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Digital Transformation: A Digital Manufacturing Data Record

The manufacturing industry must transform digitally, but not all companies are on board. Smart factories have reduced costs and improved products with quality control software. However, 40 percent of manufacturers have not launched a digital technology pilot, according to a McKinsey survey. And many that are already onboard may not fully realize how central mobile manufacturing apps are to Industry 4.0.

Are you a manufacturer not yet sure of how vital mobile is to digital manufacturing? An article in Machine Design, “How Mobile Devices Help Manufacturers Get Ahead in the Digital Age,” details three ways mobile technology help.

3 Ways Mobile Devices Are Keeping Manufacturers Competitive 

  1. The first way, the article notes, is using mobile devices to improve quality control (QC) and inventory management. Manufacturers traditionally manually do quality management on products coming off the production line and record the information on clipboards.
    The author notes, “Mobile devices with cameras for thermal imaging or dimensioning can be used by QC to record this data faster, from anywhere in the production process and shared with the entire organization in real-time. If a worker uses a clipboard to record data, those top-level decisions happen much slower, and more faulty items are produced as a result.”
    Mobile apps and devices can use tools such as barcode scanners to speed inventory management. Apps can also be used for additive manufacturing quality checks and throughout the product life cycle.Digital manufacturing
  2. Mobile can also be helpful with predictive maintenance, the article notes. Using a mobile device, workers can run diagnostics directly on equipment and then capture and share the data.
    The article says that in doing this, “Workers can capture, share, and respond to maintenance data in a way that can dramatically impact the quality of the end product and the overall productivity of the organization. In addition, this information can then be fed into analytics databases to be utilized for predicting future maintenance at the optimal time.”
  3. Finally, mobile technology can improve operations, the article says. Workers and managers can “access critical information wherever they are in the plant, which is essential to real-time data sharing and fast decision making.”

The Best Digital Tool for Manufacturers

Manufacturing tabletTo build mobile apps that enable digital manufacturing and  Industry 4.0, manufacturers need to choose the right software. Your employees need a solution that lets them digitize manufacturing processes quickly and easily. Alpha TransForm is an ideal choice.

The Alpha TransForm Quality Manufacturing Solution creates custom manufacturing apps that solve real manufacturing problems. Alpha TransForm solutions speed data collection using mobile devices, then improve data insight using a powerful built-in analytics engine with dashboards.

All Alpha TransForm solutions are optimized for one-handed data entry on the shop floor. These apps utilize the latest mobile features (camera, GPS, etc.) for fast, accurate data ollection. The best part - Alpha TransForm eliminates back-end data entry because apps can tie into your company systems and workflows. 

Book a Meeting with Us - explain your business problem and we'll build the right solution for you.

Alpha Software has extensive experience working with manufacturing data for companies like Boeing, Honda, Igloo, and others. Our experts can help you turn paper forms into mobile apps that collect better manufacturing data. We can help you build custom data analytics reports. And we can help you tie any data you collect into any database or export the data to Excel.

Once you go paperless, you'll not only save money on paper printing costs. You'll save overhead on office space and file cabinet storage, You'll also see work hours decrease because employees will spend less time recording data or re-keying it into company systems. You will spend less on printers, toners, and repairs. And your team won't spend time looking for information or searching for lost forms.

 

 

Alpha Solutions for Manufacturing

Digitize Manufacturing Technology

Data Collection Apps with Data Analytics for Inspectors, Engineers, Assemblers and Production Teams

Create digital threads for:

Gemba Walks  •  5S Audits    Workplace Audits  •  Equipment Inspections  •  Non-Conformance Reports  • Yellow Sheets  
Temporary Deviation Authorizations  •  Shortage Sheets •  Supplier Defects Per Unit Reporting  •  ISO Certifications    Safety Inspections  •
Work in Progress Tracking  •  Inventory Tracking  •  Supply Chain Tracking •  Workplace Wellness  •  and more,,,

 

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About Author

Amy Groden-Morrison
Amy Groden-Morrison

Amy Groden-Morrison has served more than 15 years in marketing communications leadership roles at companies such as TIBCO Software, RSA Security and Ziff-Davis. Most recently she was responsible for developing marketing programs that helped achieve 30%+ annual growth rate for analytics products at a $1Bil, NASDAQ-listed business integration Software Company. Her past accomplishments include establishing the first co-branded technology program with CNN, launching an events company on the NYSE, rebranding a NASDAQ-listed company amid a crisis, and positioning and marketing a Boston-area startup for successful acquisition. Amy currently serves as a Healthbox Accelerator Program Mentor, Marketing Committee Lead for the MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge Launch Smart Clinics, and on the organizing team for Boston TechJam. She holds an MBA from Northeastern University.

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The Alpha platform is the only unified mobile and web app development and deployment environment with distinct “no-code” and “low-code” components. Using the Alpha TransForm no-code product, business users and developers can take full advantage of all the capabilities of the smartphone to turn any form into a mobile app in minutes, and power users can add advanced app functionality with Alpha TransForm's built-in programming language. IT developers can use the Alpha Anywhere low-code environment to develop complex web or mobile business apps from scratch, integrate data with existing systems of record and workflows (including data collected via Alpha TransForm), and add additional security or authentication requirements to protect corporate data.

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