This article looks at the differences between these terms in the context of construction product data, what is preventing each of them and what this means with the emergence of new initiatives such as Digital Product Passports (DPPs).
Summary of Definitions
Digitisation is turning your analogue and disconnected data into connected, digital form. It’s about connecting your sources of information so they can work for your business more efficiently and effectively.
Digitalisation is making this digitised information work for you in your existing business – benefiting from things like e-commerce, product tracking (object identifiers), or contributing to a digital twin, golden thread or building logbook.
Digital transformation is about creating new business applications for data – new business models. These include artificial intelligence (AI) powered predictive maintenance, 3D printing and custom manufacturing, Internet of things (IoT) or Platform Design for Manufacturing Assembly (DfMA).
This summary was taken from our publication “Digitisation for Construction Product Manufacturers: A Plain Language Guide” Download it from our publications page.
Digital Transformation
It is very fashionable to talk about Digital Transformation, probably because it is attractive to talk about doing something new, rather than trying to fix the existing.
Digital transformation implies a transformational process whereby new, innovative processes create a very different approach to business in the built environment. It implies creating new business applications for data – inventing new business models, maybe entirely new businesses.
To enable digital transformation requires:
- Data integrity
- Data security and compliance
- Supply chain transparency
We talk about the barriers to digital transformation in this article: Why isn’t the Construction Sector implementing Digital Transformation?
It was also a topic of our symposium: “Industry Voices: Why won’t the Built Environment Sector Modernise?” which was written up in a report you can get here.
But for many in the construction industry digital transformation is all pie in the sky stuff, far removed from the realities of their working businesses. How do you get closer to it?
Before you can benefit from digital transformation need to implement digitalisation.
Digitalisation
Digitalisation is the process of making data work for you in your existing business, rather than creating new business models. Your business might benefit, for example, from:
- Ecommerce – digitising and automating your commercial exchanges so that you can do them at scale.
- Product tracking – using object identifiers so that your products can be identified elsewhere in the supply chain and traced back to source.
- Applying digitised information to a process may mean contributing to a Digital Twin – a digital model of a real-life entity (or part of that entity), which can be used to understand that entity and influence it. For example using sensors to model the energy use in a building and the performance of its technologies, to inform decisions about how it should be used or improved.
To enable digitalisation requires:
- The data you are using to be structured (see below)
- A single source for that data, often known as a single source of truth, so no duplicates which would create anomalies. Note that a single source doesn’t mean in one place, the data can be in several places but they must be connected to each other.
The process of structuring and connecting data in a business is known as digitisation.
Digitisation
The Plain Language Guide we wrote in 2021 is about how manufacturers can digitise their product data and systems.
Digitisation – turning analogue and disconnected sources of data into connected digital form enables a range of commercial benefits which are set out in the guide.
These range from increased revenue and margins, through efficiencies through productivity and reduced costs, and improvements in a businesses reliability and stability, improving the brand image for example.
Why Connect your Data Sources?
Many manufacturers hold their data in several different places (spreadsheets, databases, ERP systems, accountancy programs, manufacturing records). The first step to digitising is to connect these sources.
By connecting your sources of data, you can use the data to work for your business more efficiently and effectively.
The risks of holding several unconnected data sources are many. When information is added and updated in several disconnected places at the same time, there is a high likelihood of duplication, errors, and waste.
The objective of digitisation is that if anyone in the company is asked about a product, they can access and provide the same, correct answer, every time.
How should product data be organised?
In the guide we set out how manufacturers should organize their data. We set out a simple step by step process by which a manufacturer can start the process and begin to see benefits, even without employing an external consultant.
Your data will need to be organised by the following principles.
Data should be:
- Structured. Organised according to a predefined schema, data becomes machine readable and easy to analyse.
- Secure. Only available to those who are authorised to view it yet available in an emergency.
- Verified. Confirmed to be accurate by being traced back to the source.
- Interoperable. Able to be transferred accurately between software platforms, such as those used by different actors in the supply chain.
- Dynamic. To be effective some data needs to be dynamic, not static, that is regularly updated so that it remains live, accurate and relevant to its users.
Are Manufacturers Digitising?
The introduction of digital technologies in the construction sector remains a key factor in improving efficiency, safety and profitability throughout. The digitisation of construction product information and the availability of it in the supply chain is a key element of this transition.
Last year we commissioned some independent research with telephone interviews of 80 C-Suites in manufacturers who supply products into the UK construction supply chain. More than half of those interviewed said they supply safety critical products.
The research found that manufacturers do not recognise digitisation in the context of supplying structured product data to the construction supply chain. The managers interviewed equated digitisation with their own internal processes, such as the ‘Making Tax Digital’ initiative.
They were not thinking about digitisation in the context of safety critical information, compliance information, or giving the supply chain structured product data.
Manufacturers considered digitisation, whilst likely to be profitable, as a low priority amongst other short term concerns.
In addition we found that
- only 8% of the manufacturers said they had ever produced BIM objects, and
- manufacturers’ primary way of providing product information was pdfs and hard copy brochures and a manually updated website.
These answers suggest that structured product data is not on the radar of construction product manufacturers at the present time.
How do we change this?
The Plain Language Group recognizes that digitisation is a challenge to manufacturers, particularly when they are working in a competitive market and the case for digitisation has not been made to them effectively, as yet.
The research report recommends that:
- Manufacturers and their trade associations need to be educated about the benefits of digitisation both to their businesses and to the supply chain. The first step is to enable acceptance and recognition of the importance of digitisation.
- There will need to be a specific requirement for change to happen if manufacturers are to digitise. Government could be a catalyst for change with the right interventions.
- Any initiative to provide a requirement to digitise should start with priority products and require manufacturers to provide information they already have. For example, providing compliance information from their Declaration of Performance (DoP) or Conformity (DoC) in electronic format to a database or portal which could be used to research products.
You can download the research report, “Digitisation of Construction Product Manufacturers: A report of research into senior manager’s views” and its recommendations from our publications page.
What do you think about Digitisation?
Are you a manufacturer? Do you use structured product data within your business? Do you provide structured data about your products to the construction supply chain?
If you work in construction but not manufacturing, what is your experience of the availability of structured product data in your work?
We’d like to hear your views and experiences. You can leave a comment below or contact us via plg@justpractising.com.
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