In manufacturing, the biggest challenge isn’t implementing technology — it’s blending technology with business needs to deliver real value. Aroon Sehgal, Chief Information Officer at Videojet, has mastered this intersection through his “glocal” approach to digital transformation. 

In this episode of Industrial Visionaries, he walks ZJ through how manufacturing leaders can empower frontline workers to create their own digital solutions while maintaining enterprise security and control. Aroon reveals their strategic implementation of Tulip’s citizen development platform, their disciplined “Wednesday release” schedule for production changes, and their zero-trust architecture for maintaining data security. 

He also shares candid insights about managing an aging workforce while recruiting college talent with digital skills, and why single-piece flow manufacturing should be the starting point for any digital transformation initiative.

Topics discussed:

• How Videojet Technologies balances enterprise-scale solutions with locally-developed tools that address specific factory needs, using ROI as the primary metric for determining what gets scaled across the organization.
• Aroon’s strategic approach to citizen development, providing sandbox environments with live production data where factory workers can design custom solutions without disrupting production.
• The structured Wednesday release cycle that enables manufacturing operations to implement changes safely, with specific considerations for financial materiality and revertibility of changes.
• Implementing robust data governance while making critical information accessible to those who need it, through named data stewards responsible for cleanliness and security.
• How decentralized manufacturing operations can benefit from unified data architectures, but only when driven by clear business objectives rather than technology-first thinking.
• Aroon’s vision for completely blurring the lines between technology and business teams within the next 5-10 years, breaking down organizational silos to increase speed of innovation.
• Practical strategies for managing an aging manufacturing workforce while recruiting and developing digitally-skilled talent, including both performance management and college recruitment approaches.
• Why manufacturing leaders should begin digital transformation by focusing on labor efficiency and single-piece flow to produce higher yield per labor input.

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