Best practices
Who should measure the ROI?
Benchmarking the pilots
The other indicators to observe
Conclusion
Like any project that aims to increase output or improve a process, you will have to measure whether the implementation of the solution is a success. To do so, you will have to establish "quantitative" KPIs and also take into account so-called "qualitative" elements.
The implementation of a digital tool within an industrial site or group results from the identification of one or more pain points common to a certain volume of stakeholders.
These implementations often represent long-term projects, which mobilize several people at a site, and represent a cost, both in terms of the solution itself and in terms of the time spent carrying them out.
Like any project that aims to increase output or improve a process, you will have to measure whether the implementation of the solution is a success. To do so, you will have to establish "quantitative" KPIs and also take into account so-called "qualitative" elements.
Gathering qualitative feedback is important because the experience is often more complex than deleted tasks or hours saved.
While you need a person with a macro view to collect and centralize the data and user feedback, it is important that it be the field resources who lead this ROI measurement. They will be best placed to explain how their daily work has changed and what gains have been identified, whether quantitative or qualitative.
If it is corporate that imposes a model, or simply a single stakeholder, there is a risk of missing relevant ideas and indicators that will help gauge the tool's effectiveness.
It is not recommended to benchmark one site or one UAP (autonomous production unit) against the others. Indeed, their management will not necessarily be based on the same KPIs and objectives (stock, lead times, order backlog...), their starting points will be different, and the gains will not all be seen and considered in the same way.
The objective is to obtain at least four positive occurrences in order to be able to verify the ROI, while also immediately conceding that, since we do not always start from the same starting point in all the pilot plants in terms of underlying digital maturity, the ROI cannot be identical.
In this case, to establish an ROI, an indicator such as the adherence rate to objectives during the implementation of an industrial planning solution will be relevant. Depending on the rate, you will have to try to understand whether a low rate results from a one-off phenomenon or whether it is a more structural issue.
Finally, you will also have to take into account the fact that not all sites have the same rhythms, since there are some that have S&OP rhythms every week, others every two weeks, others once a month. So inevitably, if the frequency is higher, the ROI will be greater or visible more quickly.
To measure the success of the implementation of an industrial planning solution, you can establish several KPIs besides the adherence rate that will help broaden the vision of what a successful implementation is:
The satisfaction rate linked to adoption: The end-users of an industrial planning solution are not all leaders in the solution's implementation project, nor all volunteers; consequently, measuring the adoption rate in the strict sense will not be relevant.
However, we can measure a "satisfaction" rate based on several qualitative and quantitative criteria such as the tool's ergonomics, its relevance, the time saved, etc.
Satisfaction surveys or individual interviews can help assess whether employees are satisfied and whether the solution meets their needs.
The productivity rate: The productivity rate can assess the productivity of employees and also that of your production site. Productivity can be measured in terms of working time saved, automated tasks, or increased production.
Quality: It is important to verify that the planning solution, by improving productivity, also contributes to reducing errors and defects, or at the very least that it has no negative impact on the quality of finished products.
Costs: After a 3-month pilot, for example, a calculation of the savings or cost gains achieved thanks to the use of the planning solution must be carried out. This can include productivity and time gains, etc.
Response time: If the planning solution incorporates the reporting of incidents (breakdowns, absences...), it will be relevant to observe how quickly problems are resolved and decisions are made. A reduction in response time can indicate an improvement in operational efficiency.
Innovation: Assess the impact of the adoption of digital tools on innovation and the company's ability to implement other new digital solutions or to continuously improve its production processes.
Data health and quality : Assess whether the solution has had an impact on the data collected, used, and communicated on a daily basis. Can all the site's stakeholders finally speak a common language and rely on the data they have?
To obtain a complete assessment of the success of the implementation of digital tools, whether an industrial planning solution or another, you will therefore have to involve your field teams as much as possible and leave them free to report all the information they deem relevant. Then, you will have to come back to them by asking them to comment on subjects that other field teams may have observed.
Finally, it is possible that extremely positive things will be observed and reported, such as the man-hours saved generating creation and availability of services, but they will be difficult to measure in the ROI. Each site or UAP will have to judge the importance of these gains in their assessment.
→ Learn more about implementing a digital solution within an industrial group
