Moving from industrial automation to industrial autonomy (IA2IA) to help manufacturers unlock new levels of efficiency, sustainability and resilience.
Automation and digital transformation insights
- Digital transformation requires proper structuring to ensure value.
- Automation, controls and instrumentation, enabled by digital transformation, can progress to industrial autonomy.
- Efficiency, sustainability and resilience result from autonomous operations from well-structured digital transformation.
Digital transformation provides value to automation, controls and instrumentation. Control Engineering asked for details from Johnson Varghese, solutions consultant, Certified SIRI* Assessor, Certified COSIRI** Assessor, Yokogawa Corporation of America. https://www.yokogawa.com/us
What value does digital transformation offer to automation, controls and instrumentation?
Answer: The value is real, but it doesn’t happen automatically. Gartner reports that only 48% of digital transformation initiatives are successful, and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) found that only about 30% reach their targets and deliver lasting business impact. That gap makes it critical to understand what digital transformation (DX) genuinely delivers when structured correctly.
Yokogawa defines digital transformation as the novel use of digital technology to accelerate business strategy by applying digital technologies to empower people, optimize processes, and automate systems to radically reorient business performance. Through its OpreX portfolio — spanning seven categories of information, control, measurement, consulting, execution, lifecycle and integrated solutions — Yokogawa translates global industrial automation and digitalization expertise into practical value, supporting everything from day-to-day plant operations up to business management and decision-making.
For automation, controls and instrumentation (ACI), the value shows up across three levels: At the instrumentation level, smart devices and wireless sensors move teams from periodic, manual data collection to real-time continuous monitoring. Yokogawa documented a case where vibration measurements on 200 pieces of rotating equipment were manually recorded by a third party at $48,000 per year, capturing only a snapshot in time. After deploying wireless sensors connected to an asset performance management system, the plant eliminated those annual fees entirely and gained real-time equipment health monitoring with automated alerts. At the controls and automation level, digital twin technology creates a live digital representation of the plant and its automation algorithms, allowing engineers to test process control changes at an engineering workstation before touching the live plant. Multivariable predictive controls drive the plant continuously to its optimum constraints by reacting to disturbances in a closed-loop manner. Digital transformation also simplifies integration of alarm lifecycle management, functional safety lifecycle management, shift team effectiveness, and permit-to-work into unified, data-driven workflows. At the enterprise level, connecting sensor data all the way to business systems gives organizations a clear view of financial, asset, and production data across the value chain — enabling faster decisions and agile response to market changes.
Digital transformation using Industry 4.0 is reshaping manufacturing by applying smart, connected technologies across the entire product lifecycle and supply chain — from design and engineering to production, quality, logistics, and customer service — creating unprecedented opportunities for efficiency, agility and competitive advantage. What makes Yokogawa’s digital transformation value proposition unique is how it is delivered: as a one-stop smart manufacturing partner with deep domain knowledge in process industries, IT/OT integration expertise, a standardized and measurable methodology, and a clear pathway from industrial automation to industrial autonomy (IA2IA) — from sensor to enterprise, grounded in operational reality rather than technology hype.
How is digital transformation changing how experts in automation, controls and instrumentation work?
A: Digital transformation is expanding the ACI professional’s role in two directions simultaneously: deeper into data and analytics, and broader across the organization.
Traditionally, ACI work was largely contained within the control layer by commissioning instruments, tuning loops and maintaining field devices. Digital transformation breaks those boundaries. A key pillar of digital transformation lies in a manufacturer’s ability to integrate IT throughout operations in concert with operational technology (OT) and human resources. The machines, devices and control mechanisms of modern factories often operate in relative isolation using a variety of niche protocols, creating silos, communication difficulties and procedural blind spots. Closing that gap is now central to the ACI professional’s role.
Yokogawa’s smart manufacturing methodology illustrates this shift directly. The discover phase requires experts to engage stakeholders; conduct digital maturity assessments; evaluate functional areas across supply chain, operations, asset and maintenance, energy and emissions, and production; and establish a validated foundation for transformation. The design phase translates those insights into a practical smart manufacturing blueprint by defining the target architecture, the key use cases, and a phased roadmap with clear dependencies, enablers and key performance indicators (KPIs). The develop phase delivers sustained value creation through outcome-based implementation, OT/IT integration, and change management by integrating people, process and technology as equal pillars. Therefore, today’s ACI professional must be fluent across different dimensions of industrial readiness spanning process, technology and organization — not just the control and instrumentation layer.
Smart Industry Readiness Index (SIRI*), which Yokogawa uses for assessment framework, is recognized as the world’s first independent digital maturity framework for manufacturers, adopted globally in collaboration with the International Centre for Industrial Transformation (INCIT). https://incit.org/ Its scope spans automation, connectivity, intelligence, talent readiness, workforce learning, leadership competency and strategy governance alongside traditional process and production dimensions.
The functional area assessment — Yokogawa’s unique consulting-led deep dive — further illustrates this expanded role because it studies how digital technologies, processes and people interact across different business levels and functional areas of the plant, validates data availability and quality, designs practical digital architecture and recommends an actionable implementation plan. This is work that requires deep ACI domain knowledge and organizational consulting capability.
The Consumer Sustainability Industry Readiness (COSIRI**) index applies similar ideas to sustainability.
While autonomous and remote operations are advancing, human judgment remains essential. Unattended remote operations are a first step in the autonomous journey, but human interventions and decision-making remain important as plant personnel learn to work alongside autonomous systems. The ACI expert is becoming the bridge between the physical plant and the digital enterprise, creating a more strategically valuable role than ever before.
For those who feel stalled in digital transformation, or think it’s just a buzzword, what do you recommend?
A: The skepticism is understandable and the data supports it. But Yokogawa’s research identifies exactly why digital transformation fails, and the reasons are specific and fixable, not inherent to digital transformation itself. The primary barriers are consistent across Gartner and BCG studies; Yokogawa maps them to five specific failure points:
1. Lack of executive leadership. Benefits plateau early when leadership isn’t committed and visible. Digital transformation cannot be delegated to a technical team. It instead requires active sponsorship across all organizational levels. Yokogawa’s methodology begins by supporting leadership to establish a clear vision for digital transformation across the entire organization.
2. Lack of holistic assessment. Digital initiatives falter when organizations fail to assess readiness, skill gaps, or business alignment before moving forward. This is why Yokogawa structures its engagement around three interlocking assessments — digital maturity assessment, business priority assessment and functional area assessment — creating a validated foundation before any solution is designed. Together, these assessments provide a fact-based picture of the current situation and prioritize opportunities linked directly to business objectives. In many organizations, digital programs underperform because prioritization is done informally or narrowly, without considering all the dimensions that matter to long-term success, leading to scattered pilots and sub-optimal outcomes.
3. Lack of roadmap and strategy. Without a clear, actionable plan linked to return on investment (ROI), benefits stall. Yokogawa’s design phase addresses this directly by translating assessment insights into a practical smart manufacturing blueprint by defining target architecture, key use cases, and a phased roadmap with clear dependencies, enablers and KPIs. In a world of scarce resources, information overload and pressure to deliver short-term results, a clear digital transformation vision is essential for companies to push beyond small-scale pilots and embrace real transformative projects.
4. Inappropriate solutions. When solutions are selected for technology’s sake rather than business need or organizational context, progress stagnates and can even decline. Yokogawa’s approach ensures solutions match client requirements and business context by leveraging deep industry expertise to enable scalable architectures. A commitment made is a commitment kept.
5. Lack of sustained effort. The absence of sustained change management, talent investment, and adaptation causes long-term value to decay. Yokogawa’s develop phase is built around sustained value creation through ongoing capability building, upskilling and long-term partnership to support a culture of continuous improvement.
Yokogawa’s performance data shows this visually: without a structured program, digital transformation plateaus at roughly 55% of potential performance and stays there. With a program that addresses all five success factors, performance reaches 100% and sustains it. The difference is not technology, it is methodology. For those feeling stalled: diagnose which of these five failure points applies, start with an honest readiness assessment, identify quick wins tied to real operational pain points, and build from there.
Do you have examples of digital transformation metrics and benefits for automation, controls and instrumentation?
A: Yokogawa provides concrete, quantified benchmarks across several areas:
Predictive maintenance: Implementing predictive maintenance strategies delivers cost savings ranging from 10% to 40% through early detection of potential issues and reduction of unplanned downtime. The cost of not acting is equally stark, unplanned maintenance and associated downtime costs can reach upwards of $260,000 per hour.
Human productivity: Digital transformation across operations can result in a 10% improvement in human productivity.
Alarm management: Poor alarm management is one of the leading causes of unplanned downtime, contributing to over $20 billion in lost production every year and to major industrial incidents. Yokogawa’s digital safety transformation integrates alarm lifecycle management, functional safety lifecycle management, and shift team effectiveness into a unified digital framework — turning safety from a pure cost center into a financially justified, ROI-driven program with measurable KPIs.
Instrumentation digitization: Replacing manual third-party vibration monitoring on 200 rotating equipment items eliminated $48,000 in annual fees by providing real-time equipment health monitoring and automated alerting, creating a direct, measurable return from one instrumentation digitization step.
Data and analytics ROI: A 15–20% increase in ROI can be achieved by introducing big data to enterprise business analytics. High-performing organizations are four to five times more likely to have fully deployed advanced analytics and visualization, and 18 times more likely to have fully deployed AI and cognitive capabilities.
Assessment-based measurement: Yokogawa’s smart manufacturing assessment delivers a comprehensive report covering business targets and KPIs and key cost drivers, current state and gaps across all 16 SIRI dimensions versus best-in-class benchmarks, functional performance challenges and opportunities, recommended solutions with a three-phase transformation roadmap, preliminary digital system architecture, and business cases with benefits justification. The SIRI Prioritization Matrix translates qualitative discussions into a structured set of priorities, ranking SIRI dimensions by expected value, feasibility, and alignment with strategic objectives — resulting in a company-specific list of high-priority initiatives with the highest potential business and financial impact. What makes this measurement approach distinctive is that Priority Assessment uses the TIER framework — Today’s State, Impact to Bottom Line, Essential Business Objectives, and References to the Broader Community — to ensure prioritization is tied directly to a client’ cost profile and KPIs, not to generic technology trends or ad hoc requests. Peer-to-peer benchmarking provides apples-to-apples industry comparison, showing precisely where a company lags or leads versus similar manufacturing segments, and what closing each gap is worth financially.
What parting advice do you have about digital transformation?
A: The most important things to understand are that digital transformation is a journey, not a one-time project, and the performance data does not lie.
Organizations without a structured program plateau at roughly half their potential and stay there. Organizations that follow a disciplined discover → design → develop methodology, address all five success factors, and sustain the program to reach full performance and maintain it. The gap between those two curves represents enormous lost value and it is entirely avoidable.
Three principles … are worth carrying forward:
Start with honest assessment, not technology selection. Digital transformation begins with a holistic evaluation of people, processes and technology using the SIRI framework, the world’s first independent digital maturity framework for manufacturers, recognized as a global standard for Industry 4.0 benchmarking. Only this type of a data-centered approach can ensure a reliable foundation to apply analytics, application logic and interoperability. In the early phases, up to 80% of digitalization effort may be spent on data housekeeping, but that work is not wasted, it is foundational. Prioritization plays a critical role in helping companies formulate an effective Industry 4.0 roadmap and strategy because it identifies the focus areas that generate the greatest value by driving informed decision-making and effective resource allocation based on positive impact, rather than technology trends or ad hoc requests.
Insist on fit-for-purpose solutions with lifecycle commitment. Most owner-operators seek suppliers with deep understanding of the intricacies of how they run their equipment, plant and facilities — not vendors pushing the latest technology. Yokogawa’s lifecycle-centric approach reflects a commitment to Plant stewardship by taking long-term responsibility for a plant’s health, performance and evolution, rather than simply delivering a system and stepping away. Whether implementing a new system or upgrading legacy infrastructure, … solutions evolve with client needs to maintain technological relevance, operational stability, and sustained value throughout the plant lifecycle. Through the OpreX portfolio — spanning information, control, measurement, consulting, execution, lifecycle and integrated solutions — Yokogawa ensures that technology is selected to solve specific operational problems and aligned to business KPIs, with a clear and phased roadmap.
Design for autonomy from the start. Yokogawa leads the transition from industrial automation to industrial autonomy (IA2IA) to help manufacturers unlock new levels of efficiency, sustainability and resilience. That is the destination. Every step of instrumentation digitization, controls integration, IT/OT convergence and data analytics is a step toward a plant that can run, learn, and optimize itself. The structured methodology — discover, design, develop — ensures a tailored, measurable and scalable transformation journey toward that destination.
Manufacturers that will lead the next decade are those that treat their automation, controls and instrumentation infrastructure not as a cost to maintain, but as the intelligence layer of the enterprise — and invest in it with the discipline, the right partner, and the long-term commitment that industrial transformation demands.
Edited by Mark T. Hoske, editor-in-chief, Control Engineering, Arrowfly, [email protected].
Keywords
Digital transformation, automation, autonomous operations
Consider this
How are your automation and digitalization implementations helping you to progress to autonomous operations?
You also might like
https://www.tuvsud.com/en-us/services/technical-advisory/cosiri-assessment-for-sustainability
