Digitalization has been the talk of the Control System Integrators Association (CSIA) for several years. In 2023, GE Digital's Tim Ogden led a panel discussion with Patti Engineering's Sam Hoff, Triad Control Systems' Nigel James, GreyLogix Brasil founder/CEO Renato Leal and Rain Engineering's Don Rahrig about digital transformation during the CSIA Conference. In 2024, Dr. Brian Romano, director of technology development at Arthur G. Russell (AGR), and an ISA fellow, joined Hoff, Leal and Ogden for a panel-discussion update.
This year, Titus Crabb, president, Vertech Industrial Systems, and Jim Gillespie, co-founder and chief growth officer at GrayMatter, joined Romano and Leal on a panel moderated by George Young, vice president, global digital and cybersecurity services, Rockwell Automation, to discuss real-world experiences with digital transformation.
Undertaking digital projects takes a bit of courage, a lot of practical knowledge and a solid relationship with the client. Many things can go wrong, but clear understanding enables trust.
A lot depends on the customer and the customer’s progress or maturity. “Sometimes you have to say no, if they’re not ready for it,” explained Romano. “It’s important to know where your customer is.”
Vertech takes its role as technology practitioners seriously. “It’s incremental, and it’s a partnership,” said Crabb. “If you define digital transformation as using technology to improve organizations, new technologies are coming out at such a rapid pace. Digital transformation is not a miracle, and that’s where people get a bitter taste in their mouth. It can’t possibly deliver if there’s no organizational change management that goes with it.”
Crabb recalled partnering with a consultant that did lean consulting for a brewery. “In the end, this brewery was facing a decision to expand, even though they were landlocked, and facing a multimillion-dollar capital project at another brewery,” he noted. “It turned out they didn’t need to expand.” The brewery was able to rearrange its plant and double production without expanding.
A strong partnership can lead to innovative solutions, but a customer with stringent unrealistic demands can create unreachable goals. “Two or three years ago, we did a monolith project,” added Crabb. “The company came to us with a big RFP at a fixed price. Their staff changed, and the project changed over time.” The project failed with at least three different companies that decided to take on the challenge.
“People can trust us to deliver an automation system,” assured Crabb. “We understand the digital-transformation tools. We want to engage with the customer, and, if they don’t have a technology platform in place, then we can help them to establish a technology platform. We want to be their technology delivery partner.”
Young emphasized the emotional level of the client. “Oftentimes, the best proposal frequently loses because you don’t have the personal relationship,” he noted. “If you get the client satisfaction, you have an executive on your side for life. And you’re probably going to do a stream of projects that will be financially and personally rewarding.”
Get your subscription to Control Design’s daily newsletter.
At GreyLogix Brasil, keeping a dedicated team focused on new projects is important. “We have a New Ventures team,” said Leal. “There’s an investment curve, and there’s a learning curve. This team is apart from other teams.”
The heart of any digital transformation is data. It aids in making better production and business decisions. And it drives and feeds the digital twin.
“I’m teaching at two local universities,” said Romano. “One has a graduate class in Industry 4.0. You’re bringing information from the floor to the enterprise and to the supplier. When you’re tying information together, you have to look at machines from the 1980s and 1990s. If you leave those out, you leave half the story out. You need to make modifications to those machines.”
There are four or five ways to define a digital twin, explained Romano, who suggested that an organization like CSIA has the opportunity and the ability to standardize terms like “digital transformation” and “digital twin” and eliminate any confusion over semantics.
“CSIA can play an important part for raising the tide for all system integrators,” added Leal.
Everyone dreams of the ideal project that is rewarding mentally and financially. Leal’s dream project involves IT and OT holding hands. “Everybody is happy together from beginning to end,” he explained. “The customer is co-creating with us. And we have a solution that keeps adding value month after month, so you’re able to continue charging like Netflix.”
Many things can go wrong and take the wind out of the sails, cautioned Gillespie. The ideal project will have strong executive-level sponsorship. One customer wanted an airport type of display in the factory, with information visible to everyone. “It changed them from an opinion-based culture to a data-driven culture,” said Gillespie.
