Sasha Novakovich
October 24, 2019
In September I had the pleasure of speaking at CTT about how coatings companies specifically, and specialty chemicals companies more broadly, are leveraging digital technologies to accelerate innovation and revenue. Our “Turning Digital To Dollars” session was so well received that we are now sharing it more broadly to help others get a chemicals-specific understanding of digital technologies and opportunities.
In short, IT leaders grow faster than IT laggards. There is a digital adoption curve for chemicals companies. Those companies, no matter how large or small, that use IT to enable innovation and service delivery will grow faster than those that do not.
The digital adoption curve for chemicals companies is summarized here:
Stage 1: Basic Digitalization
In this step, the aim is to digitize data and processes such that the company digitally owns its R&D, NPD, and Sampling project portfolio to drive process efficiency and to direct resource utilization toward higher value-added activities.
Stage 2: Strategic Innovation
On top of stage one, do a digital deep dive into R&D, NPD and Sampling processes. The goals at this stage are faster innovation cycles, improved customer responsiveness and increased portfolio leverage and coherence by granularly managing product and process data flow and core product IP using digital tools like AI, machine learning, and cloud computing.
Stage 3: Predictive Chemistry
The holy grail of chemistry is to use AI and machine learning to design new chemicals or formulations with predefined properties in a way that is practically scalable. It is not possible to reach stage three without going through the first two stages to have AI-ready data and basic digital process infrastructure set up for the company.
You can watch the full video of the presentation here to:
Special thanks to the PCI Magazine and the CTT organizing committee for having me kick of the Business Strategies track.
