CIO & LEADER-November 2017 (1)

INTERVIEW
"Manufacturing
of tomorrow
is smart
manufacturing"
Monica Menghini, Executive Vice President
& Chief Strategy Officer, Dassault Systèmes
provides a glimpse in to manufacturing in
India and the role of CIO, CTO and CDO
How is the Indian
manufacturing evolving?
To me, manufacturing is probably
the part of the value stream of the
industry that has been the least
innovative unlike design engineering.
The sales force of the world is
changing. The way we manage sales
and marketing is changing. However,
in manufacturing, not a lot has
changed since the 19th century.
We started automating processes
just 30 years ago with robotics and
assembling things. The reality is
that the manufacturing of tomorrow
is smart manufacturing. I see that
everyone in the world is at the same
level – still trying to understand.
It is a difficult question to answer
since I'm unsure of India's positioning
from a manufacturing point of
view. Take Siemens' example; They
talk about manufacturing 4.0 and
automation, which was already
invented 30 years ago. Globally,
things have moved from mechanical
manufacturing to automation. In
India, however, you have the same
mix; you have some of the industry
that's still into mechanical assembly
while others are automating their
processes while others are still
in the process of investigating or
experimenting industrial IoT.
What is the role of the CIO
in a manufacturing setup?
In your opinion, how should
the CIO go about choosing the
right IT solution for his/her
manufacturing setup?
Today the biggest tip for a CIO is citing
the frog and the prince charming
analogy. A point solution can be
effective but it is not scalable and is
not capable in the long-term to
transform the shop floor operation
into a manufacturing set up that is
humanized and highly intuitive in
terms of collecting IoT information. So
they need to start defining or giving
the enterprises their definition of
success. Most of the time, the CIO, and
each one of us is actually trying to find
a solution. Instead they should start
by asking when to involve the partner
in the long-term.
The reason for purchasing a
point solution is that there is a
mentality that a platform is difficult
to be adopted by a manufacturing
organization. For a CIO to choose
the best, he/she needs a product that
is going to last them for the next 20
years. I think that there are forward
thinkers who are capable of keeping
the things in a way that idon't
disturb the day to day working of the
organization. Thereofore, it depends
on the CIO's vision and mission for
the organization. The second tip
for the CIO is to become a business
manager because the reality is that the
technology is not useful unless there's
a business ROI associated with it.. In
terms of profits, there is no certainty in
terms of production or time to market.
Therefore, the business executive is
responsible for the execution of the
project and therefore, possesses a
different perspective. he/she thinks
differently and at the end, the best of
the market could think differently
from a technological mind would
have foreseen.
In India, a new role is
emerging. The Chief
Digital Officer (CDO) is
responsible for all types of
digital initiatives in the
organization. Do you see these
roles collaborating with the
rest of the organization to
define the strategy for digital
transformation in their
enterprises?
It depends on the CDO whether he
is part of the executive committee of
the company. The titles can differ; so
can the responsibilities. These roles,
whether it is the CDO or CTO or CTDO,
all report into the CIO, and sometimes
4 CIO&LEADER | November 2017