HCL launches MVision to help manufacturers adapt, protect, and digitize in the post-pandemic era

The Bottom Line: MVision helps elevate HCL’s competitive positioning in the manufacturing sector, but its ability to realize its ambitions will depend on a broader set of competencies beyond its technology prowess.

Manufacturing was one of the industries hit worst by COVID-19. We surveyed Global 2000 manufacturing company executives, and more than 70% of them believe that the pandemic had a bigger impact than the 2008 downturn. Disruptions in manufacturers’ supply chains impacted both production and sales with worldwide effects on the economy.

Today, manufacturers are scrambling to adapt, protect, and digitize to survive and thrive in the emerging new normal. The ability to evolve quickly and respond to disruption and opportunities requires technology for reassessing relationships and go-to-market capabilities. Manufacturers need diverse suppliers and customers more than ever. Digital and Industry 4.0 initiatives enable operational efficiencies and automation across the board while creating opportunities to connect with customers, which is of paramount importance. At least 65% of respondents adapt by insulating their business from volatility by building diverse customer pools and investing in an agile business model. And more than 70% of manufacturing respondents invest in mining data on their product and service portfolios to drive greater customer value. More than 80% of manufacturers in Exhibit 1 expect their IT budgets to increase in 2021–2022.

Exhibit 1: More than 80% of manufacturing leaders expect an IT budget increase in 2021

Sample: 800 respondents from Global 2000 enterprises, including 55 manufacturing organizations
Source: HFS Pulse Study, H1 2021

Manufacturing organizations are not just looking for technology vendors that can “execute.” They want partners to help them innovate and become future-ready. HCL launched the MVision framework, summarized in Exhibit 2, to support its manufacturing clients’ efforts to re-imagine and re-invent themselves for the future. MVision supports the Industry 4.0 ideals of realizing smart products, services, manufacturing, supply chain, workforce, and experiences through technology-driven by its MVision Nucleus components. The MVision framework’s key targets include operational excellence, factories of the future, cost rationalization, supply chain resilience, and portfolio mix optimization.

Exhibit 2: The HCL MVision framework supports Industry 4.0 goals

Source: HFS Research, HCL

MVision provides a digital manufacturing playbook encompassing strategic advisory, technology consulting, and technology services

Digital and emerging technologies are key enablers for manufacturing transformation, but manufacturing enterprises’ technology journey is not linear. There is a paradigm shift in the overall business landscape as IoT (internet of things), sensors, cybersecurity, automation, cloud, high-speed wireless, and analytics vie for attention and investment.

For the global economy to emerge from the post-pandemic, supply-constrained markets, manufacturing will need substantial technology investments. However, business leaders must understand which investments to make and when. For that, they’ll need tools and partners that understand the operating model of the future, apply domain expertise to technology enablement, link data to product development and delivery, and link automation to the culture of the operations.

These changes bring many challenges. For example, previously, manufacturing IT applications supported capital expenditure-oriented manufacturing models. The business model has shifted from CAPEX (capital expenditure) to OPEX (operating expenses) and enabling an “as a service” model. Enterprises need a connected system to track product usage and performance, increasing the need for smart and intelligent operations through connected assets, systems, supply chain, and PLM-MES-ERP (PLM: Product lifecycle management; MES: Manufacturing Execution System; ERP: Enterprise resource planning) integration.

Thus, enterprises need assistance for services implementation and guidance formulating a roadmap to unlock technology’s value in the context of their culture, operations, and customers. HCL’s MVision framework includes business and technology consulting to enable an enterprise’s digital roadmap and digital continuity across the value chain. MVision offers thought leadership to operations teams with the capability to address technology, cultural, and operational challenges by mapping clear outcomes aligned to top-line and bottom-line success metrics. The adoption of the MVision framework drives the commitment needed to adapt and succeed with Industry 4.0 technology and address the challenges in Exhibit 3, which MVision Nucleus addresses.

Exhibit 3:The manufacturing industry faces executive and operational challenges in adopting emerging technology

Sample: 800 respondents from Global 2000 enterprises, including 55 manufacturing organizations
Source: HFS Pulse Study, H1 2021

Leadership commitment challenges include a lack of digital fluency and getting the right inputs for decision making, reflected in gaps in data quality, fluency with digital tools, and building a business case. Overall, the manufacturing industry has struggled to adopt a digital mindset, resulting in a lack of technology modernization, data management programs, and overall data governance.

The “we’ll get to it next year” approach has led to many of the consequences unfolding worldwide. We see how the investments in build-to-sell and just-in-time systems ignored the growing risks and fragility of suppliers within their ecosystems. A focus on the near term left little room for reverberating shocks that impact every labor market equally. A lack of data on risk in the ecosystem left many leaders to watch a house of cards fall. The long-term thought process of collecting the data to create business awareness and data-driven organizations quickly failed, as hyper-connected enterprise structure depends on “connected data” not “collected data” for driving self-operation digital organizations.

As governments and consumers begin reinvesting in the economy, manufacturing leaders must learn from these troubled times and build for a future where velocity, uncertainty, change, and ambiguity will continue to exist for the near future and perhaps longer. To do so, they’ll need to harness technology, build a new culture focused on an increasing number of nearshore partners, and define the data their workforce needs to deliver products and services effectively.

MVision for Business and MVision for Digital help manufacturers overcome many challenges they encounter with business strategies, leadership, and business process challenges. MVision for Operations and MVision for Engineering are important in resolving the technical and operational challenges Exhibit 3 describes. The transformational technology principles of MVision Nucleus aid manufacturers in adopting and embracing rapidly changing players and principles. In pre-pandemic manufacturing, many initiatives were bottom-up approaches (Six Sigma, TQM), but in Industry 4.0, digitalized manufacturing demands a top-down approach. Operations are fundamentally changing to be data-driven, automation-enabled, and culturally diverse. MVision’s focus on process management, governance, program management, and people helps experienced leaders manage hard and soft factors.

So how is HCL MVision different?

We believe the following four key factors differentiate MVision:

1. HCL’s strong engineering background. HCL is a leading engineering service provider with more than 40 years of engineering experience. Manufacturing enterprises can benefit from HCL’s manufacturing engineering knowledge across process management, manufacturing bill of process, system integration, and product development.
2. Software and services combination. HCL’s Mode 1-2-3 strategy allows it to offer a combination of services and software. HCL has built several manufacturing-related products and platforms as ready-to-deploy software tools for specific value chain activities.
3. Expertise in digital manufacturing. HCL is involved in several strategic engagements in digital manufacturing. For example, HCL is a strategic digital transformation partner of a large European car manufacturer. HCL’s transformation initiatives will enable the client to solve business complexity, achieve faster time-to-market, and leverage the strength of mobility, subscription-based services, electrification, and autonomous driving.
4. Experience across manufacturing subsegments. HCL has worked with diverse manufacturing clients (automotive, heavy industries, consumer electronics, chemicals, etc.) across the services spectrum, including digital transformation, integrated operations, and application services.

Takeaways

HCL MVision brings forth strong advisory capabilities for manufacturing transformation in addition to global IT and engineering services. HCL has been investing heavily in frameworks that build on a strong industry-led design thinking model, bringing its platform, partnerships, and technologies together in the context of how its customers operate. MVision goes beyond the technology and establishes a clear playbook for leadership, aligning the modernization of operations with people and emerging technologies.

HCL has been investing in creating synergy for customers by augmenting its MVision framework and technology prowess with a strong consulting mindset and an integrated product + service + advisory go-to-market to realize its manufacturing ambitions. HCL Manufacturing has a focused business consulting team with deep domain expertise in providing the necessary guidance and roadmap beyond its highly regarded process consulting team. Working closely with industry influencers, partners, and customers in identifying key outcome KPIs and benchmarking them will be important to showcase the effectiveness of the MVision framework and bring it to life. Driving thought leadership and sharing its point of view with clients and prospects will also be critical to creating market momentum.