Team Chemistry and Industrie 4.0

What do the Kansas City Royals, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Leicester City FC have in common? If you guessed they were all league champions in 2015 or 2016, you’re right. But in addition to winning it all, each had an abundance of team chemistry.

Yes, chemistry. As every sports fan knows, talent wins games. Chemistry wins championships.

Chemistry bonds players from different backgrounds and experiences together, uniting them in a common goal. More often than not, it makes the team more than the sum of its parts. While it’s true the teams listed above had talented – and, in some cases, all-star – players, none were considered the most talented in their league.

Photocredit: nbamixes.com

If talent alone equaled championships, the Miami Heat would have won every season LeBron James played with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh.

Without chemistry, success is possible – but not plausible.

And just as chemistry elevates a team’s performance, a digital network – the routers and switches that move data – elevates a business’ performance. In manufacturing this is especially true on the plant floor, where the network is the foundation of Industrie 4.0 (also known as the Industrial Internet of Things).

Consider that the right digital foundation elevates your plant floor into a place where you can improve inventory management, streamline operations, better secure intellectual property, reduce waste, and reduce unplanned downtime. And that’s just to start.

Simply put, a digital network makes it possible to achieve things you never thought possible in your factory.

But team chemistry isn’t always easy to achieve. In fact, it can be like trying to catch lightning in a bottle. Striking the right balance is key and deliberate decisions are required if a team wants to win it all.

The same is true when laying the foundation for Industrie 4.0. It’s important to consider factors such as how simple your network is to manage, as well as whether it will meet your needs in 10 years, before making a purchasing decision. Otherwise you might have to start all over again real soon.

One of my favorite examples of the difference the network can make is our work with Rockwell Automation for Daimler Truck North America (DTNA). With a Cisco network as the foundation, DTNA has been able to increase agility on the plant floor, maximize uptime, and reduce operating costs. For example, through the wireless network DTNA can perform remote diagnostics via video and troubleshoot issues in real-time.

Watch the video below to learn more: