the executive’s guide to multi-site optimization change

Digital manufacturing

The executive’s guide to multi-site optimization change managementHow to turn your company’s digital plant pilots into full-network, multi-region programs.

Struggling to digitalize all of your sites? (You’re not alone!)

Many organizations have implemented smart factory pilot projects here and there. But if they’re to secure the full potential of digital technologies in manufacturing, most of them have more to do: Digitalize many, if not all of their sites. Connect them with each other. And then optimize planning, scheduling, operations and automation across all of them.

2 The executive’s guide to multi-site optimization change management

Doing so, however, will be a huge challenge for all these companies: The majority of the world’s manufacturing sites are run as independent businesses, with dedicated management, specialized operations, and proprietary IT infrastructures—and they all have to comply with different national and sometimes even local regulatory systems.

Recognizing all the separate plans involved, it should be no surprise that people-related challenges are one of the top reasons that digital transformations fail.

So, can the 43% of companies who are currently pursuing a multi-site digitalization effort hope to see success?1 Can the many manufacturing organizations that have implemented smart factory pilot programs, but struggle to scale them across their entire network, realize the full benefit of their investment?

We know they can. After briefly describing and putting in perspective the benefits of multi-site implementations, we will discuss the people challenge of implementing technology across an organization and ways to overcome it. We will then share our insights into the how: best practices for scoping, planning, shaping and successfully driving such efforts.

1 Recent Accenture Executive Survey 2021


Clarifying the business case: Why push for multi-site?

Let’s first review the reasons why manufacturers should consider digitalizing and manufacturing entire factory networks. In a nutshell: Multi-site efforts can exponentially increase the benefits that come with digitalizing a single plant.


Embedding Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity, cloud computing, analytics and machine learning in not just one or two, but several dozens or even hundreds of sites can boost a manufacturer’s overall productivity, quality, flexibility and safety for the entire enterprise. That’s why 64% of company leaders say they are prioritizing fast-and flexible, remote- and autonomous-enabled multi-site production to enhance operational resilience.2

One of the world’s leading chemical companies is targeting $300 million in annual EBITDA improvements through accelerating digital transformation across innovation, ecommerce and manufacturing. However, this focus on financial improvement is just one of the potential benefits from a digital optimization project.

The company reports that accelerating digital transformation will increase its efficiency, improve customer experience and drive breakthrough growth. Examples of these digital optimization benefits include: Enhanced global dynamic data visibility, integrating multi-source data for intuitive decision making, increased safety and operational efficiency and faster speed to market with increased use of digital collaboration platforms.

Most clients that are pushing for multi-site optimization right now are also seeking to achieve a variety of benefits. Accenture research indicates that there’s a clear consensus among executives about how delivering such results is critical for competitiveness and even economic viability in the mid and long-term. Among the issues they’re trying to resolve and the objectives they’re pursuing by digitalizing and connecting their factories are:

• Increasing the flexibility and resilience of complex supply chains (the criticality of which has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis)

• Increasing capital efficiency, productivity and reliability of output (forecast accuracy, process capability, plan attainment and customer satisfaction)

• Meeting new objectives around non-financial performance with product and operating value chains (especially in areas like sustainability and social responsibility)

• Improved employee satisfaction and engagement in enhancing the business and shortened communication and learning cycles across complex global networks2 Accenture Research Survey 2021


The five key challenges project sponsors should expectThe conversations we have during project inquiries and discovery workshops make it very clear that many organizations struggle to scale their single-site smart factory pilot projects into multi-site, multi-region efforts— and for compelling reasons.

Effective multi-site, multi-region programs require careful planning and execution—both of which should start with a thorough review of the barriers that must be overcome. There are some common challenges that organizations face when trying to scale their smart factory pilots into multi-site solutions, many of which can be grouped into distinct categories that are imperative for leadership to understand, think through, and mitigate—all while ensuring that site operations continue to run without interruptions.


The five types of challenges are:

Organizational silos

Manufacturing plants are typically profit centers run by dedicated management teams. And these teams pursue their own objectives, have their own budgets and make their own decisions around site-specific operating models. This means that in almost every case, multi-site programs will trigger some conflicts between the global corporate organization and their sites. Plus, they might also incite some rivalries among sites, e.g., for funding, or site prioritization within the rollout plan.

Strategy challenges

Because of this silo issue, multi-site programs must be built around a strategy which delivers value to all stakeholders (corporate, groups of sites within a specific market or country, as well as individual sites). This means that executives must think about stakeholder-specific value propositions and business cases very early on. If they don’t, and we’ve seen this happen many times, they will inevitably create strategies and plans which will be met with resistance at the execution phase.

Infrastructure issues

Manufacturing plants usually run their own information technology and operational technology infrastructures that tend to vary from one site to another. Even worse, they are often incompatible with each other, creating additional challenges.

Operational issues

Sites need to continue running production to meet their ever-increasing targets. As a result, changes must be made instantaneously while operations are moving at a rapid pace. Because of the technology involved in multi-site optimization projects, production will often be impacted during implementation. For example, the addition of IoT sensors can halt production lines for as long as two weeks. By anticipating and planning for this type of learning curve challenge, companies can do a better job of mitigating production downtime.

Implementation disconnect

Implementing and scaling digital transformation projects is different than other change initiatives undertaken in manufacturing facilities. The transformation objective is determined by an organization’s leaders, but the solution is complex and is therefore in the hands of engineering and not the frontline employees whose jobs will be impacted daily. These frontline teams often do not have the full picture of the solution and its proposed benefits. The end users will generally be disconnected from the transformation goal. This disconnect is what leads to failure, increased costs and frustration in the scaling process.


Eyes WIDE open for digital clarityNo matter what industry your business may be in, digital tools and processes can help it become more efficient and resilient. However, it can be a challenge to find these tools and to determine the best time to implement them. Fortunately, Accenture has developed the WIDE framework that features six steps to successfully picking the most valuable and rewarding digital projects.

Successful digital project selection lays the foundation for successful digital transformation. By adopting the WIDE framework, companies can guarantee that they only launch the very best projects. And they can ensure their company takes the necessary steps to enable transformation planning and become future-proofed:

Establish a forumSet up a “show and tell” forum for partners to present their project ideas. Once you’ve amassed enough projects, take them through the stage-gate funding process and check they pass the thresholds for more funding.

Stay the distanceWhen reviewing projects, focus on the “distance to value” and the “ease to cover the distance.” Determine how much money, work, and equipment the project requires.

Look far and WIDEAfter compiling your project list, use the WIDE criteria to create a priority shortlist. Make sure you pick projects with the highest WIDE scores.

Filter for high valueAfter creating a project shortlist, sort it again by filtering for high value. Think about pain-point relevancy and the overall business value. At Accenture, we use Net Present Value (NVP) as a value indicator plus the ease of implementation.

Execute and scalePick digital projects that you can execute and scale the quickest; projects that you can take from pilot to viable project and then the program stage the easiest.

Measure and validateContinuously measure and validate all WIDE ratings and presumptions plus overall value. Digital initiatives can offer more value than initially expected. However, companies may struggle to capture that value. Therefore, it’s vital that the value is identified, managed, and captured as it appears.


https://www.accenture.com/us-en/blogs/industry-digitization/how-to-pick-the-right-digital-projects-for-your-company

A three-step roadmap to help your team win

The change management approach to successfully deploy a multi-site optimization program requires special planning and implementation. To change people, processes and communication, and to ensure a smooth delivery on the technology side, the following three steps should be followed:

Step 1: Engage

Step 2: Contextualize and communicate

Step 3: Stabilize


Digital transformation programs often encounter resistance and opposition that is solved with communication and inclusion. The key in the adoption process is the perceived relevance of the objective and solutions to the target sites. Engagement allows leaders to structure and drive early communication among an organization’s sites. Understanding employees’ specific needs and operational challenges through engagement increases the success rate of the transformation process. For example, a client implementing a global digital transformation program expressed concern that the solutions being brought to their facilities garnered a level of rejection. This opposition didn’t come about because of the technical solutions or because the various facilities didn’t want to share in the cost of the deployment. Resistance occurred because site leaders and other employees didn’t understand the relevance of a centrally developed solution to their operational challenges (and therefore could not justify the cost).

Adoption challenges should be mitigated early in the process through the engagement. This significantly increases the expediency and success of adoption

Step 1: Engage


It is important to see digital transformation as a more significant endeavor than the simple optimization of a set of operating processes with minor tweaks to the operating model. Contextualization is seeing the transformation for what it is: A deep alteration of the organization’s effectiveness model to produce a major step change in performance. This means that processes, people, management systems, leadership methods (including shop floor leadership) and technology will need to adapt. The concerted adjustments produce the cultural change necessary to provide many years of benefits from today’s investment. Change is about empathy, which is why intense communication efforts to connect with the facilities and ensure that the program is understood is a vital part of any successful transformation. Business transformations involve creating momentum, producing results and realizing growth. Multi-site optimizations are no different. The change management process must place employees’ hearts front and center along with their minds.


The reality is that every organization with enough money or ability to borrow can acquire the same production equipment and technology that yours can. However, what leaders often fail to recognize is the importance of an investment that can turn human resources into a true competitive advantage.


On “contextualizing” multi-site efforts The contextualizing process is helping a growing number of clients in the manufacturing, resources and utilities industries to deliver successful multi-site project efforts.

Here are the technical components:


Prep and ClusterFirst, group sites with similar traits and technology stacks to facilitate the creation of customized, but scalable use case and work packages. Create clusters at the division level and rely on hard data to categorize each site; interview site managers to hear about their objectives, issues, etc.

TemplatizeCreate templates for operational and technology changes for each cluster, which balances the needs of each individual site with the need for standardization. The content of each template will differ depending on the clusters’ requirements. Start with basic capabilities (e.g., connectivity) and save the complex parts for later.

ValidateOnce you have concrete templates to discuss, go back to the sites’ plant managers and “pitch” the templates with them. Hear their feedback and objections, and then decide which templates to revise to incorporate these inputs.

PackagePrepare everything that you’ll need to roll out necessary changes in each cluster, including the specific technologies and operational procedures, based on the templates developed in the prior step.


Organization Effectiveness Model

Source: “6,000 Dreams: The Leader’s Guide To A Successful Business Transformation Journey,” by Edwin Bosso. Published by ForbesBooks, 2020.

The first two steps strongly position organizations to achieve the maximum benefits from the transformation. Of course, this needs to be supported by the competent delivery on the technology side, which is part of the stabilization phase. Stabilization has two goals: The first is to integrate newly adopted technology and implemented process changes into the operating model. The second is to resolve technical glitches and facilitate training for sustainable results. During stabilization, ancillary changes in the management system, work processes, leadership and managerial routines are executed to stay in balance with the technology progress and reinforce the culture (as illustrated on the right).

Through training and coaching cycles, this ensures the transformation is complete. Stabilization also involves assessing whether the targeted financial impacts have been achieved or will be attained going forward. Finally, routines are established to continue to support reaching the transformation’s full benefits.

Step 3: Stabilize

Culture

Leadership

Managementsystems

Organizationstructure

People

Technology

Workprocesses


Set your sights on multi-site!All of this shouldn’t prevent executives from thoroughly reviewing and selecting all possible implementation projects, though—prioritization exercises should always be held.

Most organizations recognize the importance of digitization and have already set up smart factory pilot programs. But many are struggling with the challenges that come with scaling single-site or small-group efforts which is exactly where opportunity lies.


By utilizing the advice and tips outlined in this article, organizations can overcome the challenges that come with multi-site optimization. Driving a truly successful multi-site effort can create a competitive advantage that will position your company for success. And with a site-centric, but multi-site approach like the previously outlined above, building this advantage shouldn’t just be possible, but also probable.

So why not set your company’s sights on scale today for a brighter tomorrow?


About the authors

Edwin Bosso is the founder of Myrtle Consulting Group, a consultancy specializing in transformation and change management, and now part of Accenture. A specialist in operations improvement and change management, Edwin has spent the last 25 years delivering results for clients including Kellogg, AB InBev, Abbott, Morton Salt, Heineken, and T-Mobile, among others. He’s also the published author of a book on corporation-wide change: “6,000 Dreams: The Leader’s Guide To A Successful Business Transformation Journey” (published by ForbesBooks).

Maikel van Verseveld leads the “Dynamic Manufacturing and Operations” business within Accenture’s Industry X group, where he advises major corporations on their multi-site digitalization efforts. An experienced consultant and operator, Maikel has spent time both as a strategy and technology advisor to the energy, manufacturing, and resources industries, and as a chief executive officer in the utilities sector (he served as the CEO of German energy services group OMNETRIC, a Siemens company).

Edward Benning is a Managing Director within Accenture’s Industry X group, where he’s responsible for the group’s Digital Manufacturing & Operations business in the Netherlands. In his role, Edward advises major resources and manufacturing clients on the digital transformation of their sites and operations in (and across) Europe. Before stepping into his current role, Edward served as the Smart Grid & Security Integration EMEA lead for OMNETRIC group, a Siemens company.

Contact us

Edwin BossoManaging Director – Industry X

[email protected]

Maikel van VerseveldManaging Director – Industry X, Digital Manufacturing & Operations, Global Lead, Technology

[email protected]

Edward Benning Managing Director – Industry X, Digital Manufacturing & Operations

[email protected]


https://www.linkedin.com/in/edwin-bosso

https://nl.linkedin.com/in/maikelvanv

https://nl.linkedin.com/in/edwardbenning

About Accenture

Accenture is a global professional services company with leading capabilities in digital, cloud and security. Combining unmatched experience and specialized skills across more than 40 industries, we offer Strategy and Consulting, Interactive, Technology and Operations services—all powered by the world’s largest network of Advanced Technology and Intelligent Operations centers. Our 624,000 people deliver on the promise of technology and human ingenuity every day, serving clients in more than 120 countries. We embrace the power of change to create value and shared success for our clients, people, shareholders, partners and communities. Visit us at www.accenture.com.

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the executive’s guide to multi-site optimization change

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