CGI
“ Success is reliant on people . Manufacturers need to invest in being both people-driven and data-driven ”
COEN HUESMANN VICE PRESIDENT MANUFACTURING , CGI technology . One of our partners , Aveva , is also investing US $ 1bn in AI .
“ Nobody doubts the importance of having the right data to make the right decisions , but success also is reliant on people , manufacturers need to invest in being both people-driven and data-driven .
“ Without having the right amount of people , with the right sorts of skill sets , success becomes a challenge . So a question to ask is : am I investing in growing the workforce ?”
Many of CGI ’ s clients ’ factories are up to 40 years old and will still be active for the next 20 years , yet ‘ knowledge holders ’ are retiring in large numbers . So knowing how to retrieve the knowledge of those people and the knowledge of these legacy systems is also critical .
Manufacturers can either build new systems or keep these legacy systems current in the future . “ That ’ s where we do a lot of work with our clients ,” says Huesmann .
Many of CGI ’ s clients choose to outsource to CGI knowing that they are in safe hands when it comes to training and skilling-up workforces ; retaining and refreshing knowledge while modernising their core manufacturing systems for the future .
Another key issue on the road to becoming data-driven is the complexity of data landscapes . Many manufacturers have built their operations over decades and through multiple mergers . This results in multiple data sources all using different data formats and languages . To leverage and harvest their value , they must be together in a way that manufacturers can digest and combine the data .
“ Creating ‘ open ’ data systems is another hurdle for future looking manufacturers ,”
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