First, what is digitalization? It occurs when you use digital technologies to change a business model and provide new revenue- or value-producing opportunities. Digitalizing your organization can give you a competitive advantage by doing business better, faster, and cheaper than your competition.
It’s useful to think of digitalization as a process rather than an end result. When starting out, pick one goal at a time, such as the examples listed below:
- Eliminate paper from your processes.
- Digitize inspection data entry.
- Create a single date-entry console or app for field technicians.
- Develop a customer portal.
- Implement a consolidate master data repository.
Now, let’s dive into five areas where digitalization can benefit your inspection business.
1. Resource (inspector) management and utilization
Digitalization can minimize administrative tasks that your technicians perform. It’s becoming possible to combine human experts with assistive technologies, including the use of augmented reality (AR) to involve an extra set of inspector’s eyes remotely. Another possibility is to automatically track the hours your technicians spend performing certain inspection tasks in order to drive consistent work processes and create best practices. For example, you can isolate and tweak steps in an inspection process to achieve outcomes more efficiently.
2. Data capture and data management
Wouldn’t it be nice to digitally capture all of your inspection data into a searchable database? With newer technologies such as drones, robots, and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), including cloud computing and continuous monitoring, the need for the effective management of data is greater than ever. As a plus, such data capture and management reduces or eliminates paper including the errors resulting from paper reporting. It also keeps data secure and enables short- and long-term analytics of data.
3. Job-cost calculating
Digitalization can help you consolidate all job expenses to create a full job-cost picture. This means you can easily manage pricing to ensure profitability and flexibly accommodate price changes quickly and thoroughly. In addition, you can concentrate on business areas that are less cost-effective and create more competitive work proposals that retain profits.
4. Reporting to customers
This is an area that can lead to increased customer satisfaction and retention. Real-time progress reports that can be quickly created, updated, and modified as needed will increase the value of your enterprise for your client. Furthermore, analytics can be used to report trends and offer recommendations in order to make your business even more proactive and responsive to your client’s needs.
5. Billing
Finally, digitalization allows you to easily track necessary paper trails to consolidate and maintain digital records so that all processes and data collection are contained in a single source of record. Digitalization of billing can reduce days sales outstanding (DSO) with immediate invoicing and help you more easily vary your offerings based on customer needs.
In summary, digitalization of your NDT business can lead to long-term benefits, including
- a more efficient team,
- more ongoing knowledge,
- higher profitability,
- more value to customers, and
- better cash flow with less administrative overhead.
To learn more, watch the ASNT Learn video recording “Digitalization for Your Inspection Business,” available at: https://www.pathlms.com/asnt/events/2348/video_presentations/189412
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Bob Conklin is ASNT Educational Materials Developer, bconklin@asnt.org.
This webinar features Nasrin Azari, President and CEO of Floodlight Software, nazari@floodlightsoft.com. It was originally presented in January 2021 as part of the ASNT Learn Management of NDT series, hosted by Marybeth Miceli, Executive Director, NDTMA.
Photo from Shutterstock.