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How can you maximise the capabilities of digital technologies, and ensure that all stakeholders are on board too?

It all comes down to your leadership style and truly championing the tools available to you.

However, it is unlikely that this approach will come naturally to you.

There are very specific steps that should be considered as a manufacturing leader when leading digital transformation.

Here is a quick guide that will start you on your journey to becoming a highly effective, digitally informed, empowered leader and know how to prepare and lead your business to make the most of opportunities that digital transformation can offer.

Step 1: Learn from others

Never  underestimate the value of your team and ideas they may have.  especially if they share the same business vision. Other people offer a different perspective on any given situation, sharing ideas and ways in which to problem solve and best approach critical and non-critical problems. It is highly likely they will have or are facing, their own obstacles when it comes to digital transformation. By collaborating you will learn not only how they dealt with challenges , but how they spotted opportunities and uncovered best practices along the way.

On top of this, you can take comfort in the knowledge that you are not alone in your efforts to digitalise business efficiencies and processes. A sense of isolation is often a barrier and it is a very common misconception that other businesses are further along in their digital journey. Across the current SME landscape there are many leaders who are at the very beginning of their journey and will be faced with challenges and struggles and looking outwards for support.

Step 2: Visit businesses that are already on their digital journey

The opportunity to visit or network with other manufacturers who are already on their journey can be incredibly valuable. You will be able to see how they've transformed and learn from their successes and setbacks. 

This will also give you the chance to see technology in action, be it early implementation or fully embedded digitalisation and automation and the positive impact on the processes of these SMEs. This also gives the opportunity to talk to business leaders directly, understanding the specific procedures they chose to focus on. You will also be able to see the practicalities and struggles of their wider team.

Depending on the business site you visit, you may also be able to see how it integrates digital tools into its sustainability strategy.

Step 3: Apply effective tools and techniques

There are various leadership tools and techniques you can use which are grounded in experience and results. These will ultimately help you create a practical pathway to adopting digital technology and ensuring your team does too.

There are tools that help you to take a holistic view of your business and review your strategic priorities. Other tools can give you a sense of your current digital maturity and others can help you identify and evaluate opportunities where digital technologies could help you improve your business processes. Tools that help you manage change and get your people on board can help you to implement digital projects. You can combine these tools to identify opportunities that align with your strategic priorities and decide which processes to start with as you move towards digital transformation.

Introducing a Performance Measurement Tool is key to make sure that you are measuring all the relevant aspects of your digitalisation project where it is adding value to your business and capturing this data for future analysis and optimisation.

Step 4: Take a ‘test and learn’ approach to managing digital transformation projects

Rather than going full steam ahead, take the time to carry out ideas in a test environment and review the results using sprint methodologies projects. This will enable you to build a guiding team to realise the benefits this could bring to the business whilst also increasing employee engagement.

This step will also allow you to correctly identify the processes to digitalise in the first instance, how you will overcome the initial hurdles to implementing technology, and then evaluate how specific stages have progressed. You can then look beyond financial gain when assessing performance and clearly see how much further along you are on your digital journey.

 

Step 5: Look for expert help

Getting access to the expertise to help you learn how to use these various tools and techniques doesn’t have to be difficult. In the North West, Made Smarter’s Leading Digital Transformation (LDT) programme has been designed for manufacturing leaders to be flexible, high impact and easy to fit around your busy schedules.

Delivered in partnership with Manchester Metropolitan University (Manchester Met), this blend of face-to-face workshops and online webinars, delivered across three months will support you to build a strategy with the confidence to incorporate digital transformation into your future vision and growth plans and the skills to lead digital transformation in your business effectively.

The programme includes:

Culture Survey
Your workforce and your culture are so crucial for making digital transformation successful, but identifying the role staff play, along with the right technologies, can be tough. A culture survey at the start of the programme, enables delegates to gain real perspectives from their team about their readiness for digital transformation.

Peer network and peer learning
Our programme brings together SME leaders to work in group discussions. Leaders all on a similar trajectory and with very similar challenges. Members from our previous cohorts have shared their experiences, challenges and insights; visited each other’s premises and formed close bonds that have continued beyond the end of the programme.

Workshops, webinars and practical application of academic tools
Delivered by Manchester Met and Lily Newman, founder of Morgan James Consulting Ltd, the workshops and webinars take a holistic view of your business and help you identify and prioritise any actions based on understanding your current state and reviewing your opportunities linked to your strategic priorities.

Topics include ‘Reviewing your strategic objectives’, ‘Leading Change’, 'Opportunity Mapping’, ‘Managing Change and Measuring Value’, ‘Engaging Stakeholders’ and ‘Making it happen’.

They cover all the academic tools and techniques you need, presented as a set of practical tools to help you to draft your strategy, effectively adopt digital technologies and successfully lead digital transformation in your business.

SME Case studies and Site visits to see digital transformation in action
The programme includes case studies from SME manufacturers who are already on their digital transformation journey, where you will get the opportunity to hear lived experiences and ask questions of the leaders who share their case studies.

There is also a visit to PrintCity, Manchester Met’s 3D additive and digital manufacturing centre, one of several technology demonstrators Made Smarter partners with.

If you want to become a manufacturing leader in digital technologies and finally start to make your processes smarter.

Register to find out about Made Smarter and the leadership programme here. 

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