Digital Culture in

Manufacturing
Your Guide to the Most Important
Part of Digital Transformation
 Table of Contents

Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………... 3

The Argument for Putting Culture First ………………………………. 5

Welcome to the Connected Factory ……………………………………... 11

Digital Strategy from the Bottom Up ……………………………..……. 15

Designing a Digital Culture That Works

For Your Organization ……………………………………………………………... 20

Conclusion ………………………………………………..……………………………… 27

Copyright 2019 Tulip Interfaces

 INTRODUCTION

hen you hear the phrase “digital culture,” what’s the first thing that comes to mind?
W
If you’re like most leaders, what you imagine likely has something to do with the “digital”
half of that ubiquitous pairing.

We often forget, however, that technologies don’t exist in a vacuum. Every new
manufacturing technology still requires human intervention to function. Whether those
people are operators, engineers, IT, or management makes little difference. All
technologies have an inherent human component. What technologies accomplish on the
shop floor will always be limited by how humans use them.

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 Put a little different, digital technologies are always part of a digital culture.

This guide is our attempt to convince you that the second word in the phrase “digital
culture” is the more important of the two. Throughout, we’ll define and describe digital
culture in manufacturing; outline important technological concepts; and provide concrete
strategies for aligning vision with practice. At the end, you’ll have a foundation for
fostering a strong digital culture in your organization.

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 CHAPTER 1

The Argument for Putting Culture First

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 What is a Digital Culture?

Culture is a vexed concept. Management scientists,

anthropologists, and business leaders all have their own
definitions.

It doesn’t have to be complicated, though. Our definition of

culture is this:

Culture is what people do, what they believe, and how they
behave over time.

Culture is the practices and attitudes of people in a given social

group. These groups could be nations, regions, ethnicities, or
Culture is what people do, what people believe, and how people behave over time.
any other way of fragmenting affinity and identity.

For our purposes, the social group in question is the

manufacturing firm.

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 Digital Culture and the Shopfloor Society

It may seem counterintuitive to put so much stock in culture in
such a mechanical industry, but what people do and think on
the shopfloor has a greater impact on production than you
might think.
Manufacturing has one of the highest percentages of human
error of any industry. In a recent study, however, the
Department of Energy found that up to 70% of those errors
are a result of organizational weaknesses. Chief among those
organizational weaknesses was culture. Indeed, as much as
culture can enable positive performance, it can also encourage
poor performance.
Culture can manifest in positive ways, like open
communication across the hierarchy, a willingness to learn, and
an effort to always adhere to best practices. Or negatively, in
unnecessary information silos, a disregard for standard
procedures, and tolerance of sub-optimal results or unsafe
conditions.
Digital culture, therefore, is the attitudes, behaviors, and habits
relating to digital technologies that employees repeat over
time.

So when we talk about culture on the shop floor, we’re

concerned with the things people do, how they interact with
their surroundings and one another, and their attitudes toward
the things the activities that make up their work.

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 70% of human error in
the manufacturing
industry is a result of
organizational
weaknesses.

Chief among these

weaknesses is culture.

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 Why Digital Culture Matters in Manufacturing
When it comes to manufacturing, we can’t stress the second
half of this definition--repetition over time--enough.
The reason is simple.
Something you do once is an action. Something a large group
of people repeats over time is a culture. The difference
between the organizations that succeed in the digital era and
those that fail will be how leaders foster a collective embrace
of digital potential throughout their organizations.
Digital culture is not about getting a single project deployed
and profitable. It’s about laying a repeated framework that can
guide every project into the future.
Copyright 2019 Tulip Interfaces
From Digital Transformation to Digital Organization
Digital transformation--perhaps the hottest buzzword in
manufacturing at the moment--isn’t a one-and-done initiative.
Technological change is incremental. It starts as a trickle,
perhaps with a single technology or solution, and builds to a
flood--the modern connected factory. Therefore management
should consider how their organization’s culture will enable or
hinder the many projects and technologies that, in the
aggregate, result in digital transformation.
And digital technology isn’t going anywhere. All of the best
estimates anticipate manufacturers will accelerate their
adoption of digital tools in the years and decades to come. So
building a culture around digital technologies is essential. It’s
not necessarily enough to execute the best IoT strategy, or to
set the stage to use AI as the technology matures. A piecemeal
strategy will never close the gap between digital project and
digital enterprise.
It’s about creating an organizational belief and behavior
structure robust enough to guarantee the success of all future
digital projects--including those you can anticipate and those
you can’t.
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 Technological change
starts as a trickle... ...and builds to a flood.

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 CHAPTER 2

Welcome to the Connected Factory

In this section we’ll walk through a shop floor increasingly networked by new digital
tools. This factory isn’t hypothetical, nor is it an exercise in futurism. It’s a look at your
operations now--or your competitors’.

Rather than give a technology-by-technology survey, it suffices here to describe two

fundamental concepts: the Internet of Things (IoT), and cyber physical systems. Likely
these are two concepts you’re already familiar with. But it helps to review them in order
to understand how the connected factory is powered by digital culture.

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 IIoT

If the Internet of Things refers to the networking and
connectivity of everyday objects, the Industrial Internet of
Things (IIoT) refers to the networking of industrial assets,
sensors, and processes. This allows previously analog
machines to receive and send information, and creates more
points of visibility and control on the shop floor.
IIoT, however, isn’t a strictly technological phenomenon. It’s
one that connects humans, machines, and sensors in a dense
array on the shop floor. If IoT is a network, let’s put pressure on
what’s happening at each node.
Phrasing these questions in the form of “who is” may have
given it away, but the point is clear: there are still humans
integrated into manufacturing processes at innumerable
points. Integrating the right technologies is therefore only
going half way.
Success in digital manufacturing requires accounting for how
humans participate in manufacturing processes.

In an IoT connected factory, who’s performing changeover and

maintenance? Who’s interpreting the machine data? Who’s
completing the last-mile manual assembly? Who’s in charge of
quality checks (even those that are assisted by connected
devices?).

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 Humans are responsible for much of the Integrating the right technologies is
physical activity that takes place in only going halfway.
manufacturing, even in machine intensive
operations.

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 Cyber Physical Systems

Cyber Physical Systems (CPS), like IoT, are a complex Thus, bleeding edge manufacturing technologies are still
development that can be described in simple terms. beholden to the quirks and limitations of humans.

Cyber physical systems are systems in which actions that At this point, humans’ role in manufacturing success shouldn’t
occur in the physical world are modeled or processed by a be in question.
digital system. This digital modeling may then instigates new
actions in the physical world, creating a human-technological
The question now, is this: what are you going to do to
feedback loop.
empower the humans in your digital operation?

But what’s the source of physical action in manufacturing?

There are many, and number of which are, in fact, purely
mechanical (refining, machining, assembling). Not all of those
actions, however, are performed by machines.

Again, humans are responsible for much of the physical

activity that takes place in manufacturing. This is true even in
machine intensive operations.

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 CHAPTER 3

Digital Strategy From The Bottom Up

Here, we’ll review how to execute a digital strategy with the people in your organization
in mind. Understanding the business and manufacturing cases behind digital
transformation is essential for understanding the kind of digital culture you want to
encourage in your organization.

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 Two Ways Into the Digital Factory

It’s a truism that digital transformation isn’t a one size-fits-all
endeavor. Even so, you can map types of digital manufacturing
projects onto a spectrum ranging from human-focused to
machine focused.
On the machine end of the spectrum, you have machine
monitoring use cases like condition monitoring, resource
monitoring, remote monitoring, real-time machine status
tracking, and KPI analysis like OEE and OPE.
For machine intensive projects, humans will still need to
perform changeovers, analyze data, and write programs for
new tool paths. For discrete assemblies, humans are still
responsible for working putting parts together accurately at
the rate required to meet quotes.
So when you think about your digital strategy--for 1, 5, 10, 25
years into the future--you need to have a rock-solid
understanding of where humans fit at each stage.

On the purely human side of the spectrum, you have

applications like digital work instructions for complex manual
assembly, process visibility, and in-line quality assurance.

What technology or use case you pick depends on your

operations. No matter what your unique operational
requirements, though, it helps to consider how humans will
figure into the project.

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 It bears repeating: success in digital manufacturing isn’t just
about “error proofing” lines against human fallibility (remember
that most errors are actually organizational errors). Nor is it
devising a “change management” strategy that amounts to
early notifications to workers of technological change without
involving them in the process.
It’s incumbent upon leaders to make sure that digital strategy
includes and empowers workers.
Ultimately, they’ll be the ones who turn digital technology into
profit.
Copyright 2019 Tulip Interfaces
The Risk of Unilateral Projects
There’s been a curious trend throughout this history of
technology. In the years after major technological
breakthroughs, when new ideas are finding their way out of
laboratories and into products or onto the shop floor, workers
have rejected, or even sabotaged new tools. This is a pattern
that occurs with remarkable consistency across eras,
geographies, and use cases. Though the technologies might be
radically different, the motivation for workers’ rejection of new
technologies is clear:
Workers will fight against tools that they perceive to be a
threat to their livelihood.
The danger of top-down, unilateral digital transformation is
that worker’s won’t embrace tools that they think will threaten
their job security.
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 Without the right culture or communications structures in Manufacturing projects that consider
place, it’s possible that workers will reject, refuse to use, or not
take full advantage of new technologies.
the workers voice and concerns are
far more likely to create a return on
investment in the long run.
As management scientist Thomas Kochan has persuasively
demonstrated, manufacturing projects that consider the
workers’ voice and concerns are far more likely to create a
return on investment in the long run.

Indeed, worker well-being and firm performance are often

inextricably linked.

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 Asking the Right Questions

When it comes to building a digital culture, understanding the

human component of your operations can help you outline
principles that guide action on the shop floor. Knowing what 1. Who will use it?
you expect from humans can help you encourage attitudes and 2. How much of their job will it represent?
3. How much does the manufacturing process
behaviors that will be good for workers’ career and the
depend on correct human usage?
business.
4. How much training will it require?
5. What are the consequences if technology isn’t
For every technology-based project, ask yourself this list of used correctly? If it’s ignored?
questions: 6. Will this technology feel threatening to
workers?
7. What will be needed to deploy at scale?

Copyright 2019 Tulip Interfaces 19

 CHAPTER 4

Designing a Digital Culture

That Works for Your Organization
The most important question you can ask yourself is, “What does a successful digital
culture look like?” Your answer shouldn’t just be a number. Where culture is concerned,
success can be measured as the extent to which workers embody organizational values
in their work and in their daily lives.

In our experience, here are the most important things you can consider.

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 Power Cultural Change By Empowering Workers

Remember that workers will not embrace projects they feel to It serves to clarify what we mean by “empower.”
be threatening. Empowerment is not just about making workers feel included.
It’s about considering them--their perspectives, their needs,
Leaders need to realize, however, that threat to job security their input--from the planning stage.
isn’t the only reason workers won’t use new technologies. At
times, workers will ignore new technologies because they, a.)
believe the old ways worked better, b.) don’t want to invest the
Empowerment assumes a fundamental
time and energy to learn the new system, c.) aren’t included respect for people at all levels, and trusts
that when given opportunity and incentive,
enough in the success of the project or company to break their
status quo.
they’ll rise to the occasion.
There’s a simple way around this.

When technology empowers workers, they’re exponentially

more likely to buy into new projects.

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 So before implementing a digital initiative, hold consistent,
open conversations between stakeholders and workers. Ask
front line workers the following set of questions. What are
your challenges? What tools do you have? What would you
like to have? What features would let you do your job better.
And always keep and open mind. More often than not, you’ll
be surprised by what you hear.
Building a digital culture that prioritizes empowerment
requires that leaders understand the individual human
strengths of their organization enough to factor them into
strategic projects.
Copyright 2019 Tulip Interfaces
Think From the Bottom Up
Many digital projects are the result of executive initiatives. But
just as many move from the bottom up. In these types of
digital transformations, workers realize the value of a particular
technology or solution before the c-suite, and advocate up the
chain of command for its implementation.
Many of these have a higher than average success rate. It’s not
surprising why this is true: Those closest to manufacturing
problems understand them best. Workers facing specific
manufacturing challenges day-in, day-out will naturally have
an eye for promising solutions. And workers are far more likely
to stick with projects that they brought to the table.
When it comes to digital culture, this means that leadership
should create an atmosphere where workers feel comfortable
recommending, advocating, and staking their advancement on
digital projects.
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 For leadership, this means listening. Fostering a digital culture
that encourages bottom up transformation is an exercise in
empathy and communication.
The results are clear, though. Higher success rate, longer term
success, and an empowering culture durable across projects.
Digital Culture is Data-First Culture
Arguably, the biggest difference between digital and analog
technologies is the quantity and quality of data they make
available.

Digital technologies have made manufacturing data of a

staggering variety available on an unprecedented scale.
Fostering a digital Indeed, manufacturing produces more data than any other

culture that industry.

encourages bottom It’s easy, however, for workers to mistake increased data

up transformation collection with increased surveillance. While one could (and

managers might want to) use digital technologies to track
is an exercise in worker performance, it’s important to consider workers’

empathy and
perception, and their legitimate concerns that visibility might
jeopardize their job security.
communication.

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 Instead, a healthy digital culture is a data-first in which data is
the starting point for process improvements. It’s a source of
truth that all can reference and use to guide improvements. If
data is used as a foundation for learning, growth, and dialogue,
then projects can grow and succeed organically.
Copyright 2019 Tulip Interfaces
Build Consensus Throughout the Organization
Whether a project is top-down or bottom-up, it’s still going to
involve coordination and alignment across levels. In short,
there needs to be consensus about what kinds of projects will
be prioritized, why, and to what end.
This involves conversations with workers on the shop
floor--that’s simply an extension of empowerment. But it also
means that shift, plant, and regional managers understand
and, crucially, buy into the broader vision.
When the different levels of an organization agree on vision
and direction, it’s much easier to find ways of getting there.
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 When the different levels
of an organization agree
on vision and direction,
it’s much easier to find
ways of getting there.

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 Think About What This Technology Looks Like at Scale Scaling projects
For digital transformation to be truly successful, it needs to be
requires sharing
replicable across lines, plants, and geographies. knowledge, best
How to scale a program is usually framed as an operational or practices, and
financial question. It’s equally one of culture. experience.
This is because scaling projects requires sharing knowledge,
best practices, and experience. It requires workers training
other workers, representatives from one plant training another,
This is where building
and collaborating as the organization explores new territory culture becomes a
ripple effect.
together.

So, ultimately, the competence, attitude, and behaviors of

those on the ground are essential to scaling projects.

This is where culture becomes a ripple effect. When the way

people act across and organization produces outcomes that
would not have been possible without this high-level
coordination.

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 CONCLUSION

There is no magic bullet for successful digital transformation. Digital revolution doesn’t
happen overnight. But there are best practices, and there are ways to create conditions
for success.

Fostering a digital-positive culture is a proven way to ensure replicable success.

Proven, however, doesn’t mean easy. Creating a culture is harder than purchasing new
technology and taking advantage of new media. But the potential gains justify the effort,
and suggest that all leaders should think about digital strategy from a starting point of
digital culture.

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Tulip, the Manufacturing App Platform, is empowering the world’s leading manufacturers
to improve the productivity of their teams, the quality of their output, and the efficiency of
their operations. With Tulip’s no-code platform, manufacturers can empower those
closest to operations to digitally transform their shop floors and gain real-time visibility
into the people, machines and processes involved in production--all in a matter of days.

Learn more and try Tulip risk-free for 30 days at tulip.co.