The new-look Bangladesh is experiencing many fresh perspectives in almost every sector. As for the country’s digital aspirations, the time seems right to brush, scrutinize, re-arrange, and polish the nation’s entire database.

The IMF speculates that the country’s GDP growth will slow down to 3.8% in 2025. However, it also indicates the possibility of the rate back up to around 6.7% in 2026. Industries are the major catalysts, and digitalization efforts have much to overcome to prepare for this upcoming challenge. First, all operational data must be digitally ready.

What is digital ready?

Industry 4.0, smart grid, smart city—these are the current buzzwords in first-world countries. Being digital ready is the first step to transforming those words into reality.

An operation or process can be called digital ready if all the steps/process data points are collected, cumulated, transformed, and formulated to a usable level, and a full-proof cycle is established to get the day-to-day values. Once a process or cycle is labeled ‘digital ready,’ that process information can be linked or uploaded to any database/ERP/MIS. That means the base foundation for Industry 4.0 of that process has been laid.

Achieving digital readiness

It varies from process to process and business to business. One key factor is to make all information about a process measurable. An example will make it easy. If a bank wants to make its customer database digital ready, let us see how it can accomplish that.

First, a master data template for a customer needs to be created. Next, all existing customer information will be transformed into this template. The primary focus while creating the template is making the fields quantitative. Suppose all address-related information will be converted into numerical codes.

The next step would be to create a new customer account form that aligns with the master data template. The best outcome will be making the form machine-readable. Thus, whether a new client fills out a hard copy or uses the web-based platform does not change the information pattern.

The last and most important step is establishing an automatic system-based crosscheck and eliminating human intervention as much as possible.

Once the bank’s entire customer data is digital ready, any regulatory authority can get appropriate and furnished data about the bank’s clientele and analyze any client or group of clients’ entire data without any error. Most importantly, it will eliminate the possibility of honest human errors or dubious attempts by anyone.

Let us see another example from a different industry: steel manufacturing. In Bangladesh, all steel manufacturing industries use secondary steel manufacturing processes to produce rebar, angle, channel, etc. This means using ferrous scraps to create molten metal and producing finished goods for the market.

The entire process data can be captured and polished to transition into a digital-ready plant using the most affordable and available instrumentation (several types of sensors) and information technology infrastructure. The first step is to install load cells and weighbridges at every step and transport all that data to an on-premises or cloud-based storage facility.

Currently, nearly all plants have load cells in most of the steps, and most of these data are captured in some digital or analog fashion. All these data can be transferred to a central database, which can be staged, time-tagged, cumulated, and transformed. So, from scrap entering through the factory gate to the truck carrying finished goods to the customer, all quantitative values are stored digitally in an accessible location.

Bangladesh’s steel industry is USD 4.9 billion in size. A digital ready database in this sector will enable it to track every single penny. Analyzing this data from various perspectives will provide new insights to eliminate waste, such as inventory holding costs, and improve productivity.

Bringing such a transformation in all sectors at a go will be disastrous. It is better to plan a pilot in one segment and move ahead step by step. Export-oriented industries and their contribution to the economy can be taken as a parameter to determine which industry/sector should be digital ready first.

Pharmaceuticals or the leather and footwear industries may be considered first. Both industries are advanced compared to other industrial sectors. Thus, the workforce, stakeholder mindset, and technical setups will be favorable to achieving the desired success.

The key is to move one baby step ahead at a time in the beginning period and gain pace to reduce the gap with first-world countries. So many potential markets and funding sources are untapped because we have not prepared our data. One critical example is the carbon credit; Bangladesh loses opportunities daily because of the lack of readily available data.

Clearly, augmenting industry practices with data-driven decision-making has many benefits. The foundation of data-driven decision-making lies in investing in properly capturing data and developing a skilled workforce to work with that data. To thrive in this Industry 4.0 age, we must set aside our short-term viewpoints and embark on this road to a data-driven industry.

Giasuddin M Tauseef is currently the country manager of Bangladesh SMS Group. He is a techno-commercial project professional with an electrical power engineering background. He has over 15 years of experience in heavy industries, especially power generation, distribution, steel, and non-ferrous manufacturing.