Automating processes has benefits in terms of optimizing organizations' scarcest resource, their talent

New technologies are now at the service of companies, which can take advantage of their potential to automate processes and thereby improve their production capacity, quality and boost the growth of organizations.

Executive Digest spoke to Pedro Morais, Partner & CTO (Chief Technology Officer) at Nextbitt, who gave us his view on the importance of automating processes for better company performance.

How important is it for a company to streamline and automate its operations management processes?

Simply put, automating processes, in this as in other areas, has clear benefits for optimizing organizations' scarcest resource, their talent.

By making organizations' physical asset management processes more agile and automated, we maximize resource utilization periods, reduce operating costs, manage processes such as maintenance cycles more effectively, and can track their location to ensure their availability where needed. All of this creates minimal disruption to each organization's normal operating process.

This also implies a technological decision to use advanced platforms, such as Nextbitt, to meet this challenge of automation and agility in management. For example, by incorporating sensor solutions, among others, operations management has a unique, real-time view of the state of its assets, enabling it to manage them much more efficiently and make the most of them.

How can automation help maintenance teams? What are the main challenges that can be overcome?

Automation brings predictability and agility to maintenance teams, which is a challenge for larger, distributed organizations due to the diverse set of assets to maintain.

By making it easier to manage processes, check for problems and ensure the continuity of operations with minimal disruption to the employees affected, automation makes it possible to address these issues, enabling teams to be more productive and improve their efficiency, as well as minimizing maintenance periods and their impact on the organization.

What does Nextbitt's S.A.M. solution consist of and how can it be a gamechanger for companies?

S.A.M. (Smart Asset Management) redefines the paradigm of asset management, taking it to a new threshold of complexity and efficiency. The result of a strategic partnership between Nextbitt and Microsoft, this solution takes advantage of the most advanced artificial intelligence technologies to validate and manage the entire process associated with the problem presented by the user, using a system that all employees are familiar with, such as Teams or WhatsApp, giving the maintenance team valuable information on what needs to be done and when. It also makes it possible to streamline and automate companies' operations management processes with their respective maintenance teams.

With this technology, the S.A.M. solution becomes a co-worker rather than a tool. This solution is the result of a strategic commitment to incorporating the most advanced technologies into the Nextbitt platform, putting them at the service of its clients' businesses.

How can Artificial Intelligence be an ally in automating operations management processes? What are the advantages?

Artificial intelligence is a co-pilot, which complements and adds knowledge and information to the operator, giving them a unique ability to make informed decisions in good time. In this context, by filtering out the essential information to properly identify a need, artificial intelligence provides unparalleled agility and speed of response.

What are the main use cases for Artificial Intelligence in operations management?  

The solution we are now making available to our customers has, as a result of the strategic investment we made when developing our platform, the clear advantage of being immediately available so that all customers who want to try out the solution and take advantage of the benefits of artificial intelligence can do so now. This is because S.A.M. is a Software as a Service solution and, as such, can be implemented whenever the client wishes.

In terms of technology, S.A.M. is based on cognitive algorithms from Microsoft and artificial intelligence from Open AI, which is responsible for ChatGPT.

With the S.A.M. solution, operational teams will put screens, recording logs or updating workflows in the past, and will start using Microsoft Teams, WhatsApp, Telegram or even voice to initiate processes, question situations and receive information, in a much more agile and automated way. It's only natural that these usage scenarios can gradually be extended to new dimensions in operations management, given their potential for simplifying and optimizing processes.

What criteria should companies consider when choosing an automation and Artificial Intelligence solution for operations management?

Firstly, I would say that it is essential for organizations to carry out an analysis of their needs and the technologies they have implemented.

After this analysis, and taking into account the specific needs of the organization (industry or services, which have very different needs; a single site or several sites; management of all physical or partial assets; connection to the management system; definition of the specific information dashboard required, etc.), companies must then decide whether to implement the solution, creating a roadmap to ensure minimal disruption to the operation.

What are the main challenges or concerns that companies may face when implementing automation and AI in operations management? How can they be overcome?

These technologies present challenges that are very similar to those of other technologies that are already mainstream, be it big data, mobility or others.

The main challenge is clearly to correctly identify all the variables that will be impacted by the solution and to prepare teams to make the most of the potential that these technologies hold, as well as to support users and organizations in their quest for greater efficiency, freeing them up for tasks with greater added value.

How can we guarantee the security and reliability of data and operations when implementing automation and Artificial Intelligence solutions?

The issue of security is one that is becoming increasingly visible to organizations, especially in the context of the increasingly ubiquitous use of technologies based on an Internet infrastructure.

But in reality, there is hardly a more robust structure prepared to respond to security challenges than the one developed by the main cloud service providers.

That's why Nextbitt has made this strategic bet: on the one hand, to invest in a Software-as-a-Service solution, which eliminates the complexity of managing a solution installed on customers' systems; and, on the other hand, to partner with one of the world's leading companies in the sector, which makes it possible to ensure security and business/operational continuity. As with all innovations, there is bound to be some initial resistance to these changes which, I believe, will be inevitable.

What are the future trends of automation and Artificial Intelligence in operations management?

These two trends have gone from being more lateral to occupying a prominent place in any technological and business strategy.

Consultants such as IDC predict a growing adoption of these two technologies in all areas, and naturally also in operations management. Together, and also linked to the Internet of Things and asset sensing, these technologies can create clear opportunities for optimizing processes and minimizing costs.

The way forward will largely depend on the ability to improve the preventive management of assets, ensuring the optimization of costs and expenses such as energy, which are essential for companies to be able to respond to the pressing challenge of sustainability.

On the automation side, it will be possible to drastically reduce the number of routine tasks performed and substantially reduce delays and operating costs.

Artificial intelligence, at the level we have today, will allow semi-autonomous execution and the ability to manage and analyze very large volumes of data. We believe that these two technologies together will transform organizations and the way we work today.

How can companies prepare to take advantage of these innovations?

Across the board, I would say that there is a need to invest in training. The learning model of the past is not compatible with technological change and evolution. Organizations that are unable to grasp these changes will be left behind because the pace of change will accelerate and the potential of these technologies as a source of competitive advantage is unavoidable.

Source: Executive Digest
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