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FMA Annual Meeting Recap: Digital transformation in the fab shop

Breaking down 5 keys to help metal fabricators successfully up their technology game

Digital transformation

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Editor's Note: This is the fifth part of our FMA Annual Meeting Recap blog series. Check out the Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.

Steel producers are upping their technology game, and so of course are metal fabricators. Machine toolmakers at the 2021 FMA Virtual Annual Meeting described the latest in automation, including automated part offloading, automatic tool changes at the press brake, and seamless integration of cutting and bending.

Even so, many technology investments fall short of expectations, especially when it comes to what speaker Paul Vragel called the “digital transformation” during his "5 Keys Steps for Successful Ongoing Digital Transformation" session. Vragel is president of Evanston, Ill.-based 4aBetterBusiness Inc., a consultancy that helps manufacturers navigate the range of technological advancements that could either profoundly improve a company’s profitability or simply fizzle into nothing.

“Robotic processes, automation, customer self-service, internet of things, virtual reality, digital twins, machine learning, artificial intelligence, even large-scale business model changes can be part of the digital transformation,” Vragel said. “Digital transformation is less a specific item and more an entire category of things one might do in a company, depending on what is important.”

For a transformation to be successful, Vragel laid out the process in five steps. First, the technology needs to align with a business’s objectives. A technology, be it software or a new machine, might look incredibly sleek and extraordinarily productive, but if it doesn’t align with a fabricator’s business goals, all that productivity might not play a huge role in a company’s long-term success.

Second, people and processes need to be addressed. “Research has shown that between 50% and 80% of digital transformation failures occurred because people and process issues had not been addressed,” Vragel said. “The people who do the work are closest to the work.”

Processes might be documented, but that documentation might lack detail or simply not reflect the reality of what’s really happening on the shop floor. “Understanding and addressing processes also allows you to eliminate wasted time and money,” Vragel explained. “And interestingly, as you do that and look into the processes, you identify wasted time and money. That in turn provides funding that you can use for acquiring technology.”

Buying technology immediately after process improvement can be jumping the gun, though. Here, Vragel described several more steps, two of which involve data collection: specifically, defining the data for monitoring control and improvement, and examining the source and quality of that data, including the way it’s organized, its format, the way it’s communicated, and its age and accuracy. “If you look at a chart and it doesn’t tell you what to do, then you’re not looking at the right data.”

Taking specific steps—aligning technology types with business objectives; understanding and addressing people and processes; defining the data for monitoring and improvement; and examining the source and quality of the data—builds a solid foundation for the final step: identifying specific technology that supports a company’s objectives.

Industry at an Inflection Point

Vragel touched on an underlying theme shared by many speakers at this year’s annual meeting: U.S. manufacturing, and metal fabrication in particular, might be at an inflection point. As manufacturing rockets out of its narrow-V recession, fabricators who watch the demands of the market, adapt, perfect their processes, and acquire technology in the right way—be it machinery, software, or both—build a solid foundation for what could be an unprecedented economic recovery. Judging from speaker insights, 2021 could be quite a ride.

Paul Vragel

Paul Vragel