SAP INDUSTRY 4.0
EXECUTIVE INTERVIEW Empowering people , improving business
Andy Hancock , Global Vice President , Centre of Excellence at SAP Digital Supply Chain on empowering people for better business
Behind the platforms , IoT sensors and connected assets in digital transformation sits the humble human , without which the entire system comes to a crashing halt . Employees can be a business ’ most valuable asset , but they can also be the most costly if left behind in the revolution of Industry 4.0 . Ultimately the goal should be to elevate an individual ’ s role within an organisation , remove dead weight from their desk and aid them in reaching their full potential .
“ The people will always be the centre ,” says Andy Hancock , Global Vice President , Centre of Excellence at SAP Digital Supply Chain . “ It doesn ' t matter how much automation that you adopt or how much you increase AI integration , there will always be tasks
ANDY HANCOCK that only a human can actually execute on . In fact , as we do more automation , there ’ s an even higher complexity of decision-making required that only a human can do .”
SAP envisions a reality of Empowered People as a critical pillar in its approach to
Industry 4.0 . “ What we mean by
Empowered People is empowering individuals to be agile in the moment ,” Hancock says . “ The whole concept and ethos surrounds organising data , whether that comes internally or externally , to make it insightful and , most importantly , actionable .”
BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS A real world example that made headlines earlier this year is the Suez Canal crisis . In the operation to rescue the Ever Given container ship wedged across the narrow channel , hundreds
124 June 2021