ADVANCED MANUFACTURING NOW Modern Manufacturing Processes, Solutions & Strategies
CONNECTING EVERYTHING REQUIRES STRONG IT PLAN
C
an we remember life before the acceleration of technology in the last 20 years that has
resulted in internet-enabled technolo- gies being both an integral part of daily life and essential tools for busi- ness? For manufacturers, the flood of such technologies—cloud computing, smart devices, Internet of Things, mo- bile communications—is changing the business landscape fundamentally. In addition to ‘local’ efficiency/pro- ductivity improvements—a faster or higher quality production process, bet- ter monitoring of factory activities and processes, or better information shar- ing between two participants in the supply chain—these technologies open up opportunities for improvement right across the extended enterprise. They allow entire traditional supply chains and product lifecycle processes to be completely re-engineered. Even before the internet we used
to talk about ‘pull-driven’ supply chains, where the whole system was so integrated and responsive that it could meet a customer requirement if not from scratch, then from a point as far towards the origins of the product as was feasible given the acceptable delivery time. However, access to the technologies like ERP, Supply Chain management (SCM) and Product Life- cycle Management (PLM) that are key to effective information sharing used to be difficult for smaller companies in the supply chain. Today, though, internet-enabled
connectivity allows sharing of bang- up-to-date commercial and product data from end to end through the supply chain, as well as high levels of
communication with the customer, thereby achieving levels of respon- siveness (and product accuracy) that were not possible before. The result should be shorter lead times, im- proved product quality and reduced inventory—no more of the inventory accumulation at points in the supply chain resulting from so-called ‘fields of dreams’ planning.
While all of this sounds like the opening up of a whole new world for manufacturers, fully exploiting the potential requires a rather sophisti- cated IT infrastructure that is highly integrated all the way from planning to real-time operations—that is, all the way from ERP to the manu- facturing execution system (MES). There’s a lot of functional overlap to
A FLOOD OF WEB-ENABLED TECHNOLOGIES OPENS A WHOLE NEW SEA OF POSSIBILITIES, BUT MANUFACTURERS NEED A RATHER SOPHISTICATED IT INFRASTRUCTURE TO NAVIGATE THAT SEA.
For the product lifecycle, the poten- tial changes are even more dramatic with the ultimate prospect being full closed loop integration from concept to end of life. Internet-enabled con- nectivity and cloud-based application infrastructures allow practically what- ever level of communication the par- ticipants in the project want through the product development phase. Then, smart connected devices for collect- ing in-service performance data and condition monitoring are transforming the provision of product servicing, even allowing detailed and up to date tech- nical information—like virtual product definitions in the form of 3D models, animations and service data—to be delivered to the service engineer’s mo- bile device. So not only is there a great services opportunity but demand for spares or replacement can be managed even more effectively based on the product’s operational condition. The data collected gives invaluable feed- back to inform product improvements.
be grappled with. And in the new era of smart products and IoT connec- tivity, there’s an additional complex- ity—integrating the management of the lifecycle of the embedded software into the product lifecycle management picture. Providing the necessary support for this ‘applica- tion lifecycle management’ (ALM) aspect is currently PLM’s biggest technical challenge. Overall, then, manufacturers are
confronted with an opportunity and a problem—the opportunity of highly connected integrated supply chains and product lifecycle management processes, but the problem of what IT infrastructure to build to achieve them. Each manufacturer needs a strat-
egy to allow it to define the right combination of technologies and then exploit it. The key to this is to get below all of the high-level hype associated with cloud, IoT and so on and to identify real solutions to deliver success.
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Tony Christian Director
Cambashi
Spring 2016
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