Your enterprise suffers when your shop floor is operating poorly. This is why you should make it a top priority to improve your shop floor first before other digital initiative. A lot of manufacturers are gearing up for change. Many enterprises will be impacted by digital technologies that are constantly changing processes and re-inventing manufacturing. Your shop floor will have the most impact of digitalization. It will be more evident because that is the heart of the manufacturing enterprise.
Without digital transformation, your business will get left behind
Digital transformation is the digitization of procedures, workflows, and processes that were conducted by hand previously. Digital transformation is all about modernizing your business to remain competitive in the 21st century and to remain that way for life. If you don’t embrace this, your enterprise will be old-fashioned, you would still be using manual labor and have high risks of being obsolete and going out of business because of the inability to cope.
It drives the manufacturing renaissance
In case you are wondering what this is, it is what we call the “bigger picture”. The 4th industrial revolution is giving way to the manufacturing 5.0 where new technologies are coming out from all sides Manufacturing renaissance is simply embracing entirely new production techniques and business models that can be disruptive to traditional theories and methodologies. Some of the technologies that contribute to this manufacturing renaissance are:
- Mobile hardware (Enterprise mobility)
- Automated data collection (ADC)
- Cloud-enabled software and SaaS
- Additive manufacturing (3D printing)
- Physical and process automation
- Robotics and smart materials
- Internet of things (IoT)
- Artificial intelligence (AI) & machine learning
These technologies are becoming familiar, increasingly feasible to use due to lower cost, brings faster returns on investment (ROI), and reduces the total cost of ownership (TCO).
Manufacturing is critical to the economy
The manufacturing sector is becoming more important than ever. It occupies a core component of the U.S GDP and it generates trillions of dollars every year. The manufacturing sector employs millions of people, creates many of the world’s goods, and even contributes to U.S economic output.
Technology keeps adding more value than ever
Do you know that the manufacturing and supply chain have been under tremendous pressure to cut costs and increase production?Technology is the key to addressing and overcoming these challenges today. and providing a pool of valuable data that enhances one’s ability to better business decisions. New technologies will help manufacturers uncover efficiencies at every stage of the production process like quality control, basic input of raw materials, output, storage, and distribution of finished products.
Is your shop floor ready for digital transformation? How ready are you to implement this?
Before you consider digitalizing your organization, you have to have a clear understanding of your current environment.You first and foremost have to know what is on your shop floor. A lot of manufacturers and distributors are stuck with analogue machines which have limited or no facility to connect digitally. The best way to carry on the digitalization of your factory floor is to assess the effectiveness of your processes, know where the problems are, and focus specifically on them. Then ask yourself these important questions:
- What are the problems in my business?
- What is the biggest problem I have to resolve?
Then start resolving them one at a time. Once you have proven success, ask yourself “what else can I do?”. Don’t try to start with a big bang approach if not, you will spend a large amount of money without addressing the specific issues you are facing in your factory/organization. To do this, you need insight into factory, equipment performance, and employee using technology to automate data collection, effectively identify the places you are experiencing losses.
What to consider when starting your journey
Value-to-cost ratio
You have to select an ERP that offers a plug-and-play solution to digitalize your factory floor and reduce the associated complexity and costs.
Type of middleware
The data pulled from the machines is collected, collated, and translated by middleware before it is integrated into your ERP solution.
Hardware and infrastructure costs
Computing power is needed to deal with all the information and turn it into something useful.
Does your ERP have the right interface to connect to the middleware?
The ERP software does not connect automatically to the machinery, it needs an interface to connect it to the machinery.
Type of ERP needed
To collect data from your crews, equipment, and employees, the ERP has to provide a human-machine interface for manual start-stop data collection. It should also include automatic data collection (IoT) that combines both the above and collects data from RFID/Barcode entries. How do you start? Consult and appoint an automation specialist to help you on this journey. He/she will:
- Conduct an audit of your technology
- Process customer interactions and partner interactions
- Identify gaps, bottlenecks, and missing pieces in your equipment
An automation specialist will also help you assess your environment, tell you the machines that can and cannot connect digitally, and make recommendations on the best way forward for your business. The importance of digital transformation of is obvious. Now is the time to hop into the digital transformation bandwagon and improve your factory floor. Don’t allow your organization to be left behind. get started with an assessment from Qixas. Contact us today.
