9 INSIGHT | Focus On Lastly, to reposition our company as a digital leader by investing in digital culture and technology. We are leaders in the cable systems segment, but we are not digital leaders. As a digital leader, we will sell both physical and digital solutions. What are the key focus areas for the Group’s Digital Ambition? The first is digital products and services, or developing new hybrid products integrating software solutions at scale. Another important target is smart factories, or optimizing business performance through digital solutions and automation at our 108 plants around the world. This translates into more efficiency, less waste, and cost savings. Third goal is to create a digital culture, or what I call “digital plankton.” This means building next-generation skills by nurturing customers and our peoples’ digital needs. Let’s talk about some examples. What are some of your latest projects? We have a project called Data Driven for Safety at our Neustadt factory in Germany that uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine vision to provide a safer workplace for our employees. We have developed a machine vision system that can recognize the motion trajectories of workers, vehicles, drums and moving objects like a bicycle. It can track near misses. And it can warn, say, a forklift operator backing up that a bicycle is coming towards him. We are looking at how to make it actionable, such as triggering an alarm such as a light or a siren. So this is still ongoing. What projects did you finish this year? Optical fibres are delicate and can break during manufacture before the entire 50 km length for the drum is completed. Our Battipaglia optical fibers plant was showing a mediocre performance in terms of fiber length, with an average of 27 km. A short cable creates waste. We decided to find a solution by applying advanced statistics to the huge amount of data already being picked up by digital sensors at the plant. It was being generated in a table format, and we changed the visualization so we could track the manufacturing journey through the plant. By doing this, we pinpointed the machines where the fibre broke sooner. This tweak enabled our production engineers to gain an average of 4 kms in fibre length. We are calling this Data Driven Performance for Operation, and are applying this approach to problem-solving at nine other plants. Are there any projects that developed out of a pilot? Yes. We created PG Connect back in 2020 with help from a start-up called Over.IT. PG Connect is a remote testing and maintenance tool using a state-of-the-art augmented reality camera headset that allows handsfree operation and a cloudbased field service management software with a number of advanced collaboration features. During the pandemic, it became important to business continuity because it enabled us to carry out Factory Acceptance Tests for clients remotely, which was a significant competitive advantage. We have now extended PG Connect into an entire product family. PG Connect Tour allows for a virtual plant walkthrough (e.g. Plant visits and inspections). PG Connect LAB is used for lab tests and measurements, and PG Connect Training is used for remote training. PG Connect helmets are now used in 50 factories around the world. These three examples show concrete ways in which our Digital Ambition is creating value for our business and our customers. Digital tools and solutions are being currently leveraged to optimize business performance: digital products and services will help in sustaining the Group’s growth strategy, supporting collective intelligence by digitalizing the company’s culture. Building next-generation skills by nurturing customers and our peoples’ digital needs. DIGITAL PLANKTON
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