As part of a recent webinar on industrial identity in manufacturing (you can watch the recording here), we presented our new research on the digital maturity of manufacturing companies. In this piece, we want to talk in more detail about its findings and areas of potential change.
Brief results of the study
The study was based on the performance of enterprises in the manufacturing industry, official statistical data from the BIS ASPR RK, as well as our own expert analyses based on our understanding of the current state of the market and communication with customer representatives.
Brief results of the study
The study was based on the performance of enterprises in the manufacturing industry, official statistical data from the BIS ASPR RK, as well as our own expert analyses based on our understanding of the current state of the market and communication with customer representatives.
The manufacturing industry remains the leader in digitalisation. Thus, at the moment, enterprises in the machine-building and metallurgical industries hold leading positions in terms of the implementation of digital solutions and the level of digital development, which is in line with the trends of previous years. At the same time, food industry enterprises demonstrate significant growth in the implementation of digital solutions compared to last year.
In turn, the light industry has slowed down the pace of digitalisation, although previously it was the leader in this area. Nevertheless, there are some interesting cases of digitalisation in the light industry.
The pharmaceutical industry, given international standards and the specifics of the equipment used, remains difficult for digitalisation. Projects in this area are difficult to replicate, but pharmaceutical companies are steadily demonstrating growth in digital solutions.
The chemical and petrochemical industry, traditionally a leader in development, is cautious in selecting and implementing digital technologies. These industries are dominated by solutions from international vendors.
The pulp and paper, wood processing and printing industries, as well as other manufacturing sectors, have shown conservative growth over the past three years, slowly adopting digital solutions.
Limitations and challenges
The current average level of digitalisation of Kazakhstan's economy today is not a barrier, but rather an excellent opportunity for a qualitative leap in development, which will strengthen the ability of enterprises to take leading positions on the global stage.
In terms of constraints, almost 90% of enterprises face difficulties in implementing digital technologies. The main reasons include bad experiences, lack of product understanding, incorrect goal setting, employee sabotage and unwillingness to work in a new way. After such failures, businesses often stop implementing digital solutions altogether and revert back to the old ways of working for years to come.
Some cases from our practice also confirm this trend, which helps us to formulate ways to minimise these risks and offer our clients the most optimal approaches.
In the next articles we plan to look in detail at examples of complex projects and analyse the reasons for their failure.
How to act
That is why at the very start of any project it is necessary not only to clearly define its goals and responsibilities, but also to understand the initial situation and the current level of IT development. We use a special digitalisation checklist for this very purpose, which allows us to identify the ‘as-is’ situation and understand how to set the right priorities.
The factor of the right approach to project implementation is also important. Many people are now moving from the classic waterfall method, which implies project phasing and the dependence of each subsequent stage on the previous one, to the Agile methodology, which implies moving towards the goal step by step with the possibility of constant correction. The point is that in the first case there are high risks that the final goals or vision of the project may not bring the desired results.
In the Agile approach, the project is broken down into small sub-projects, manageable chunks called iterations. At the end of each iteration, a certain outcome is achieved. This allows for faster evaluation of project performance and flexibility to adjust goals and expectations if priorities change.
© L. Salamat, B. Kaikenov
In turn, the light industry has slowed down the pace of digitalisation, although previously it was the leader in this area. Nevertheless, there are some interesting cases of digitalisation in the light industry.
The pharmaceutical industry, given international standards and the specifics of the equipment used, remains difficult for digitalisation. Projects in this area are difficult to replicate, but pharmaceutical companies are steadily demonstrating growth in digital solutions.
The chemical and petrochemical industry, traditionally a leader in development, is cautious in selecting and implementing digital technologies. These industries are dominated by solutions from international vendors.
The pulp and paper, wood processing and printing industries, as well as other manufacturing sectors, have shown conservative growth over the past three years, slowly adopting digital solutions.
Limitations and challenges
The current average level of digitalisation of Kazakhstan's economy today is not a barrier, but rather an excellent opportunity for a qualitative leap in development, which will strengthen the ability of enterprises to take leading positions on the global stage.
In terms of constraints, almost 90% of enterprises face difficulties in implementing digital technologies. The main reasons include bad experiences, lack of product understanding, incorrect goal setting, employee sabotage and unwillingness to work in a new way. After such failures, businesses often stop implementing digital solutions altogether and revert back to the old ways of working for years to come.
Some cases from our practice also confirm this trend, which helps us to formulate ways to minimise these risks and offer our clients the most optimal approaches.
In the next articles we plan to look in detail at examples of complex projects and analyse the reasons for their failure.
How to act
That is why at the very start of any project it is necessary not only to clearly define its goals and responsibilities, but also to understand the initial situation and the current level of IT development. We use a special digitalisation checklist for this very purpose, which allows us to identify the ‘as-is’ situation and understand how to set the right priorities.
The factor of the right approach to project implementation is also important. Many people are now moving from the classic waterfall method, which implies project phasing and the dependence of each subsequent stage on the previous one, to the Agile methodology, which implies moving towards the goal step by step with the possibility of constant correction. The point is that in the first case there are high risks that the final goals or vision of the project may not bring the desired results.
In the Agile approach, the project is broken down into small sub-projects, manageable chunks called iterations. At the end of each iteration, a certain outcome is achieved. This allows for faster evaluation of project performance and flexibility to adjust goals and expectations if priorities change.
© L. Salamat, B. Kaikenov