And so I think a big part of it as a company, by setting these ambitious goals, it forces us to say whether we want to be number one or not, If we want to be at the top in these areas, if we want to continue to produce results, how do we get there using technology? And that really forces us to drop our assumptions because you can’t follow someone, if you want to be number one, you can’t follow someone to be number one. And so we understand that the way to get there is, of course, through technology and software as well as support and investment, but it’s really by being targeted. And if we look at these examples of how we’ve created the technological infrastructure to support these ambitious goals, we in turn must be ambitious because if if we bring a solution that’s also mine, it’s a duplication, that makes no difference, for example, that won’t propel us into the top 10 supply chains. It just doesn’t pass.
So I think at the top level, it starts with entrepreneurial ambition. And then, from there, we were able to organize ourselves at the intersection of business ambitions and technology trends to have very rich discussions and be the glue on how we bring together the many. such moving pieces because we are constantly scanning the technology landscape in search of new ones. Innovative and emerging technologies can join and be part of achieving that mission. And that’s how we set it up on the process side. For example, I think one of the things, and it’s also innovation, but it’s not talked about a lot, but for the community out there, I think it’s going to be very relevant, is, how do we always at the forefront of questions about data sovereignty and data localization? There’s a lot of need to rethink what your cloud, private, public, edge, on-premises should look like in the future so we can stay cutting edge and competitive in each of our markets. ourselves while responding to the growing guidance we’re receiving from countries and regulators regarding data localization and data sovereignty.
So in our case, as a global company listed in Hong Kong and we operate around the world, we had to really think deeply about architecture. of our solutions and applying innovation in the way we can design architectures for longer-term growth, but in an increasingly uncertain world. So I think there are a lot of drivers in a sense, it’s our company’s aspirations, our operating environment, there continues to be a lot of uncertainty and that’s really forced us to have a very sharp prism of advanced appearance. And technology is not always shiny. Cutting the edge could mean going to the executive committee and saying, Hey, we’re about to face a compliance challenge. This is the innovation we’re bringing in architecture so we can handle not just the next country or regulatory regime that we have to comply with, but the next 10, 50 countries. .
laurel wreath: Well, and to continue with a slightly more concrete example, how does R&D help improve manufacturing in software supply chains as well as emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and the industrial metaverse?
Art: Oh, I love this one because it’s the perfect example of how much is happening in the tech industry and there’s a lot going back to the original point of application curiosity and how we can try. this. So, specifically around artificial intelligence and the industrial metaverse, I think those things really align with Lenovo’s natural strengths. Our legacy as a leading global manufacturer and we are now also looking to transition to service-led, but applying AI and technologies like the metaverse to our factories. I think it would be easier to say the opposite, Laurel, which is if we… Because, and I remember very clearly that we outlined this, there is no area in the supply chain. and production unaffected by these areas. Actually, if I think about an example, it’s very timely that we are discussing this issue. Lenovo was recognized just a few weeks ago at the World Economic Forum as part of a global network of beacons of leading manufacturing.
And that relies heavily on taking AI and metaverse technologies and embedding them in every aspect of what we do with our own supply chains and production networks. And so, if I were to pick a few examples of the quality aspect in the factory, we’ve implemented a combination of the digital twin around how we can design to cost, design to quality in a much faster way than before, where we can prototype in the digital world, where it’s faster, it costs less, and fixes are quicker and more timely. So we can iterate our products much faster. We can have better quality. We used advanced computer vision technology to be able to identify quality defects earlier. We can deploy technologies around the industrial metaverse so that we can train our factory workers more efficiently and make better use of aspects of AR and VR.
And we can too, one of the really important parts of running a really efficient manufacturing operation is the production planning, because there are so many thousands of parts that are coming in and I think Those who are listening know how much uncertainty and volatility there is already in the supply chain. So how do you handle such a multidimensional programming problem and optimize it? That’s where we apply smart production planning models to keep our factories running at full capacity to meet customer delivery dates. So I don’t want to go on, but I think the answer is literally: there’s no place, if you think about logistics, planning, manufacturing, scheduling, shipping, where we don’t look. see AI and metadata use cases that can dramatically enhance the way we run our operations. And again, we are doing this internally and that is why we are so proud that the World Economic Forum has recognized us as a producer of the global lighthouse network. .
laurel wreath: This is certainly important, especially as we combine computing and IT environments in this growing complexity. So as businesses continue to transform and accelerate their transition, how do you build resilience throughout Lenovo? Because that’s definitely another essential trait.
