Addressing the skills gap is one of the most critical aspects to enable a digital supply chain. Digital capabilities are non-existent in the supply chain and the engineering and construction sector is required to recruit a breadth of talent in one of the most competitive fields to recruit talent from (Capgemini).
Developing skill internally is a sustainable approach however requires existing expertise, patience and a robust training capability which doesn’t currently exist in most organisations connected to the built environments supply chain.
The use of outsourcing partners (digital providers) to build the required capabilities will still require organisations to develop internal capabilities. For example, House of Fraser outsourced the development of its new website but did not invest in a strong internal delivery team to manage the build. This has resulted in numerous issues causing service outages, customer complaints and a 30% drop in sales crippling the company (ThisIsMoney).
To understanding which skills will be required, organisations must have a clearly articulated strategy and roadmap of their planned capabilities to match skills against these. Additionally, strong leadership is required to create the necessary organisational structures such as career paths, performance management and skills development programmes to develop anf retain talent.
The lifecycle to develop digital capabilities often requires a large headcount in the 2nd and 3rd quartile of a project cycle, therefore organisations need to organise in a manner which allows the rapid scaling up and down of project headcount.
The banking industry has achieved this capability by relying on contractors, while other industries have turned to third parties. However, it is important that organisations do not create a reliance on third parties but invest to grow their own capabilities which can be supplemented with additional headcount rather than simply trying to procure capabilities.
New skills are not only required for digital supply chains, regardless of whether processes become fully automated or just more efficient, but resources across all affected areas of the supply chain must also be re-trained and re-skilled to deliver the intended efficiencies. To successfully transition, organisations need to ensure robust change management practices are in place to help existing employees to transition into the digital era.
The promotion of open knowledge sharing is important to accelerate the digitisation journey. Organisations in the built environment have a self-serving attitude, which includes organisations in the supply chain. However, this behaviour is a barrier to a performing digital supply chain. In an example, the knowledge transfer between learnings from the UK Crossrail project and HS2 has been very low compared to knowledge transfer between projects in aviation or manufacturing. Telsa has continuously shared its innovations with the industry.
The technology industry is an example which has helped accelerate the rate of innovation immensely. Open source technology is built on the foundation of knowledge sharing which has formed the foundations of the most significant developments in recent technology such as AI and Machine Learning. Google developed a sophisticated product to deploy machine learning at scaled called TensorFlow which it published under an open source licence in 2015 (Wired).
As processes change, security becomes important. Incidents of digital or physical nature are more likely to occur during periods of change. Organisations need to ensure security and safety remain at the forefront. This can be done through ongoing compliance training and safety analytics in place to monitor risks. Organisations must not only invest in digital capabilities which increase efficiency but also safety, therefore leadership and risk management teams need to evaluate the additional risks introduced by technology and introduce appropriate countermeasures.
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