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That may be true, but you dont have to walk before you fly. Transforming your organization into a predictive and automated enterprise isnt about incremental improvements with sensors, its a whole new way of doing business. Early adopters are already making the shift using existing technologies. Thats the easy part. The hard part is making the mental shift of redefining assets and using them as strategic weapons in your drive for innovation.
The technology needed to upgrade from tactical applications to full asset intelligence is complicated and unproven.
Point Step up to strategy Labor arbitrage and traditional process improvements are important for reducing costs, but asset intelligence goes far beyond those levers to drive whole new ways of doing business. The demand economy is real, with old businesses now being displaced by demand-design companies. Asset intelligence is an essential capability for thriving in this new environment.
Counterpoint We have a proven and mature business model and innovation isnt our strong suit. Better to let pioneers work out the kinks. Besides, we dont even have a CTO.
The ability to capitalize on asset intelligence is essential for high performing companies
Thats nothing but business jargon. There has always been a demand economy. We develop a forecast and build the inventory. This is nothing new.
Early adopter advantages are significant and sustainable. Not only do you get cost and profitability benefits, you get real opportunities for business model transformation.
No advantage is ever sustainable. A fast follower strategy works well for our business. We can accelerate from there.
My take
Doug Standley, Principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP, Technology Innovation Service Line Leader Information today is flooding into organizations, presenting new opportunities to take faster, smarter actions using real-time signals that produce real-time alerts and real-time responses from real-time organizations. But until you create capabilities for asset intelligence, you wont be able to take advantage of those opportunities. Without asset intelligence, information can pile up into mountains that people decide whether or not to opt-in. In many cases, they simply cant manage or process the ever-increasing volumes. Assets dont add intelligence simply by creating more raw data. Intelligence hinges on interpretation and insight taking context and relationships into account. Its the signals that assets produce, not the sensors, which can drive value. When you establish trust in those signals, you can empower a fundamental shift that changes the customer value proposition, the competitive landscape and perhaps even your business model. Asset intelligence thrives on early signals woven together into systems that can anticipate and act. Instead of waiting for people to conduct physical inspections of a distribution center, asset intelligence taps into the things themselves that fill that facility, enabling machine-to-machine interactions that bypass human intervention. Some call this the predictive enterprise, but whatever you call it, the benefits are compelling. Being able to detect signals earlier and extract more value from them faster is a new front in the battle for customer intimacy and competitive advantage. Companies that sit and wait while others exploit the benefits of asset intelligence run the risk of getting left behind. To get a sense of where asset intelligence might apply in your business, focus on these eight questions: What is an asset? It need not be on the balance sheet or within a depreciation schedule. Which assets play a significant role in business processes youve targeted for improvement? What information would be valuable to extract from each asset? What signals do you already capture and how? What actions can each asset potentially undertake?
Deloitte Debate 2
What are the critical interactions or relationships between assets? What improvements or innovations could occur with better visibility or automation? Where is the latency in your value chain? The analysis should be done across a companys operations from receiving dock to shipping dock to customer delivery, from shop floor to accounting to the CEOs office. Some scenarios will be obvious like the importance of understanding location, movement, temperature and contents of an item in transit. But others could be more subtle. Take your time to think through the possibilities. Explore the intangibles to the fullest. Once opportunities are identified, advancements in sensor hardware, networking and automated data capture can make the next step signal generation relatively easy. Building in the intelligence is where the complexity lies: That means allowing proprietary technologies to work together, defining the business rules and implementing workflow and security to allow trusted, automated decision-making. While many IT organizations have already begun investing in these disciplines, its important to fit asset intelligence into an overarching information strategy tied directly to the business strategy. If you approach asset intelligence focused on cost, infrastructure and sensors, the real potential will not likely be realized.
Deloitte Debate
For example, a new aircraft has been designed with an autonomic logistics system on board. That means the plane has the ability to communicate its unique systems status requirements to central command without the need for human intervention. Machines talking to machines. Unfortunately, however, the back end systems to support those requirements arent nearly as advanced as the technology on the aircraft itself. To make matters even more challenging, the systems for different aircraft are independent and dont talk to one another. Whats needed is a strategic solution for managing all critical assets in our defense environment from weapons systems to maintenance personnel to spare parts integrated across a flexible, neutral integrated operating platform. Thats the holy grail, and until it happens, the benefits of Asset Intelligence in defense and security will likely be sub-optimized.
Deloitte Debate
For further information about this debate, please contact: Doug Standley Principal Deloitte Consulting LLP Technology Innovation Service Line Leader dstandley@deloitte.com David Rader Executive Vice President Frito-Lay (Retired) Peter Cuviello Director Deloitte Consulting LLP pcuviello@deloitte.com
Related Insight: Signal Strength Deloitte Review article about the rise and promise of asset intelligence. Asset Intelligence: Wake-Up Your Value Chain On Your Terms Listen to the Dbriefs Webcast replay. Depth Percetion: Asset Intelligence Do you have depth perception? Get our take on Asset Intelligence, 1 of 12 technology trends shaping business and IT today. Technology Innovation: Top Down or Bottom Up? Explore the Debate.
Related Content: Library: Deloitte Debates Services: Consulting Industries: Consumer Products and Oil and Gas
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