Insights on operations, transformation & making change work

Most PLM projects apparently follow a familiar path. Leadership decides the organization needs PLM, a platform is selected, budget is approved, the program is launched – and then reality hits. Engineering works with multiple CAD systems, operations and engineering use different data structures, product data lives in several places, and the “simple” integrations that need to be built, turn into months of work.​ Two years later, the program is over budget, behind schedule, and nobody is sure whether it really delivers value.

After designing AI and machine learning solutions for network planning, sales optimization, and capacity scheduling in complex manufacturing operations and supply chains, one pattern stands out to me: the organizations that win with AI are not the ones with the most advanced models, but the ones with the most reliable data.​

Every organization with sustainability commitments faces the same challenge: proving them. Customers want to see ethical sourcing, regulators demand transparency on materials and emissions, investors expect ESG data, and supply chain partners need traceability for circular flows. The apparent solution is clear: implement a sustainability platform – digital product passports, mass balance tracking, supply chain traceability from raw material to end‑of‑life.​

Most organizations say they want to combine digital and sustainability. Many add “human‑centric” to the slide. Far fewer build teams that can actually deliver all three at the same time. Twin transformation is not just a strategy; it is a capability issue. If the wrong people sit around the table, you get great decks and no outcomes.​

In twin transformations – where digital, sustainability, and operations come together – governance is often treated as a template to roll out, not as a design question. Organizations pick a framework (project governance, SAFe, “agile at scale”) and apply it everywhere, regardless of the problem they are actually trying to solve.​

Traditional programs split work across silos. IT owns platforms, sustainability owns ESG, operations owns processes, and “change” is something that happens at the end. Every track has its own roadmap, its own steering committee, its own pilots – and integration is pushed out to “later,” where it becomes slow and painful.