Manufacturing companies are struggling to digitally transform themselves using a suite of tools and techniques collectively known as Industry 4.0. Industry 4.0 is hitting the manufacturing industry like a tsunami. Gartner in its report “How to Make Our Industrie 4.0 Predictions a Reality, Faster,” projects that “By 2022, more than half of all implementation projects in heavy manufacturing industries globally will leverage the principles of Industrie 4.0, compared to less than 10% now.” (Note: Garter refers to it as “Industrie 4.0,” not “Industry 4.0").
The most important key to getting to Industry 4.0 may well be data analytics and business intelligence, according to the Forbes article, “5 Proven Ways Manufacturers Can Get Started With Analytics.” The article points out: “Going into 2020, manufacturers are at an inflection point in their adoption of analytics and business intelligence (BI). Analytics applications and tools make it possible for them to gain greater insights from the massive amount of data they produce every day. And with manufacturing leading all industries on the planet when it comes to the amount of data generated from operations daily, the potential to improve shop floor productivity has never been more within reach for those adopting analytics and BI applications.”
"With manufacturing leading all industries on the planet when it comes to the amount of data generated from operations daily, the potential to improve shop floor productivity has never been more within reach for those adopting analytics and BI applications.”
The article offers sound advice on how manufacturers can use data analytics and business intelligence. It recommends that companies first start with a solid business case outlining what they hope to accomplish in their supply chains, production or fulfillment operations.
Once that’s done, manufacturers must focus on what data they need to focus on in order to reach their goals. The article recommends focusing on manufacturing cycle time, supplier inbound quality levels, perfect order performance, return material authorization (RMA) Rate as a percent of % Of manufacturing production, and yield rates by product, process, and plant location.
Manufacturers should focus on better data collection for manufacturing cycle time, supplier inbound quality levels, perfect order performance, return material authorization (RMA) Rate as a percent of % Of manufacturing production, and yield rates by product, process, and plant location.
Mobile technology plays a role in all this as well, because mobile is used to gather the data, send it to the proper systems, and then be used by management and workers on the shop floor itself to make the most of the data. Samsung executive Josh Gibson explains in a blog post: “Forward-thinking manufacturing companies are using mobile devices as the platforms through which plant management and workers can access…technologies with ease — and at scale — to create an agile, responsive and truly collaborative environment.”
The Best Platform to Help Manufacturers Reach for Industry 4.0
To do all that, manufacturers must select the right technology to allow their team to deliver the data collection apps they need to build manufacturing apps that deliver on Industry 4.0. And Alpha TransForm (for non-developers) and Alpha Anywhere (for developers) are ideal to help manufacturers digitally transform their businesses. Alpha TransForm and Alpha Anywhere can work independently or together as a single platform and are ideally suited for digital transformation. Alpha TransForm helps business users craft online or offline mobile apps in minutes that utilize the latest mobile features (camera, GPS, etc.) for fast, accurate data capture. Alpha Anywhere has the unique ability to rapidly create mobile-optimized forms and field apps that can easily access and integrate with any database or web service and can exploit built-in role-based security or robust offline functionality. Try our manufacturing quality software: Gemba Walk, 5S Audit or Non-Conformance Report Template for free.
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