“Any good digital transformation opportunity starts by having the end in mind,” Nucor Corp. chief digital officer Joe Stratman said Wednesday, speaking at AIST’s inaugural Digital Transformation Forum for the Steel Industry.

The conference, being held this week in Pittsburgh, Pa., USA, drew more than 200 industry representatives, who are hearing from a variety of experts on the integration and practical application of digital technologies, such as artificial intelligence.  

Drawing from his experience at Nucor, Stratman said successful deployment of digital technologies requires some forethought and planning. And in the course of that planning, steel companies should identify a specific need that a digital technology could fulfill.

“It is very easy to waste resources developing solutions for poorly defined problems. The more clearly you can define your objective, the more precisely and more efficiently you can get to your answer,” he said.

“You must have a vision about what value will be derived by solving a particular problem. Ask yourselves, ‘How much upside is there if I address and answer this problem?”