Sustainable digitalization - a long way to go?

So CENIT is not limited in this approach or implementation. But where specifically do you see potential for development?
 

Martin Grunau: Today we have joint approaches to solutions, but also individual solutions in our respective business areas. Take for example the Digital Factory business unit with its solutions for automation and offline programming of robots, where there is a great deal of optimization potential for companies. The same applies to solutions by our Enterprise Information Management (EIM) colleagues with digitalization in the field of document management and analytics. We can find lots of examples in every area. The task would be to make these more visible as a first step. The second step is to bring these solution approaches together better internally and to convey them externally. That is why we need to start with specific topics and then broaden out.

Markus Schwarze: The decisive part is bringing things together. Everything is getting more complex because lots of things are interconnected digitally. This entails teamwork beyond the boundaries of just Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) or an ERP or mere production technologies. And that is something that we as CENIT offer – that type of service where teams work together across these boundaries and also develop an understanding. The goal is to determine what the corresponding data flows are between the different systems. In this way, whatever was implemented beforehand can run and be operated reliably. Because the interdependencies are increasing: When the kind of large systems that we build stop working, there’s a problem. That is why it’s important that we as a team and as CENIT then provide the corresponding services to prevent this.

Horst Heckhorn: That’s an important point that you can see clearly based on the following example. As part of a project for Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), we are bringing together the 3DEXPERIENCE and the SAP platform. At present, many people have to translate between what is created in a product structure for the vehicle in the 3DEXPERIENCE / Delmia platform on the one hand and what happens later in the SAP platform in terms of the company as a whole – logistics, procurement, manufacturing – on the other. We automate this manual translation process by means of in-depth process and data integration of 3DEXPERIENCE and SAP S/4. In order to guarantee the data quality, which is absolutely essential in such an automation process, we implemented inspection routines on both sides that create the prerequisites for the translation of the semantically different data models of the two platforms. That sounds complex, and it is. What we achieve is the automatic translation of the complete vehicle structure with all variants and configurations, also in the daily change process. It is easy to imagine the contribution this digital automation can make to reduce throughput times and costs and understand what avoiding superfluous iterations, searches for missing parts, prototypes with errors etc. means for resilience and sustainability.

Why did we succeed despite the complexity of the process and the technological obstacles? Because we were able to create a team with JLR, SAP and Dassault Systèmes that worked tirelessly and consistently day in day out to master the truly big challenges together. In my view, we should never forget that. Despite the availability of great technologies, without the enthusiasm of the people involved for improving processes, digitalization projects will not lead to the expected success.

CENIT wants to be the trusted advisor of customers. Can CENIT provide its customers with end-to-end consulting on the aforementioned sustainability – not just in relation to the technology or the ROI, but also in terms of the sustainability aspect in the processes?
 

André Vogt: We need to be able to do that, because some of our customers are already asking us for that. But we are still in the learning phase. Admittedly, it is still mostly about aspects that are important for our customers’ ESG reports. We are seeing that the topic of sustainability is not yet very high priority from a real-life use perspective. Generally the aspects involved are automation, reducing interfaces or cost efficiency.

Martin Grunau: The answer isn’t easy for a number of different reasons.Our dialog with customers is also currently generally reduced to legislation and regulations. I think customers are learning in the same way that we are learning in today’s discussion and are asking questions such as: What are we really contributing to the topic of sustainability? How can we prove that we are more sustainable?

Everyone knows that action is needed – not only by the politicians but by every company and individual – but it’s difficult to know how to start. Additionally, everyone has a different level of experience of sustainability.

That is why I am convinced that the topic of regulations will be a key catalyst. That’s because regulations change behavioral patterns – because we have to. When I get in a car, I put my seatbelt on because it was introduced as a regulation at some point. Nowadays, I know that it is important. In the same way, we can have hope that legislation will result in an intrinsic change in behavior in the long term.

Horst Heckhorn: I am not a fan of approaches that put people in straitjackets, because there will always be loopholes to escape from the straitjacket. The best example is that of the carbon certificates. We simply need a lot of people who understand that it is necessary to take action. And who take action within their own area – not just as a private individual, but also professionally. Then we will be able to effect change. Regulatory matters are always about not being permitted to do something anymore. But there are lots of areas where it doesn’t need to be like that. We only need to do the right things, measure the results and adapt our behavior accordingly. How much material have I used, how much electricity, how much carbon have I generated? What makes it so difficult to start is that the whole discussion is always about giving things up.

Jens Fetzer: We all agree that sustainability has an environmental as well as an economic component. What I’m missing in this discussion so far is the human element. I’m sure we all subscribe to the idea that the sustainability topic must also include the aspect of an “attractive, healthy workplace”. This is a field where we as CENIT can make a contribution, e.g. by digitally shifting dangerous, dirty and tedious manufacturing tasks from the shop floor to the digital workstation. In this way, we contribute to a more agreeable working environment, help employees acquire new skills and take on higher-quality tasks. And that in turn helps our client businesses respond more easily to the persistent shortage in skilled staff. It’s another instance where we can exploit potentials for more sustainable ways of doing things.

Martin Grunau: I think we are in agreement that we as a company can make a contribution today. Some of our customer companies have global operations, so we can also make a contribution internationally.

But to come back to the point: regulations don’t always have to be about giving something up. Because the core of the matter is clear: we are all convinced that sustainability is important.

Let’s get back to technology. A study by McKinsey reports that companies can realize huge potential in the cloud. According to the study, however, only 15 to 20% of large companies run their applications in the cloud. Are we wasting digitalization and sustainability potential by not working in the cloud?

André Vogt: Generally, the cloud model is the future. Why are there a lot of companies that haven’t yet moved to the cloud? One of the reasons is that the often-cited data privacy problem is still a major obstacle. Matters such as governance pose a further challenge and create further complexity. This is about defining rights, responsibilities and duties in the cloud. Another important factor will be the AI Act coming out in mid-2024. In that act, the issue of liability will be given a new dimension, which in turn will be an important constant in this whole movement.

But we can see that the major insurance firms, for example, which have to fulfill special conditions in relation to data security etc., have been preparing to move their processes to the cloud for a long time now. This takes time because their established infrastructures and processes need to be transformed and prepared first.

Jens Fetzer: Not every process that we can make more efficient automatically gets even better by taking it to the cloud. Despite all the advantages – and alleged advantages – of the cloud, I see a certain risks as well. Shifting things to the cloud also means shifting responsibility to IT security.

You can reap the full potential of digitalization even if you don’t take the cloud path.

First and foremost, the cloud means a different infrastructure. An efficient and high-performing one, to be sure, but only when it’s used meaningfully in strategic terms. And that’s exactly why we’re going to look at this issue more closely.

Martin Grunau: It is definitely not the cloud that determines whether or not we act sustainably and whether or not we are innovative.

But now the cloud may be connected to other things – tech combinations may emerge. And there is huge potential there. For example, if we look at the cloud plus artificial intelligence plus the SAP platform plus the 3DEXPERIENCE platform… But the question I ask myself is how is this compatible with sustainable digitalization? On the one hand, we can reduce costs through the potential of technology. On the other hand, there is always the consideration of whether it is really more sustainable for the overall result? I don’t think anyone has a good answer to that yet.

André Vogt: It is true that the model behind the cloud needs a huge amount of electricity. And the bigger the model, the more computing capacity and the more electricity is needed. The IT industry is already working on this in the background to solve precisely this problem. For example, new chips are being developed, and Nvidia is one of the largest providers. However, IBM has caught up and can produce the same chips but with just 30% of the energy consumption.

Markus Schwarze: There are often other economic aspects to the arguments in favor of the cloud. For example, companies no longer need their own system administrators and don’t need to create backups.

Horst Heckhorn: Let’s look at it from a sustainability perspective. Most companies struggle with IT bottlenecks. If they move their processes to the cloud, they free up technological and personnel resources and can use them to tackle digitalization projects that will ultimately make the company more sustainable. In this way, they can use the knowledge of their team to really move processes forward.

Do you worry that other companies will beat CENIT and come up with better AI-based solutions faster?

Martin Grunau: In the same way that the cloud radically brought about new business models and companies that never existed before, the same will happen with AI. There are already companies in existence today that offer solutions and services that were unimaginable before now. We will also be confronted with this at CENIT. It is possible that we will have customers that cease to exist in the future or that have to reposition themselves entirely because new competitors with strong AI will challenge them. And I believe that we could have tasks and roles within CENIT that will need to reorganize. I am certain that we will tackle this topic proactively because it also involves opportunities for us.

André Vogt: Here is a current example of the dynamism mentioned: Within four weeks, I have already seen six releases of similar platforms to our solution Buildsimpel. The market is hugely dynamic. It’s about market share, and it’s about speed. Time to market is everything. And that is why we have to invest accordingly.

Jens Fetzer: I’m actually a bit concerned that some AI-based solutions on the market are faster and better than ours. But we also see that, for the time being, many of these solutions focus on very specific use cases: Particularly in robot automation, innovative startups are marketing some very exciting spot solutions. But they don’t fulfill the holistic approach that we’re pursuing with FASTSUITE.

What’s clear is that we’re going to use AI in our solutions where it makes sense and where it offers our customers concrete added value.

At this juncture, our advantage is our well-established position: We work in a terrain in which our clients need investment security and process stability. If you’re looking to design manufacturing or engineering processes for the next five to ten years, you’ll want a partner who can ensure solution security and is able to maintain a long-term customer relationship.

For me, this is another sustainability argument: Being a reliable partner who can offer our customers maximum security.