manufacturing is changing fast - here's how to stay ahead

Change is a continuous process, and in manufacturing, that process has only accelerated over the last 5 years. People, processes, and technology within the manufacturing environment are evolving in ways we’ve never seen before. Your workforce is adapting to new attitudes and expectations. Your processes are shifting to meet the increasingly stringent quality demands of your customers. And technology is advancing at a rapid pace, enabling new levels of both quality and efficiency on the shop floor.

Manufacturing companies have been participating in these changes for years, but today, stand on the threshold of something greater, a new generation of dynamic, business-changing technologies that will fundamentally revolutionize production as we know it. Automation is one key facet of this technological tidal wave. Traditionally, we think of automation as the use of machines and robotics to improve efficiency. But a second form of automation (operational automation) is taking center stage. This is the human-centric development of a digital assistant that works alongside the operator checking each action for:

• Quality - ensuring accuracy and compliance
• Completeness - verifying that no steps are missed
• Correctness - preventing out-of-sequence actions and production pauses

This technical partner doesn’t replace the operator, it empowers them, strengthening production outcomes while eliminating errors and inefficiencies. 

Businesses that adapt to this constant march forward will continue to grow, and those that resist will slowly fade away. The difference lies in how quickly a company embraces intelligent production management solutions that enable:

• Flexibility in changing environments
• Continual improvement through process feedback
• Quality enablers that reduce rework and waste
• Technologies that supports people, not replaces them

As manual processes give way to more automated digital ones, the nature of work will change. Access to work instructions will be enabled with on demand training and choices of automated routines to avoid human error. Data captured during production will quickly become information linked to analytical routines that can alert a person to a trend starting to take place. Every production order will generate data–data that becomes information, information that becomes insight, and insight that drives continued improvement. This is the new cycle of manufacturing evolution.

An intelligent production management solution integrated with an ERP and other local systems, can modernize the entire operational infrastructure of a company, making it more adaptable to people, processes and technology alike. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the most exciting advancements driving this transformation, but it depends on one critical input: clean, contextualized data. When layered on top of an intelligent production system, AI can enable:

• Real-time alerts to maintain compliance
• Inventory and material forecasts
• Smart updates to work instructions that eliminate production pauses
• Changes to optimize business revenue flow 

With the right foundation, these capabilities can help a company grow faster and smarter than its competition. 

Until recently, these kinds of tools were only available to large enterprises. That’s changing. There is now an intelligent MES system affordable to SMBs (Small and Midsize Businesses) that can serve as the foundation for growth, automation, and long-term maturity across industries. It may be a new window into the future of production management and control. It may even become the new standard for efficient manufacturing across an entire class of companies. What’s certain is this: it will empower manufacturers to manage and control the changes shaping our industry, one intelligent decision at a time.

From,

Tony Cuilwik

CIMx Software, Founder