STRATEGY
“ So , we put the suppliers with this consumer products manufacturer , and the contract manufacturers , and placed all the contracts on the Blockchain where smart contracts can be leveraged . It has been wildly successful ”
— Glenn Steinberg , EY ’ s Global Supply Chain Leader
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EY Smart Factory is a cloud-based , integrated , standardised and scalable improvement approach that provides speed and collaboration across global operations . Steinberg acknowledge that , in some sense , EY is disrupting itself : “ We ’ ll show you what good looks like and then we ’ ll help clients scale it with EY Catalyst , which is digitising operational excellence . We ’ ve digitised the programme and call it an Op Ex coach where it ’ s self-paced and doesn ’ t require a lot of consultants .”
Meanwhile , the other half of the
Smart Factory solution is made up of digital execution applications offering real-time , on-demand progress reports visible across the production chain with the capability to refine processes and master production through advanced analytics . “ It ’ s basically a paperless shop floor ,” muses Steinberg . “ You ’ d be amazed at how few companies are truly paperless . Workers are digital at home , but then they come to work with a clipboard ... We ’ ve built a suite of apps from the bottom up , from the operator perspec-
NOVEMBER 2018