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INDUSTRY 4.0/DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION LOW-CODE BUILDING BLOCKS
Grace Nam, Strategic Solutions Manager, Manufacturing, Laserfiche, explores how the low-code/no-code approach breaks through many manufacturing roadblocks and how it can be harnessed as part of Industry 4.0
he realisation of Industry 4.0 provides hope for manufacturers dealing with an abundance of challenges, from skills shortages to supply chain disruption, increasing customer demands and stringent regulatory oversight. Manufacturers of all sizes know digital transformation is key to their survival, with the global smart manufacturing market forecast to grow to over $650 billion by 2029. However, as McKinsey recognises, a large majority remain stuck in pilot purgatory, struggling to capture the full potential of their transformation efforts or deliver a satisfactory return on investment.
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Undertaking industrial transformation can seem like a daunting task, one that lies beyond the reach of those on the front line of the business. However, impactful digitisation is not just the preserve of the IT department. With today’s low-code and no-code application development environments, those responsible for delivering efficiency and growth have transformative digital tools at their disposal — without the need for high- tech experience.
Low-code development tools empower individuals or teams to build processes, deploy electronic forms, automate workflows or integrate technology applications with little to no IT or programming support. This is achieved by providing users with an easy drag-and-drop interface to design and map out logic for applications, workflows and business processes. In short, low-code technology is a much-needed democratising approach to Industry 4.0.
Libraries of low-code templates provide 8 MAY 2023 | PROCESS & CONTROL
instant access to a world of digital assets that can revolutionise processes across entire operations. By both lowering the barrier to entry to create an app and speeding up development times, such low-code automation platforms enable organisations of all kinds to be agile in response to market conditions, increasing regulation and heightened customer expectations. According to Forrester, low-code platforms have the potential to speed up software development by as much as 10 times compared to traditional coding methods, while Gartner predicts that by 2025, 70% of new applications will be developed using low- code or no-code technology. Research published in the journal Applied Sciences explores why manufacturers use low-code development platforms; 66% are motivated to accelerate digital transformation and increase responsiveness to the business, while
45% pointed to the reduction of dependency on hard-to-hire technical skills.
The potential for low-code platforms within manufacturing is vast. Industry 4.0 hyperautomation through low-code platforms helps teams to easily bridge the gaps between unconnected technologies or disconnected processes across the organisation, enabling manufacturers to digitise data collection to transform processes. As such, low-code platforms are increasingly becoming the foundation of digital transformation initiatives, especially for manufacturers dealing with legacy processes that involve repetitive, manual, time- consuming tasks.
For example, traditionally, the Request For Quote (RFQ) process is involved and time- consuming, requiring employees to undertake numerous manual steps across various documents. Even today, it is still often a paper-based task.
In contrast, a fully automated, paperless process built using low-code tools saves significant time by both eliminating the physical routing of paper and also by auto- populating key information from centralised data. For example, one global manufacturer we worked with reduced RFQ processing time by 60% and doubled win rates. The beauty of such an approach is that it can be designed and deployed by non-IT staff with minimal support but maximum efficiency. Supported by a digital data repository where metadata can be stored and structured, various low-code solutions can be deployed to transform processes such as
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