Article

Digital Risk: Creating confidence at the edge of possibility

Industrials

How is digitisation impacting the Industrials sector?

The race for competitive edge has never been fiercer, innovation and resilience never more essential to success. Pursuing advantage means boldly acknowledging risk and going confidently forward - leaning into new possibilities undaunted by scale or complexity. Leading organisations know that people, processes and technology combine to continually reshape the frontiers of possibility – from the adoption of cloud, the shift to remote working, automation and artificial intelligence.

We can create the confidence to marshal these possibilities to action and help the leaders driving digital transformation create sustainable value. To find out what we can do to help you visit our Digital Risk hub and explore our framework, or contact us as below. 

View all trends

Responding to the risks that digital brings

Thriving in the new normal requires adapting to new technologies to stay competitively relevant while mitigating the risks to the business.

Safe and ethical implementation of artificial intelligence and machine learning
Create the confidence and understanding to successfully embrace radical and dynamic new decision support systems in order to explore new frontiers in value creation		   Risk conduct, regulation and culture in the digital world
Lean into the possibilities of digital while confidently controlling the risks created by having a closer relationships with the consumer
Transforming digitally with confidence
Step forward into possibility, while being prepared for the unknown		   Controlling disruptive technologies, cloud, data and agile ecosystems
Create positive change through controlled revolution; protect BAU activity whilst embracing disruption
Digitisation of risk, compliance and control management
Transform effectively and safely by embracing digital strategies for managing digital risks		  

Consider: How do these digital risks impact you?

Organisations should build the digital confidence required to thrive in the “digital world”

Board
Are we getting the right level of information about the digital change happening in the business? 		  CIO
How can I confidently embrace new technologies and mitigate the risks of digital to allow for a more confident and effective business?
CMO
Am I able to harness the technologies and innovations that get the business closer to the customer and set us apart from the competition?		   CTO
How can I build the trust in digital that’s necessary to overcome transformation fears and realise transformation success?
CISO
How can I help the business embrace digital, build safe and secure solutions by embedding risk management and security throughout the innovation and development cycle?		      

Industrials: 2021 Digital Risk trends

Artificial Intelligence

Trends

Industrial products businesses are moving towards empowering their workforce using Artifical Intelligence (AI)

Risks

  • Data governance issues and maintaining compliance with privacy rules
  • Technology and process issues can impact performance of AI systems
  • Lack of appropriate security can lead to loss of information
  • Software malfunction resulting in inaccurate outputs

Questions

  • Monitoring: How do you navigate regulatory requirements and statuses? Do you have a response plan to risks, faults and fraud?​
  • Tech/processes: Does your current control environment and technology infrastructure support AI? Is there appetite to adapt the current processes for AI to be implemented successfully?​
  • Data governance: Does the organisation have a plan around the use of AI? Are considerations being made around privacy, data governance and data leakage?​
  • Monitoring Are you able to invest in monitoring of the operation of AI software? Is what is being produced correct and are is the right monitoring in place?​

Smart Manufacturing

Trends

Organisations are moving increasingly towards taking advantage of smart investments across their ecosystems to help address COVID-19 challenges

Risks

  • Ecosystem coordination may be complex
  • Concerns over cybersecurity
  • Intellectual Property theft
  • Skills and capabilities are highly variable across the shop floor

Questions

  • Does the organisation have a ‘convener’ from within their ecosystem to help coordinate the efforts across multiple vendors?
  • Does your cybersecurity plan consider activities that involve connecting plant assets beyond the physical building?
  • Have you developed a strategy for smart manufacturing initiatives that include standardised approaches to key capabilities and identifies ecosystem partners across regions to help different parts of the business?​

Digital Lean

Trends

Using digital technologies to help enhance lean practices and helping organisations to provide more accurate, precise and timely information about operations

Risks

  • Focussing on the technology rather than value being added
  • Not starting at the right point – lack of readiness across people, process and technology
  • Assuming stakeholder buy-in rather than securing it
  • Focussing on the near-term and not considering the longer term goals

Questions

  • Has a detailed assessment been performed to ensure alignment of initiatives where there is opportunity to capture value?
  • Does the leadership ensure changes are implemented? Is the starting point based on a location where production processes are consistent?
  • Does the facility have satisfactory connectivity?
  • Have you determined whether stakeholder buy in has been obtained prior to commencing?

Business 2 Customer Approach

Trends

Moving from B2B to B2C to enhance the customer experience

Risks

  • Lack of buy-in from the executive and limited resources
  • Not having an end goal / vision in mind
  • Lack of agility with trialling new ways of working slows down speed of change

Questions

  • Do you have a customer experience goal, vision or strategy that you are working towards and is change executed with the end goal insight?
  • What actions are you taking to improve the experience of your customers?

Smart Factories

Trends

Businesses are moving towards smart factories to improve competitive advantage

Risks

  • Inability to link together human and technology elements effectively
  • Lack of connectivity across assets, processes, people and devices
  • Inability to manage the diverse devices in terms of age, purpose, data structure and format

Questions

  • What is your budget, plan and resource for moving to new technologies? ​​
  • Do you have a back up in case of a failure?​​
  • Have you considered your compliance responsibilities when implementing digital tech?​​

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