At present, digital transformation has entered the stage of large-scale landing. As a major group of enterprises with great innovation and development vitality, smes are distributed in all aspects of the industrial chain and supply chain. They are the main force of digital transformation and an important force to promote the large-scale implementation of digital transformation. However, for the majority of smes, digital transformation still faces many challenges: limited investment, insufficient knowledge reserves, lack of talent… How to make small and medium-sized enterprises more rapid, convenient and efficient transformation? Based on practical experience, Siemens believes that collaborative and progressive digital transformation is a visible and tangible path for the majority of small and medium-sized enterprises.

Progressive digital transformation emphasizes top-level design

The high investment threshold is often an important factor that dissuades small and medium-sized enterprises. The externalization of this is the high sensitivity of smes to price when purchasing digital solutions, but in my opinion, smes are not sensitive to “price”, the accurate understanding should be sensitive to “value”, they pay more attention to the input-output ratio. Therefore, the gradual digital transformation that emphasizes small jogging and step-by-step implementation is a good solution to the one-time capital investment problem of smes. In the process of digital transformation, smes can select the required functions according to their own situation, break down the transformation into different stages and modules, focus on key links, “focus”, “seize the first”, in order to quickly enjoy the dividends of digitalization.

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However, this does not mean that progressive digital transformation is just a “single point breakthrough”, and the overall top-level design is more important. Digital transformation requires not just a single function, but a range of functions. These different digital components need to be based on an IT base to ensure interoperability. Therefore, smes need to outline the digital transformation blueprint in advance, do a good top-level design, and integrate the concept of connectivity into the transformation blueprint to ensure that the components and modules in the future enterprise are interoperable. Taking the industrial field as an example, Siemens is currently driven by the concept of interconnection to realize that all controller data can be read through international standard interfaces, and strive to complete the interface reading target based on national standards. When it comes to the interconnection between different software, I think it can be deployed under the cloud architecture based on common problems, and the cloud can solve the interconnection problems of different development versions and development platforms. Looking at the development of the industrial Internet in recent years, we have reason to believe that software on the cloud can achieve connectivity requirements through microservice development.

Siemens can provide customers with modular digitalization solutions based on a holistic technology framework to address the core pain points of smes at different stages according to their specific needs. This technology framework is scalable to ensure the sustainability of the digital transformation of enterprises in the future. In the implementation phase, on the one hand, Siemens will help enterprises dismantle their needs, highlight the core priorities, and let customers experience the dividends brought by the transformation of key links; On the other hand, Siemens is also committed to optimizing the delivery process, reducing delivery costs, bringing a better service experience to customers, and helping enterprises accelerate their digital transformation.

For the production link, Siemens is also committed to realizing management digitization and management visualization based on the overall technology framework to help the digital transformation of production enterprises. Taking practical application cases as an example, Siemens helps an auto parts enterprise to realize the digitalization and visualization of production quality management, and establishes a whole-process quality traceability system for it in stages and steps by using digital solutions and digital technologies, which can comprehensively monitor and manage the production process, thus improving product quality and production efficiency. In the first phase of the project, Siemens implemented work order management and product quality traceability management of the core workshop to ensure the controllability and traceability of the core process production process. In the second stage, integration with SAP (work order integration and material data integration) was realized, and product quality traceability management of other workshops in the whole plant was increased, which improved the degree of informatization of the enterprise. At the same time, in order to meet the future production management needs of this customer, Siemens added equipment management, mold management and other solutions to the future implementation blueprint to ensure future interoperability, reliability and stability.