Maintenance Mindset: What separates successful digital transformation projects from the rest?
Welcome to Maintenance Mindset, our editors’ takes on things going on in the worlds of manufacturing and asset management that deserve some extra attention. This will appear regularly in the Member’s Only section of the site.
For a few years now, success in industrial digital transformation initiatives has been the exception rather than the rule. A 2021 McKinsey report pegged the success rate at 31%, and this stat has evolved into conventional wisdom for any companies hesitant to explore what digitization might do for them.
However, things might be changing, as a new Gartner survey indicates that up to 48% of digital initiatives meet or exceed business outcome targets. I refuse to feel dismay over the failure rate -- instead, to me, this new survey represents sizable progress since 2021, a 50% increase in the number of people reporting success.
In addition, Gartner's VP of research Raf Gelders identifies a subset of respondents who report that 71% of their digital initiatives meet or exceed outcome targets. These respondents stand out from the rest in a key way: CIOs and CxOs co-own digital delivery. “CIOs and CxOs are equally responsible, accountable and involved in delivering the digital solutions their enterprises need," says Gelders. "This is a radical departure from the traditional paradigm of IT delivery and business ‘project sponsorship’ that predominates in most enterprises.”
It's also a radical departure from the time when maintenance teams were seen solely as a cost center. Best in class organizations treat reliability and maintenance as equal partners with other internal teams, as our October roundup of PdM success stories makes clear. The majority of these seven stories (and one analyst take) focus on how AI, machine learning, mobility and the cloud continue to change the way industrial maintenance is planned and executed. None of this would be successful without IT and the C suite partnering equally with operations and maintenance.
Also in October, three leading system integrators joined Plant Services for a roundtable on the changes they have observed in industry over the past 10 years, and what the future holds. All three integrators belong to CSIA member organizations and had a lot to say about the ways that digitization is helping plant operations continue to function in the face of a widespread skills gap. Check out the full roundtable below for even more advice on how you can drive digital success in your own organization.
