Vesa Jaakkola is a Global Industry Domain Lead for Industrials and Manufacturing at twoday. We asked Vesa to share his insights about the challenges and future of the manufacturing industry and how he sees the industry growing with the use of modern technology.
He highlights how megatrends such as the green transition, aging workforce, and AI-driven digital transformation are reshaping the industry and how we can help global manufacturing companies navigate in a changing environment. With deep domain expertise and a customer-first approach, we are enabling smarter and more efficient operations.
Could you introduce yourself and tell us about your background in the manufacturing industry?
I’m Vesa Jaakkola, Global Industry Domain Lead for Industrials and Manufacturing at twoday. My role is to make sure that we stay relevant for our industry customers and are seen as a trusted partner in their strategic digitalization initiatives.
I have been working for over 20 years with Industrial companies - at both sides of the table, actually. In the late 90’s I was working at Metso and designing the digitalization of their global after-sales processes. And 10 years ago, I was working for Danfoss and their IoT business, where we optimized energy efficiency in residential buildings.
Last 8 years I have been mainly focusing on building new solutions with data and AI in various domains - for the automotive, pulp & paper, heavy machinery, and energy sectors to mention a few. In my work, I have seen how rapid technology development has enabled companies to speed up their own processes and gain significant benefits which was not possible 5 years ago.
What are the megatrends that are affecting the Manufacturing industry in the near future and how do you see these trends influence our customers?
72% of business leaders see AI as a central development area to their business in the next few years. Some of the biggest productivity gains will be received from optimizing various business processes and global supply chains, improving quality and HSE operations, and empowering employees to be more efficient in their work.
The green transition is also pushing companies to do more and improve their ways of working. In many businesses, it is also business-critical how well a company complies with regulations. Also, customers are becoming more demanding regarding the environmental footprint of their suppliers.
An aging population is forcing companies in industrials and manufacturing to automate their processes and use AI in the training and onboarding of new employees with less experience. As experienced workers retire and new employees are hired, companies are facing a growing skills gap. This change is growing the need for intelligent automation and AI-powered tools that can help with onboarding, knowledge transfer and maintain productivity.
What are the main challenges companies in the manufacturing industry are facing? And what kind of new opportunities technological development offers for them?
Tightening competition is forcing companies to invest more in their customer processes. Understanding your customers with better insights and predicting their needs is becoming more important. Luckily, modern technology like AI provides good tools for that. However, this requires that the data foundation needs to be in good shape.
Digitalization is enabling new types of business models for manufacturing companies. It might be that in the future customers are willing to pay for the performance and output of industrial equipment. The traditional business model of buying the equipment and paying for the after-sales services is being challenged by new ways of working. Building more intelligent machines and utilizing AI in their performance management is becoming more important in getting a competitive advantage.
Cybersecurity will play a very important role in manufacturing. The starting point is to understand the complexity of current IT/OT (information technology systems/operational technology systems) infrastructure and see the weaknesses before attackers can take advantage of them. When integrating IT with OT to improve various business processes, this convergence is greatly expanding the vulnerability area and allows potential security breaches in corporate IT networks to influence critical production environments, in the worst case, halting the operations or causing health and safety risks for employees.
Companies have invested lots of money in their current infrastructure like data platforms and CRM systems. Our aim is to help our customers gain the maximum benefits from their investments, because these platforms are already offering great capabilities to develop new AI-based digital services for the end customers as well as your own employees.
Optimizing the supply chain and the quality of production processes are also key areas of interest. Many manufacturing companies are currently thinking about how to utilize IoT (Internet of Things) data in their products and processes. Building suitable infrastructure to use AI applications in cloud and edge environments requires a detailed understanding on both sides.
How is twoday building the future of the manufacturing industry together with our customers?
Currently, our business is focusing on heavy machinery, pulp & paper, chemical industry, construction, automotive, and maritime sectors. We are working with the global leaders in their industries like Valmet, Metso, Konecranes, UPM, Stora Enso, Kemira, VARD, Saint-Gobain, Volvo, and Grundfos.
It is clear that data and AI solutions will play a crucial role among all of our customers in the coming years. We have already been a strategic partner for several customers at the start of their journey to become data-driven and bring AI into their business processes.
Our aim is to be a trusted partner for our customers on their AI adoption journey. By understanding their business and their data, we are in a good position to gain the benefits from AI. Typically, the first challenge with AI starts with the data that is not suitable for the problem we are trying to solve. Providing good-quality data to AI is crucial for success.
In the era of AI, it is clear that the role of data management and data governance will be more important in the future. AI is also bringing new ways of working and new tools in this area. We want to be at the forefront of utilizing these technologies for our customers’ benefit.
In addition to data and AI solutions, we are focusing on supporting our customers in design-led software development, cybersecurity and critical global business applications. In business applications, our focus is on sales, marketing and customer service processes.
Our extensive industry knowledge is a great asset when we are building new digital solutions. We believe that good business understanding combined with world-class technology expertise is the key to success. We are investing heavily in new technologies and AI tools to provide the best value in the market for our customers.
Please reach out to hear more about how we have helped our customers successfully solve their industry specific challenges and to discuss how we could help you solve yours.