, because then also then when you are percepts, or when you have the perception, and this is how we address them.
Because that is excellent, you're absolutely spot on. I like that. Because the reality is, is that there's this velocity, this buzz, this thing that exists with in today's technology that is sped up fast, and therefore there is I can't see a time when, hey, I'm good. I'm all I'm all educated, I'm good to go. And it would seem to me, that is a continuous education, because there's going to always going to be some new technology, there's always going to be greater value in whatever is getting and it's going to we're going to roll it out. Petra, how did you sort of you're semi new, but you've come from the aluminum industry, that's a heavy duty manufacturing centric type of business. How did that that business deal with this digital transformation? Were they wrestling with it at that time? Well,
I, of course, it's a different type of manufacturing in aluminum. And so I would say they were probably a little bit behind Siemens also, because if you look at Siemens, as a company, it's a very engineering driven company. Of course,
a lot of companies are behind Siemens. So sure, if that's a problem,
totally, you could see that, you know, you would have all these very curious engineering driven people in the factories also. And now here comes a very special element that we have, with the digitalization of our own factories, it is that we can add even more purpose to what the people are doing. And putting in all this effort into digitizing our own factories, it is that they can actually help to make our own products better. So they have an extra purpose in what they are doing every day. They do not only make our factories better, but they help the solution providers that we have in house in Siemens who provide software for industry to make that software better. And so I think that adds a little extra spark in their little extra motivation, especially also to the already highly skilled workers and engineers in the factories. And it also adds obviously, a little bit more speed simply just because you're exposed to to higher pressure also or you want to you want to show off, you know, not only for your factory, but also towards the towards the solution provider.
So, go until we start talking about digital transformation. There's a lot of people talking about it. Yes, it is a word that is bantered back and forth. But I like the fact that you mentioned the need to bring value to the enterprise. In that process going to do is sit down with an organization can you say hey, let's take a steineke tiny step, move forward there. Or how do you how do you approach an organization to saying you need to do it let's bring value let's do it this way.
Yeah. As we are wanting to bring value to the digital transformation to digitalization, we are not coming from the technology. We are coming from the most pressing topics of our factories. So, we are going into our factories and together with them, we are working out what is the what are the most pressing topics and how can we how digitalization can support to solve these, and we cut out a piece of a maybe a bigger problem and make the life on the shop floor for the factories easier. And so, this is how value comes into the approach what mostly, we see is done wrongly that you address it by technology, hey, how about using Blockchain how to use edge technology and then what is the value now, you have to address it from the problem and and while you are really solving a problem together with the factories, you are leverage the motivation, the acceptance at the same time. So coming back to our people, and also the value is directly there. The next thing is if you are looking for solutions on the shop floor, and you do it in many different factories, you get a feeling of which solutions are scalable. So yeah, so you develop a solution, which can then be rolled out over the factories, and you multiply it and then digitalization has a much higher impact on the company. And while you are looking for such scalable solutions, so the step, bringing this to the market and have an even an enterprise impact while you are offering a solution, which is tested in your environment by a problem is then something which brings also value to the customers.
So one of the things that I've really, I can appreciate it, it seems that this IoT, this conference, there is a there's good and bad with a pandemic got it, I understand the bad, but the good. I've come to realize that there is a necessity to collaborate more, there's a necessity to be able to have greater conversations and what you just painted Gunther is said, we're going to sit down with your customer, we're not going to we're not going to say hey, here, this is the device you need this is this and and and you just sort of do this. No, you're there to have that dialogue to say, Okay, what is that pressing problem, we can slice it out. And then we can say, all right, it's gonna work, scale it, and then be able to create greater value, which is your ultimate effort. You don't want to just do something and say, Yeah, that's it, man. Good luck. That's a headache. And we know that there are a lot of legacy systems out there that fall into that category. So Petra, where do you see? Where do you see that going? I mean, I'm just telling you right now, two years ago, or three years, when we're when I was here last three years ago, maybe that's and then we hit the pandemic. So it's been four years. God, it's been three years. Yes. I just became older. Anyway, the conversation has changed so dramatically. I mean, it has to where it was like, Hey, we can put this device on this asset, and we can pull data. Now it's complete. That's like, yeah, that's, yeah, we can do that. But now let's start looking at the data, slicing the data, making sense out of the data, creating tactical recommendations. From here, where do you see it going? I mean, this, this is exciting. I don't have a future. What do you think it's going?
Yes, I think you're so first of all, yes, I think you're right. I mean, we've really shifted from a hive discussion into a, you know, sort of no nonsense discussion. So people are really working on many of these use cases, and they have the people that it takes for it. So where are they going? I think what we see now more and more is that we go away to be going to a very data driven logic. And that also means that we start to start to slowly shift a little bit away from that engineering driven logic logic, which is an if then logic where we think we can sort of control everything in that sequence. But to turn obviously, to statistically driven logic, some some start to call it AI and then go into all these algorithms and so on and so forth. So where we go into data clustering, and then really, you know, have all these these data scientists also on our shop floors, I'm looking into our data. So that is definitely something that I can be that I can see another thing that I believe is happening to is really this convergence of OT and it Oh, that's a huge, that's a whole nother topic. Yeah. So, so we were having all these people who were really, really good with all the machines and, you know, have their their very own programming logic in there. And now this programming logic from the from the machine level needs to fuse into the logic that we have in software. And that blink brings such a whole lot of changes we did, that's not just on a technical level, actually, that really also goes into how we're driving projects. Because software, people tend to have a lot shorter innovation cycles, they're, they're all working in that really HL mode. And that's something that from the hardware world, we don't know as well, because we are very used to hardware needing to really, you know, stand too many limits, and really stand up too many quality tests, and so on and so forth. So we are not used to put out into the world some piece of hardware, which is semi functional. Whereas we might bring some semi functional software onto the market, just because we can very quickly and very easily in short cycles improvement. So
that's, that's why when Microsoft launches a new update, they know that they're going to have bugs, and then that's already out there, whether they like it or not, they're going to have the user community saying that's not working. Hey, thank you very much. It's corrected now. You know, that's, that's the reality. And one last question to go into. This is all interesting, from my perspective, the reality is this available from the small to midsize businesses as well or is this just a, this whole digital transformation is only for the big boys and girls, and it's available for the small amount
that will be there, the whole digitalization aspect is nothing. Just for big enterprises. I would sometimes also name it, digitalization pushes lean to the limits. So you start from the shop floor, you implement smart solutions, small solutions, which make a great impact. Even a small algorithm who predicts maybe machine breaks down a few hours or a few hours before it really happens, brings a lot of value in small companies. It's very easy to deploy a very easy installed. And the big solutions, of course, installed over factory networks. Yep, that is then for enterprise companies.
All right. I gotta run off to another meeting that can you believe it? Well, yeah. And go on into the auditorium. You're gonna see me over there. And thank you for having us. So let's, let's for the listeners, how do I get a hold of you, Petra, talk to us. How do I how do I connect?
My name is Petra, mom. I'm looking forward to meet you.
That's right. That's M O N. N. And Dr. Gunther? How do they get ahold of you?
You can also find me on don't biting their nails.
You guys were fantastic. Thank you very much for saying yes. I enjoyed this conversation. Excellent job. All right, listeners, we're gonna wrap it up for today. This is day two, the end of day two, at the IoT solutions World Congress. It is an exceptional event. Put that on your calendar. And if you have any issues, comments or concerns about the contact information for your night, it's going to be at the industrial talk.com. And we're gonna wrap it up on the other side. So stay tuned, we will be right back. You're listening to the industrial talk Podcast Network. All right, once again, thank you very much for joining industrial talk. And as you can tell, we were broadcasting live from IoT solutions World Congress in Barcelona, what a great opportunity. It was a lot of fun. I gotta tell you to meet incredible professionals, why Cooter, Petra and others that are really focused in on solving problems making the future bright, for lack of a better term? All right. Put that on your bucket list. Yeah, why I now we're going to have all the contact information out on industrial documents. But we're also pulling together a just an ever expanding ecosystem of professionals like gouner and Petra, and others that are really focused in on delivering value, thinking differently. So please, support industrial talk, support the individuals that are out there, support the sponsors that make this happen, like Armis, like cap logistics, and please be that we're gonna have another great conversation from IoT solutions World Congress, so stay tuned.
About the author, Scott
I am Scott MacKenzie, husband, father, and passionate industry educator. From humble beginnings as a lathing contractor and certified journeyman/lineman to an Undergraduate and Master’s Degree in Business Administration, I have applied every aspect of my education and training to lead and influence. I believe in serving and adding value wherever I am called.
