The digitalization of Argentine companies is at an early stage, as evidenced by the survey "Study of Digitalization in Argentina", by Siemens and PwC Digital Services, and the different industrial sectors are not the exception. The work with leaders of 312 companies in the country (66% small and medium) showed that the segments with the greatest progress in digitalization are the chemical industry and the oil and gas industry.

The automotive sector stands out in several points, such as in the process analysis or viability (73% of the cases consulted) and the elaboration of a digital strategy (82%). The lowest rates are observed in the machinery construction industry, where only 29% have a digital strategy; 29% have performed a process or feasibility analysis; 14% is considered advanced in digitization; and 29% have a central function for digitization.

Javier Pastorino, CEO of Siemens for Argentina and Uruguay, warned that 50% of Argentine companies are just beginning to outline digitalization strategies and innovation plans. "The Industrial IoT (IIoT) and renewable energies will generate the most disruptive changes at the industry level. The decarbonisation of the economy (in line with the goal set in the Paris Agreement to maintain the temperature below 2° C) opens a transition stage that will accelerate the penetration of renewable energy," he said in a talk with Convergencialatina.

This framework of decarbonisation will force the "sector coupling" or "coupling of sectors": currently infrastructure, energy generation, transport, industry, act independently, isolated, but the trend that looms from the correlation of data that enable IoT and digitalization, is that of intelligent networks with greater energy efficiency.

Gap between theory and practice

80% of Argentine businessmen believe that digitizing their companies is a critical aspect to carry out their innovation processes. However, only 43% have a team dedicated to digital innovation. The study by PwC and Siemens reveals a clear intention of leaders to tackle the transformation, but at the same time lack a strategy. The "what" is known, but the "how" is unknown, in an evident gap between theory and practice.

In cases where there is a strategy, it is designed for a horizon of no more than five years: only 5% of respondents raise it beyond a decade. And the criterion that prevails at the time of approaching a strategy is not mainly the technological, but rather one thinks first of "costs" and commercial advantages.

The immature vision that exists in entrepreneurs coincides in turn with the warning of barriers to enter digitalization. 42% of respondents indicate that there is little knowledge about their benefits; 39% believe that the structure and corporate culture make it difficult to integrate digital processes and technologies; and 63% highlight the lack of adequately trained teams.

Siemens’ IoT operating system

The digital transformation, in the vision of Siemens, should consist of the creation of value and new business models, with IoT Industrial (IIoT) as a central tool for the correlation of data of the base technology -in reference to turbines, transformers, engines, conveyors and other industrial components. Data collection in a structured way is the basis for building specific applications for different sectors, capable of artificial intelligence and data analysis.

Mindsphere, the open and cloud-based IoT operating system developed by Siemens, is part of this line so that any company can make use of the data it generates: it connects production, plants, systems and machines; includes connectivity hardware on open standards to communicate assets of different factories; and includes encryption features to ensure data transfer. Among the industrial applications available today on Mindsphere there is: fleet management, predictive maintenance and navigators that monitor buildings and energy consumption.

In turn, this operating system contributes to the transition that production lines of industries go through, in order to produce different things. It aims to generate a "digital twin" for all industrial instances, that is, a simulation of the plant's performance, the assembly line, work stations (to avoid injuries), the automation of assembly lines, and with everything virtualized to anticipate how it will work, at the highest level of detail.