Source: https://ppmi.lt/storage/app/media/docs/sirbest-practice-workshopmain-presentation-vpublication.pdf
The construction sector, retail industry, agri-food industry, textile industry, and automotive industry are considered the hardest to digitize in Europe. Starting from this reality, PPMI, a major European center for public policy research and analysis, examined the difficulties faced by companies in these industries in the digitization process, and the results were included in the Smart Industrial Remoting. Therefore, the study highlights the digitalization issues faced by companies in the agri-food industry in Lithuania, the automotive industry in Hungary, the construction industry in Romania, the retail industry in Poland, and the textile industry in Portugal.
Leviatan Design, present at the SME digitalisation workshop: how to make best practice a reality
Source: https://ppmi.lt/news-insights/smart-industrial-remoting-event-highlights-best-practices-sme-digitalisation
As part of the effort to analyze the difficulties companies face in the digitization process, PPMI organized in November 2022 the SME digitalisation workshop “How to make best practice a reality”, in collaboration with the European Commission, with the aim of presenting the best practices that SMEs from the above-mentioned industries can apply to accelerate their digitalization process. Rūta Gabaliņa, Senior Researcher at PPMI, presented at the opening of the workshop the principles of best practices that underpin the company’s digitization process: 1) ensuring proper management; 2) encouraging employees and collaborators to accept digitization; 3) setting strategic objectives for digitization; 4) ensuring the necessary skills; 5) ensuring that the planned digital intervention is feasible; 6) planning implementation; 7) using the advantages of the larger ecosystem and cooperation; 8) choosing a solution and technology provider that fits the company’s needs.
Essentially, these 8 principles refer to behaviors that can facilitate digitization within companies, regardless of their size, the level of digitization, or the chosen technology.
Leviatan Design, a success model in the digital transformation process
Cătălin Podaru, CEO of Leviatan Design, was invited to participate in the Digitalisation in Action panel, alongside Barbora Kudzmanaite, Research Manager at PPMI, Irina Toma, Coordinator of FIT – Digital Innovation Hub and Katrin Schade, Associate Researcher at the University of Leipzig, where he showed how Leviatan became a success model in terms of adopting and implementing new construction technologies.
Thus, Cătălin Podaru, CEO of Leviatan Design, explained that the basis of Leviatan’s digital transformation was a big picture of the objectives to be achieved over time.
“The transformation for us was rapid, by identifying needs, problems, and finding solutions. The first step was actually a real transformation of processes; the initial mapping of processes, their structuring, and then finding the right tools and software to implement these processes, faster and easier to use. Then, we proceeded step by step, and this helped us a lot also in terms of change management within the company, as changes came one by one, and people easily accepted these changes”, explained Cătălin Podaru, CEO of Leviatan Design.
Source: https://ppmi.lt/news-insights/smart-industrial-remoting-event-highlights-best-practices-sme-digitalisation
Cătălin Podaru, CEO of Leviatan Design emphasized that it is very important how SMEs manage their budget in the digitization process. Digitization is costly and perseverance is needed for success. Digitization must be seen in the long term, because its effects are not so visible in the short term. Initially, those engaged in this process may feel that certain activities are made harder, but once they get used to the changes, they will realize the advantages of digitization.
“Also, what is important for us in these changes is that we had an initial group of people, called champions, who adapted early, with a mindset oriented towards change, who were part of this process mapping, these process changes. We have an experimental phase in our company where we test the solution to see if it is viable, easy to adopt and then implement. And it is also a continuous process”, added Cătălin Podaru, CEO of Leviatan Design.
In the case of Leviatan Design, digitization is based on standardizing processes and strategies used, which facilitates easier learning by employees, and easier dissemination of lessons learned, as the company develops. Essentially, the continuous learning process, based on previous experiences and best practices, led to the development of an organizational memory.
“We wanted to create a system where things are done in a standard way, easy to adopt by any new employee, who, after quickly acquiring the necessary knowledge to perform a task, can improve it. In addition, to add to this system, our intention was also to create an organizational memory, as we want to keep our written processes and their strategies, all skills, and lessons learned step by step. In fact, we have a continuous process of learning lessons which we then easily disseminate to all our employees, so that the quality of the product or services we provide is predictable. Therefore, this system is at the heart of the company and provides predictability for both employees and customers”, Cătălin Podaru, CEO of Leviatan Design showed.
All the discussions that took place during the SME digitalisation workshop: how to make best practice a reality can be followed here: https://bit.ly/3W4HfMs.
The digitalization model of Leviatan Design company, included in a study published by the European Commission
As part of the initiative started by PPMI to facilitate the digitization process of SMEs, the good practices adopted by Leviatan Design regarding digitization were included in the Smart Industrial Remoting: remote working in non-digitalised industries – Pilot Project. Best Practice Collection report (D.6), published by the European Commission.
The study can be accessed here >>> https://bit.ly/3HsBEK7.
Leviatan Design has aimed from the beginning for the digitization of the company’s internal processes to be carried out in accordance with European Union standards in the construction field, wishing to achieve a high level of quality in all projects developed. We are honored that our digitization efforts are recognized internationally, which gives us one more reason to continue on this path.
PPMI, the institute that organized the SME digitalisation workshop: how to make best practice a reality, is a major European center for public policy research and analysis, based in Lithuania, which supports the public sector and civil society leaders around the world, to meet current challenges, providing easy-to-implement solutions that can lead to positive and lasting changes. More details about PPMI can be accessed here: https://ppmi.lt/.
