Four Digitalisation Pitfalls to Avoid
Digitalisation goes wrong in predictable ways, and I hear the same four traps again and again. This piece names them: the urgency trap, the attention trap, the moving train trap, and the IT/OT silo trap. For each one I give you the way out.
Digitizing your metalworking factory can improve efficiency and save time and money, but only if it is prepared and executed properly.
I wrote about this before:
I wrote about this before:
Done wrong, it wastes time and creates errors. You end up with more digital systems instead of an integrated solution.
So how do you avoid the typical pitfalls? Here are the top four I hear.
1. The urgency trap
"There are more important matters right now. It can wait."
With a large digitization project, the finish line is hard to see.
Enthusiasm runs high at first, then fades as other priorities take hold.
Unfinished projects steal your focus, and at worst they destroy capital. All the time and effort is lost if the solution never reaches the end users.
The usual cause is that the project stops feeling urgent, and that comes from mismanaged expectations.
Build or buy in a hurry and you introduce more problems than you solve. Start a project to solve a real problem, not to chase a shiny thing.
2. The attention trap
"It can be done in between."
Digitization gets squeezed into the daily whirlwind of tasks. Staff feel overwhelmed, juggling small pieces of it.
Like urgency, the work gets underestimated. Change is hard, and anything meaningful means learning new things.
Staff are not used to the technology and have no time to figure it out. The solution provider needs input, but there is no internal clarity on how it should work.
The team needs time they do not have.
Worse, rushing leads to mistakes when employees push through without doing it carefully.
Projects squeezed in like this get stuck, fail, or get cancelled. Plan for them.
3. The moving train trap
"We should just get started."
Too often, projects start without a clear understanding of what is needed or what impact they make.
Software is bought off a quick demo. Machines are bought to cover a capacity gap. Training is booked. Only then does anyone ask how it all connects.
The result: wrong solutions bought, machines that don't talk to the software, training run for the wrong staff, integrations stuck on legacy connections.
Now you have to figure it out in the moment, wasting time and money on work you should never have needed.
Take the time to see and understand the process you are digitalising first. A good transformation starts with a blueprint.
4. The IT / OT silo trap
"Bob takes care of that, he knows the most about IT stuff."
Digitization is software and processes. Real digital transformation touches the office, the shop floor, and IT management.
It starts from an IT perspective, but it has to align with how people and systems actually work day to day.
Get this wrong and staff get frustrated using the new system, and the whole project can fail.
The cause is treating business processes, the shop floor, and IT systems as separate, when they are interconnected and should help each other.
The people who need the improvement and the people who build the solution speak different languages, so you get misunderstandings and siloed information.
The way out is to involve every stakeholder, then give one process champion the final call. That can be your internal manager or an independent expert.
The point is
To avoid these pitfalls you need a good plan, built and run in a structured way. That starts with good preliminary research.
