The term “digital transformation” appeared in the 2000s but was then restricted to the simple notion of “digitisation” that was then made possible by the emergence of digital media. Today, the term “digital transformation” describes a proactive approach by the company to integrate the opportunities offered by technological innovations in the development of its activities and its skills, i.e. its human capital.
A mode of governance
A digital transformation can only work if a governance structure is put in place and if it is driven by management capable of instilling a vision for the entire company. Modern management is looking at a new way of deploying projects by leaving more autonomy to the teams and accepting a test and learn approach in order to continually challenge itself.
Since 2012, the digital transformation of the Bosch Mondeville site has been underway in the areas of connected production, connected logistics and, more recently, Big Data and AI. i4.0 governance within the group and the division guides (via a Top-Down/Bottom-up strategy) the standardisation of i4.0 technologies and the pooling of resources for their implementation in the plants. In fact, the first three years of the development of the i4.0 strategy resulted in multiple cases of use within the plants at the initiative of each department. Then came the time for the pooling and standardisation of use cases across the entire product value chain. Finally, the standardisation of i4.0 solutions is carried out with the help of a global governance at the division, which validates pilot projects in the plants and deploys them in parallel in all plants.
This synergy created at group level is replicated locally at the Bosch Mondeville site via the IT Student Incubator.
The digitalisation of working methods and processes in industry: creation of the Student Incubator
The IT Student Incubator is a service and workspace dedicated to the study, development and implementation of standard or local i4.0 solutions. Made up of young apprentices and trainees from different fields and supervised by experienced tutors, it contributes to the success of the i4.0 strategy in three areas:
- Acceleration of inter-departmental collaboration on PoCs (proof of concepts) and i4.0 projects.
- Dynamics and mindset of innovation and flexibility without compromising on the quality of deliverables
- Pool of new talent trained in agile project management methods
The synergy created through the IT Student Incubator enables the development of innovative solutions to meet the needs of plant process improvement, particularly in the areas of traceability and data visualisation. It also makes it possible to pursue the production workshop’s paperless strategy, which enables faster data feedback and improves the responsiveness of the support services.
PLS: an innovative technological brick to support manufacturing 4.0
Pocket Line Services (PLServices), an application in place since 2012 at Bosch Mondeville, which contributed to the i4.0 debut at the site, notably through its Alert call (automatic call of maintenance technicians), incident reporting, production declaration and TPM management functionalities, has undergone a complete overhaul to meet two expectations:
- An obsolescence of our equipment: the terminals used in the workshop are no longer in the distributors’ catalogue.
- Software obsolescence: the application used to run on Windows Mobile, an environment that is now obsolete with regard to the technologies that have appeared since 2012.
In order to overcome the hardware and software obsolescence of this application, the Student Incubator has established a benchmark of industrial terminals and developed a new version of PLServices since February 2020 in collaboration with the process owners on the business side.
The result is a new version of the PLServices platform that is much more powerful, more functional and more ergonomic.
At Bosch Mondeville, we at Bosch Mondeville are doing everything possible to make our digital transformation a success.
*https://www.usinenouvelle.com/editorial/trophee-de-l-ingenieur-du-digital-2020-gontran-pic-la-microelectronique-pour-sentir-le-monde.N1031834
