A Field Guide to Digital Transformation, by Thomas Erl and Roger Stoffers, Pearson 2021

In twelve chapters authors Erl and Stoffers take us from a manufacturing and supply chain mid-life crisis to clear digital transformation.  Because what we need now is well-considered expert guidance on how to integrate IT with robotics, AI and humans, practitioners in the trenches will find this primer a great strategic tool to start out and further design their own transformation. 

We know that manufacturing and supply chain leaders daily face decisions about which technology tools to adopt.  It is a continuing challenge to understand, particularly in a lean or purportedly lean environment, which ones are appropriate and how they will impact the manufacturing process.  For years now companies have delayed or side-stepped technology implementations for seemingly smart reasons, although they need good basics in order management as well as production tracking and control to stay alive.  Now an even bigger issue has arisen for manufacturing -- systems integration.  If corporate leaders do not want to trust their fate to new apps tacked onto "old reliable," they may want to walk through the issues one more time before making a big commitment, and that is yet one more reason why books like A Field Guide to Digital Transformation have become so valuable.

Crazy idea, but readers may want to first skim the case study in the second part of this field guide (Chapter 12, page 193) to imagine the possibilities, and test parallels and missing links in a quick comparison to their own current operations, before hitting the detailed earlier chapters and process flow diagrams. Armed with a Gap Analysis it should be possible to clearly identify improvement areas, along with time-to- complete, cost, and organization-wide objectives.  

"Let the data lead you, " Dorian Shainin

Pay particular attention also to Chapter 5, "Common Risks and Challenges (What Are the Pitfalls?)" because here readers will recognize familiar, lingering potholes. Any significant systems integration solutions for manufacturing and supply chain at this point will be heavily data-driven, even those that are pitched as supposedly pure pull systems.  Bad or outdated data can lead to unhappy customers and missed opportunities. Here the authors recommend "living with the data" and the new processes to understand integration.  In fact, a digital transformation team can at this point be management's best resource for design, integration and fix-its.  Don't even think of going this alone. 

Finally, Chapter 12 shows readers the differences between car sales at a dealership operating the old fashioned way, fifteen steps from customer contact to vehicle delivery, and a new data-driven process that is customer-centric, relying on richer solid manufacturer and buyer preference data, as the process moves toward a smooth on-line retail experience.  

Patricia E. Moody

FORTUNE magazine  "Pioneering Woman in Mfg" 

IndustryWeek IdeaXchange Xpert

A Mill Girl at Blue Heron Journal, on-line resource for business thought-leaders and decision-makers,  patriciaemoody@gmail.com