Digitalisation Approach through EA for Industry Revolution 4.0

Industry Revolution 4.0 (IR4.0) is a vision of industrial environments with a widespread adoption and extreme integration of modern technology and digital systems. It is a strategic transformation in the manufacturing organisations based on the adoption of advanced technology. The transformation towards IR4.0 can strongly benefit from the principles of Digital Enterprise Architecture (Digital EA) which enables organisations to achieve the true balance between technology and business innovation in digitally connected model.

Globally, the whole industry trend is moving towards digitalisation by adopting relevant technologies with Digital EA establishment in the journey plan. The IR 4.0 has its sights on optimising the use of raw materials and energy while enhancing information flows with higher efficiency so as to generate digital solutions for construction which meet the demands of the 21st century society, with high performance and greater added values in technical features to ensure sustainability and environmental contributions. With this IR 4.0 movement, industrial organisations can leverage on the Digital Transformation initiative towards with the strategic goal to be competitive and sustainable business while optimising operational costs, improving efficiency, increasing throughput and productivity. However, many organisations today are still struggling with risky digital transformation initiatives that are needed towards IR 4.0 as they lack of proven executional approach and methodology for successful digital transformation.


Figure 1: EA Vision to Realise IR4.0

For a successful transformation moving towards IR 4.0, Digital EA needs to be established because it can define and guide on what the critical capabilities which organisations need to have by looking at which capabilities are needed to enable new digital business models or internal digitisation. To implement a new capability, industrial organisations need to consider four strategic aspects: having the right organisation model, having the relevant people for the job, having well defined processed and having the technology to support the business.

New Technologies enable IR4.0
One of the most important parts is to focus on an end-to-end process to foster new collaboration models and Digital EA facilitates industrial organisations to build digital trust through connected model from motivation, strategy, business, application and technology infrastructure in the collaborative environment to drive IR4.0. New technologies are the core pilots to IR4.0 and Digital EA enables industrial organisations to develop an agile IT function that can respond flexibly to business demand. By focusing on creating working solutions and responding to new requirements in an agile approach which helps organisations to continuously improve their operational efficiencies.

Many industrial organisations have already begun digitising their businesses, but often their initiatives have resulted in organisational silos, rather than through a holistic approach. Organisations should take the time to evaluate their maturity level in all areas so that they will understand what strengths they can build on, and which systems or processes they may need to integrate into future solutions.

Digital EA creates the opportunity for industrial organisations to be successful on their journey towards IR4.0 as it supports the strategy and evolution as a whole. Digital EA optimises industry drivers both manual and automated processes by connecting technology with industry setting for powerful visualisation to realize digitally connected business technology strategies into an integrated environment that is responsive to change.

Author: Aaron Tan Dani
President of Singapore Computer Society EA-Chapter [email protected]
Founder and Chairman of Iasa Asia Pacific [email protected]
Chief Architect of ATD Solution [email protected]

Related websites:
Join the EA activities in Singapore and learn how you can implement Digital-Business-driven EA in your organisation.
Computer Society EA-Chapter: http://www.scs.org.sg/Chapter/ea-homepage

Learn more about ITABoK (IT Architecture Body of Knowledge) skillsets and about the roles, scopes and impacts of EA Specializations.
IASA: www.iasaglobal.org

Acquire successful Digital Transformation adoption with ATD Enterprise Architecture consulting and training services.
ATD Solution: www.atdsolution.com