“When you make a change to a process you have to enable your people to feel comfortable with that change.”

Luca Maccarini,

Head of Digital Corporate, A2A

 

Orchestrating the Perfect Day

Before it could change its workforce, A2A, an Italian utility company, had to learn to change itself.

With a portfolio that includes generating, distributing and marketing energy, distributing and marketing gas, water supply, waste management services, sustainable mobility and projects for smart cities, A2A is a very diversified company. Looking across the business, one will notice a wide range in how digitized a segment, service, or department is.

For example, why the traditionally ‘white collar’ office-based jobs are generally at the high-tech end of the spectrum, the more manual, ‘blue collar’ jobs remain predominately paper-based. Considering that nearly half the company’s workforce is employed in these blue collar business units, it should come as no surprise that this is where the company is focusing the bulk of its digitalization efforts.

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Clear a Hurdle

“Ideally, we want all our operators to have a smartphone with the apps they need to contribute to our business by providing data in a more efficient and streamlined way” says Luca Maccarini, Head of Digital Corporate at A2A.

But making this change is a bit more complicated than just handing out new smartphones. To succeed, it must first clear a hurdle called ‘company culture’.

“We are a company that does not like to make mistakes, so much so that we tend to avoid experimentation as that could lead to failure” adds Giampaolo Montemaggi, Head of Operational Excellence, Internal Communication and Change at A2A. “One thing we are working on, from a cultural perspective, is how we can create an environment that isn’t afraid to fail and thus open to change.”

In other words, how can A2A learn to change? According to Maccarini, the place to start is with the company’s people.“If you tell one of our operators working on the ground that they need to use a new digital system, they’ll likely ask ‘what for’,” explains Maccarini. “If you can’t answer this, if you can’t show the benefits, then the change will not happen.”

 

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A Single, Seamless Journey

To answer the ‘what for’, A2A has implemented a strategic framework for implementing digital change across the company. “Our strategy integrates digital transformation together with people management, with operational excellence, and with communication to create a single, seamless journey” says Montemaggi.

“When you make a change to a process you have to enable your people to feel comfortable with that change” adds Maccarini.

For A2A, this enablement meant starting at the beginning. After all, just three years ago, the company’s blue-collar workforce didn’t even have a digital identity – and it’s certainly hard to use digital platforms when one doesn’t have an email address to access those platforms.

“Look, just because someone is ‘blue collar’ doesn’t mean they are digitally naive – like everyone else, they use smartphones and tablets and other technologies daily” notes Montemaggi. “The challenge is to transfer this digital knowledge from the home to the job.”

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  “People are open to change, but change can’t happen in a vacuum, you, as a company, have to be ready to make the change too.”

concludes Maccarini

 

Towards the Factory of the Future

Here, A2A got a little creative. They created an app that employees can install on their own device and use for such practical tasks as checking their holiday time and submitting a request to stay home. By giving employees a very good reason to use a digital solution at work, the company laid the foundation for adding other digital solutions into the repertoire. As a result, when the A2A released an application for its urban hygiene processes, users were happy to embrace it, seeing how it could help reduce paperwork and, ultimately, make their job easier.

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“Regardless of how digital a company becomes, you cannot remove the human factor.”

 

Kyle Tansill,
Digital Manufacturing Solutions Architect, Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics

 

Revolution 4.0

At Saint-Gobain, which designs, manufactures and distributes materials and services for the construction and industrial markets, the Industry 4.0 revolution is just as much about people as it is about digital.

2018. That was the year the revolution started. “There was a lot of hype but also a lot of confusion” recalls Kyle Tansill who, as an automation engineer, was on the frontlines of Saint-Gobain’s Industry 4.0 revolution.

According to Tansill, who today serves as Digital Manufacturing Solutions Architect at Saint-Gobain Life Sciences, the spark that lit the digitalization fire was a spur of acquisitions. “Facing a low level of standardization for our machinery, we turned our focus to automation and connectivity” he says.

It was also a matter of bringing the company from the Paper Age into the Digital Age. “We got to work using Google Maps on our smartphone, but once we are there, we switch the phone for pen and paper,” explains Tansill.

However, as Tansill is quick to point out, the solution to this problem wasn’t as easy as replacing the pen and paper with tech and apps. Change is never so simple. “We brought in all these sexy tools and then we realized that while everyone knew we should be doing something with them, nobody actually knew what that something was,” he adds.

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Bridge a Disconnect

To bridge this digital disconnect, the company took a couple of steps back. They started with skills, ensuring that its people had basic automation skills. They also upgraded their PLCs and invested in automation infrastructure.

As a result, today Saint-Gobain is in a position where most of its strategic machinery features updated PLCs and some form of connectivity. Most importantly, its sites are staffed with people who understand automation.

“Our teams didn’t know what an industrial network was just a few years back” remarks Tansill. “Since then, they’ve developed the necessary skills, which puts us in a really strong position going forward.”

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Digitize Your Head

While going forward does mean increasing automation, it does not mean replacing people. “Regardless of how digital a company becomes, you cannot replace the human factor,” says Tansill.

So, how does one preserve that essential people component in a sector notorious for having a high turnover?

Somewhat ironically, the answer is digitalization.

“Turnover means more than just having to train new people, it also means constantly losing your company’s knowledge base” explains Tansill.

To help plug this leak, Saint-Gobain is in the process of digitizing its know- how. One approach being implemented involves utilizing data to establish standardized operating procedures for its machinery. This ensures that the operational steps are embedded within the machine itself, rather than relying on an individual’s memory or personal knowledge.

The company also decided to bring in a ringer. “We employed a top-level senior software engineer who was an incredibly talented Python developer and all-around software genius,” says Tansill.

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“I don’t even like the term Industry 4.0, believing it gives the false perception that one comes in, does digital, and then is done.”

Achieving the Goal of Performance

While the developer was only with the company for less than two years, his impact remains. “Having this developer allowed our automation developers to learn how to develop properly and then implement a proper continuous integration lifecycle and support system” adds Tansill.

We’d All Love to See the Plan

Over the course of six years, Saint-Gobain went from Industry 3.0 to Industry 4.0. Yet its journey is far from over. In fact, Tansill doesn’t even like the term Industry 4.0, believing it gives the false perception that one comes in, does digital, and then is done – which clearly is not the case.

“Digital shouldn’t be seen as the end but the means to achieving the goal of improved performance” says Tansill. “Whatever domain you’re working in, you need to accept that even though your expertise might be digital, you are just as responsible as everyone else for the company’s performance.”

Yet while Saint-Gobain’s digital transformation may be an ongoing work- in-progress, they do have the benefit of hindsight – meaning they can offer some sage advice for those just starting off on their journey.

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Having a Clear Plan is Key

“Do not start this journey without a clear plan of where the business is going” warns Tansill.

As Tansill explains, without a plan, you risk deploying technology for technology’s sake. “But with a well thought out roadmap, you can match technology to objective, ensuring that every investment gets results, improves performance and, ultimately, advances the company towards where it wants to be” he concludes.

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