Digitalising paper: how a people-focused approach drives innovation

Guy Lacey, Next Generation Technology Director at DS Smith, explains how digitisation plays a role in every aspect of his business, and how they're modernising whilst keeping people at the forefront

Manufacturing has been consistently improving ever since the industry was formed, yet paper is one material that has had seemingly little change over the last century. Throughout the last decade however, there has been a shift within the paper manufacturing industry towards digitalisation. This will bring one of the oldest production processes in line with modern developments, but how can the industry make sure that those employed in paper making positively embrace this change?

Making people a part of the change

Digitalisation can be applied to almost all aspects of our work at DS Smith. We're seeing it play a role in every side of our business and we're keen to play an influential, leading role in our industry in this space. For example, we're transforming the way we work by using data and machine learning to boost our use of smart and autonomous systems. This is especially transformative when it comes to delivering solutions that are connected, digital, intelligent, and autonomous and we're harbouring innovation to help modernise legacy processes.

Crucially, we're modernising whilst keeping our people at the forefront of our mind. Digitalisation will rapidly change the skill set required of our workforce day in and day out and we've worked closely with our team to develop their knowledge and be part of our future - in return they're growing the business and are now moving into increasingly senior positions within the company.

Our people-focused approach means that factory employees are making use of digital technology that is user friendly, which drastically increases engagement and the employee and stakeholder experience. New starters, who may have traditionally assumed our industry relies on paper-based systems and a lack of data, are now able to succeed in a workplace that has the capacity to allow them to develop their own digital visions for the future and continue to innovate.

This holistic approach to digitalisation has allowed DS Smith to become increasingly pragmatic, giving people the freedom to be entrepreneurial and provide them with the investment they need to develop innovative tools.

We already have several examples of our team's successes; through blockchain technology, they have developed real-time tracking of all paper reels and created their own unique code to reduce process variability and make an improved product. We are also linking paper mills to corrugators using AI, to better understand the relationship between the two. On a more personal level, we've harnessed VR to allow new recruits to step onto the shop floor remotely as onboarding from home has become the norm. Finally, the team have also developed smart packaging which allows us to communicate and track product journeys.

Driving sustainability with digitalisation

We are aware that our focus on sustainability, driven by our purpose of redefining packaging for a changing world, is often what engages and motivates our colleagues. With

any investment that we make in solutions, it's paramount that it further encourages colleagues to deliver our purpose. By implementing digitalisation as part of a broad vision for the future, we are structuring a way forward that innovates the organisation but still maintains a continual focus on sustainability and a first-class customer experience, especially during turbulent times such as Covid-19.

Digital solutions are already helping to drive forward our sustainability goals by reducing power consumption, reducing contamination in raw materials, and increasing the overall quality. We're also ensuring that we gather data from areas of our supply chain so that processes that were overlooked in the past can now improve key quality and sustainability drivers.

These key quality drivers include: supplier quality improvement, process optimisation, improved traceability, root cause solving and improved customer performance. Making key quality drivers identifiable by a connected end-to-end supply chain is a goal that we are currently striving towards. This will create an integrated view across the enterprise for our employees and allow them to better provide proactive solution management, creating complete visibility in real-time.

The new paper industry

There are several key benefits of digitalisation for DS Smith; the ability to motivate our colleagues and being able to identify, measure and then exceed our customers' needs. The challenge will come as we see digitalisation picking up pace and being worked into our processes throughout the business. It is essential that we continue to keep our people involved in these changes, as well as ensuring that they are positioned in line with our wider sustainability focus and the needs of all our stakeholders.

The industry has already proven that it can develop with the times and the advantages that our people will gain from increasing digitalisation will only grow over the coming years. We believe that the innovation that comes with digitalisation, which we are beginning to see across our business, will drive real positive change in the industry.