If you can't lead change, your company cannot succeed. The rate and types of change that success requires continue to expand.

Digital Transformation is a buzzword, but more importantly it is a genuine requirement of any manufacturing business that will succeed over the next several years.

Imagine the manufacturer that considered electricity an irrelevant newfangled technology. Imagine the manufacturer that considered computers an irrelevant newfangled technology. The same fate will befall those who consider digital capabilities and the power of data to be irrelevant to their businesses.

Transformation means a fundamental change; it does not mean baby steps. Pursuing a digital transformation of your manufacturing business will fundamentally change how you operate, how work is done, the products you offer, and how you interact with customers and suppliers.

It is important to begin by getting your arms around large categories of your business operations and how instantaneous access to the right information at the right time and place will be transformational.

A few examples include (a) machine health (b) connected employees (c) smart products and (d) end-to-end supply chain.

You already try to take care of your equipment, generally via gages and preventative maintenance. You already try to provide information to your employees, but too often involve delays and insufficient facts. You already try to develop good products, but overlook the power of knowing how those products are being used and how they are performing could have on product improvements and true innovation. You already try to stay on top of incoming deliveries and outgoing shipments, but continue to be surprised by failures of the supply chain system.

Digital transformation can fundamentally change all of those aspects of your business, and more. If you can imagine it, likely digital can help you attain it with current and evolving technologies.