CGI

At the start of his career , Huesmann began applying his tech and manufacturing know-how to help build a tapioca starch factory in Indonesia .

“ After that , I decided to continue my career in consulting and worked for KPMG ,” he says . “ There , I implemented and selected business intelligence systems , what we now call AI or analytics systems .”

Huesmann then went back to operations by working for Phillips in Australia , where he enabled businesses breakthrough process improvements . After that , he became a supply chain manager .

However , in terms of achievements , Huesmann ’ s proudest comes through the growth of the Manufacturing Centre of Excellence at CGI .

He says : “ I started three years ago , at the start of the pandemic . One big challenge at that moment was that I had to get to know my team from video calls ! We ’ ve built that team to almost 90 people now across the Netherlands , with a connected team in India . We manage to grow the team

COEN HUESMANN VICE PRESIDENT MANUFACTURING , CGI together , despite the circumstances and build a proud and successful team .”

This is against a backdrop of changes in social demographics which is deeply affecting the manufacturing industry . Many manufacturers are currently struggling to find and hire the right people .

Looking at this trend Huesmann prioritises looking for people with strong manufacturing and IT backgrounds , understanding that advances in technology will support sustainability agendas and ultimately attract the right level of talent .

“ We ’ re doing a lot on the cutting edge between production , quality , logistics and maintenance ,” he says . “ Finding people with the right profiles to help our clients go from reactive maintenance to predictive maintenance to prescriptive maintenance .”

The importance of harvesting data In 2021 , Huesmann spoke about the importance of harvesting data – that hasn ’ t changed .

He says : “ When we talk to clients all over the world , they ’ re all interested in getting more value from data . With multiple datastreams at their fingertips knowing how and what to use to not only evolve their operations but to develop new revenue streams will set manufacturers apart from each other .”

Huesmann suggests that getting its data streams , systems , and management in order is a critical first step to leveraging new technologies , such as AI , with success being equal to the time spent into preparation .

He says : “ You see that almost every company in the world is now deeply investing in AI . CGI recently announced that we are going to invest US $ 1bn in AI

58 December 2023