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DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION ACCELERATING DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
digital disruption and business transformation so that manufacturers can increase real-time visibility into their operations and provide important insights into each stage of the manufacturing process value-chain. One of the biggest perks to using low code
Ultimately, as access to application development is democratised this will
accelerate digital transformation, operational
resilience and efficiency in the manufacturing industry, meaning that low code is likely to be a permanent fixture within manufacturing
How can the manufacturing industry continue to accelerate digital transformation? Nick Ford, VP of product and solutions marketing for Mendix, shares the results of recent research...
policies, unexpected demand swings and potential supply disruptions, such as the current global chip shortage, all forcing companies to rethink their global manufacturing and supply chain strategies. Mendix research has found that 63% of IT
T
professionals in the manufacturing industry said that the pace of digital disruption during the pandemic has been greater than they expected. During COVID-19, most organisations have shown an incredible capacity to implement strategies such as: accelerating the digitisation of the shop floor with automation and robotics, introducing new collaboration tools and live-streaming to help customers. Digitalisation has become central to maintaining business continuity and responding to change and this trend is set to continue, with the same research finding that 79% of UK businesses are planning to further accelerate software development in the next two years. That being said, a substantial amount (70%)
of initiatives are not reaching their goals, and the costs of these IT and systems integration projects are high and often not in line with organisations business strategies. Ultimately, the accelerated digital
transformation is likely to continue developing at an accelerated speed. However, organisations require simplified workflows and engagement experiences across disciplines/
he COVID-19 pandemic has caused vast digital disruption in the manufacturing industry, with indefinite remote work
departments within a manufacturing organisation (vix. engineering, manufacturing, quality, supply chain or business operations) for this increased digitalisation to be effective. Fortunately, as manufacturers have become
increasingly reliant on technology, software experts have become more skilled at delivering quick and efficient low-code solutions to help businesses adapt. Low-code is essentially a ‘plug and play’ computing technique allowing professional and non- professional developers alike to use visual platforms that automate much of the development process. The UK is leading the way in low-code, with 80% of businesses already using low-code for business agility. Using traditional methods and building
platforms that connect cross-domain workflows from scratch can be a lengthy, expensive and time-consuming process, and time to deployment is longer than low code options. As a result of this, Mendix found that three-quarters of major software projects are currently behind schedule in the manufacturing sector. Low-code enables the creation of industrial
apps without the need to write software code, allowing manufacturers to convert paper forms into digital versions quickly and easily. This means that customers can access core manufacturing functionalities, while offering them the flexibility to quickly adapt to unforeseen challenges and accelerate digital transformation with less disruption to core systems. Low code is recognised to drive
50 DECEMBER 2021/JANUARY 2022 | PROCESS & CONTROL
and multi-experience is that end users from various departments can participate in building adaptive composable solutions and new digital experiences that cross traditional departmental boundaries. This makes it possible for organisations to develop a broad range of technologies in a one-stop shop. This allows citizen developers and business users with little to no coding experience to build applications with IT-approved technology. The Mendix study found that 70% of manufacturing organisations already rely on non-technical staff to help relieve pandemic-related pressure on IT departments. This number is likely to continue increasing
as operating costs, IT backlogs and the digital skills gap continues to impact UK businesses. One solution is encouraging more people with a wider range of skills to go into software development, creating possibilities for more diversity in IT teams. Mendix research found that IT professionals see low code empowering more people to break down social barriers to entering the IT field – particularly those without a college education (48%) and people of different ages (48%) and races (46%). Low-code creates possibilities for more diversity in supporting IT teams in engineering/R&D systems (like PLM, LIMS) or manufacturing/production systems (like MES/MOM, QMS, SCADA etc.); 40% of IT leaders say their IT department will become more diverse, with a greater range of ages, ethnicities, and backgrounds represented. Turning to low code offers employees the
ability to easily create purpose-built apps for every process and customise these apps for their specific workforce and application. The manufacturing industry embracing
digital technologies, such as artificial intelligence, automation and digital twins has been a long time coming, with this trend starting a few years ago, and accelerating during the pandemic. The result is an increasingly digital world which brings the need for digital and software skills, and with 76% of IT decision-makers across the world reporting departmental skills gaps, manufacturers are turning to low-code options to assemble new cross-domain digital experiences at the speed of innovation. Low code enables companies to fill the developer gap and organisational domain silos while keeping organisations digital thread unbroken from strategy to planning to design to manufacturing.
Mendix
www.mendix.com
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