As COVID-19 continues to take a toll on the global economy, companies are faced with a variety of problems, among which the most severe challenges are strains on cash flow, disruption of supply chains, and pressure from the prolonged pandemic control. A considerable number of enterprises have adopted smart practices during the pandemic. In so doing, they have not only survived the crisis, but also promoted the smartization, or digital transformation, of entire industries.
Smartization leverages new technologies to create value, new processes, innovative ideas, and to acquire competencies to quickly adapt to changing situations. While it is mainly used in a business context, it also impacts other organizations such as governments and public agencies which are involved in tackling societal challenges such as climate change, aging populations, and even a global pandemic by leveraging emerging technologies.
The development of these new competencies revolves around the ability to be more agile, people-focused, innovative, customer-centric, and streamlined, along with the ability to create opportunities to change the status quo and tap into big data, with IoT as a leading enabler.
Smartization Transforms Industrial Scenarios
In order to cope with the negative impacts brought by the pandemic, industrial enterprises in various countries have accelerated their own smartization strategy. One focus area includes smart industrial upgrading — applying smart technology to improve internal processes and business applications. It is more important than ever to establish IoT-based smart management systems covering all scenarios. Such systems go beyond basic needs of the day-to-day operation to provide more targeted services from human resources to innovative business models.
One such enterprise using smartization to overcome the challenges posed by the pandemic is Zhejiang Zhongqi Industry Co., Ltd. (“Zhongqi Industry”), established in 2015, and a wholly owned subsidiary of China Communications Construction Company, Ltd. In order to advance the company strategy, Zhongqi Industry extends the industrial chain and pursues strategic integration of their lighting products by focusing on four major business sectors: life and health, future parks, smart technology, and new retail.
During the construction of industrial parks, it found that with the increase in the number of industrial clusters and occupants, the infrastructure and services in the parks were under increasing strain. Therefore, it began to question if the traditional industrial park management approach should be followed, or if there was a way to improve conditions by leveraging IoT devices.
After extensive research and evaluation, it concluded that it would need a comprehensive smart digital service platform to improve tenant communications and industrial park quality while also providing targeted value-added services. This new IoT smart system would restore and maintain balance in the industrial park operations.
Empowered by a self-service IoT development platform, Zhongqi Industry has smart-upgraded the hardware equipment and software systems of its industrial parks. It has also built an all-scenario smart management system to improve the efficiency of park management while reducing energy consumption and property management costs. The system will continuously extend the scope of value-added services according to the needs of the parks, and provide precise and efficient services in talent, finance, business incubation, and government affairs.
This example shows that smartization is not just about disruption or technology. It’s about value, people, optimization, and the capability to rapidly adapt when change is needed through the intelligent use of new technology and information.
Gartner, a world-renowned research and advisory company, along with Tuya Smart, an IoT development platform, and media platforms, Global Intelligent Business and IoT Business Vantage (IBV) have collaborated to produce the white paper, The 60 Smartest Companies Thriving Post-Pandemic, published October 21. This white paper explores several fascinating cases of how companies such as Zhongqi Industry, Goodyear, SATCO, Philips, and more use new technology in response to the drastic changes brought by the pandemic to achieve their smart transformation goals.
For more information, visit: https://www.gartner.com/technology/media-products/newsletters/Tuya/1-27E4H8LZ/index.html
To download the entire white paper in PDF, visit: https://www.tuya.com/resources/whitepaper/ebook-2022
SOURCE Tuya Smart
