Smart manufacturing, smart technologies. Smart, smart, smart. It’s a word thrown around a lot across different industries, but few more so in recent times than in the manufacturing industry. Touted by many as the secret to Industry 4.0, we speak of smarter manufacturing landscapes, but what does that look like? 

For businesses like yours, a smarter manufacturing ecosystem can enable the following:

• A reduction in costs and overheads
• Better visibility over resources, supply chain, workforce productivity and efficiency
• A safer workplace
• Better sustainability
• A leaner, more efficient workforce
• Increased productivity and product quality

“The right mix of technology adoption that strengthens the core (process automation, data analytics) while also pushing the edges can improve efficiency” ¹

Deloitte Manufacturing Industry Outlook, 2023

Leverage smart technologies to optimise and bolster your supply chain and OT.

By leveraging smart technologies, you can make your supply chain more efficient, cost-effective, resilient and productive. For example, you could:

• Increase visibility of the entire supply chain and supplier network 
  
• Improve agility and resilience by leveraging intelligent insights
• Optimise your resources and reduce the impact of skills shortages by enabling a lean workforce
• Reduce costs by reducing errors, automating processes and optimising inventory and space
• Drive more sustainable business practices by using key insights to reduce waste, consumption and your carbon footprint

“Harnessing the power of IoT and smart technologies is a strategic move toward driving success and sustainability in supply chain management” ²

- Entrepreneur, ‘How to Revolutionise your Supply Chain by Harnessing the Power of Smart Technologies’

With ongoing issues within the manufacturing industry impacting supply chains across the globe, manufacturers must be able to operate in a more agile and adaptable way to reduce the impact on their businesses. Issues with suppliers, materials shortages and shortages of skilled workers can have a huge impact on underprepared manufacturers. But by leveraging smart technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR) and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technologies such as intelligent sensors and RFID tags, you can:

• Diversify your supply network and work beyond your Tier 1 suppliers, with AI providing recommendations on the most cost-effective suppliers and making end-to-end tracking and monitoring automatic and seamless
  
• Use AI to assess what is working efficiently and what is not, e.g.– if a particular route or facility is causing delays, you can reroute to a more efficient one 
• Help mitigate the shortage of materials by using intelligent sensors to monitor and optimise inventory, helping prevent overstocking or stockouts
• Help mitigate skills shortages by leveraging robotic process automation to perform routine, repetitive and labour-intensive tasks, freeing your staff for high-value work

You can also utilise smart technologies to reduce costs and increase efficiency across your OT, facilities and supply chain. For example, automation could be used to operate a leaner workforce and reduce costly human errors, or AI and intelligent sensors could be used to balance inventory levels and optimise warehouse space. The data insights provided by AI can give you the visibility and control you need to see where costs can be reduced and efficiency boosted across your manufacturing function. Additionally, IIoT technologies can enable predictive maintenance of your equipment and machinery, reducing costly scheduled maintenance and possible downtime.

Sustainability and social responsibility is no longer a nice-to-have, so make it easier to track your carbon footprint and drive more sustainable business practices using AI. You can reduce your carbon footprint by using AI to analyse your energy usage and waste production. For instance, with insights into your transportation and logistics, you can optimise routes to reduce carbon emissions.

Engage your staff and delight your customers with smart technologies.

Mitigate the impact of ongoing skills shortages and threats to your supply chain by harnessing the power of immersive AR and virtual reality (VR)  technologies, automation, and robots. You can make your business a safer, more engaging place to work and maintain brand loyalty and customer experience with the following use cases:

• Use immersive AR and VR to improve training and speed up onboarding by overlaying operating instructions over machinery, or by providing next-level visualisation to aid design
  
• Leverage intelligent sensors and automation to improve workplace safety, with alarms being triggered when someone steps into an unsafe area or is not wearing the right safety gear
• Use automation and robots to take the repetitive, highly manual processes off your employees shoulders, with robots being able to pick and pack orders so your staff can focus on strategic activities
• Help ensure consistently high quality production, with automation and intelligent sensors picking up on faulty products reliably and quickly

By embracing innovation across your manufacturing landscape, you can help facilitate a more focused and motivated workforce, higher quality production and maintain the reputation your business has worked so hard for.

Smart technologies can help transform your business, from boosting plant and OT efficiency and productivity to driving cost savings. Now is the time to explore extraordinary possibilities.

We’ve worked with many manufacturers and helped them leverage the potential of smart technologies. Our industry experts have decades of relevant experience, enabling them to provide practical and effective advice. Then, our global network, computing and security expertise and extensive ecosystem can help you put those technologies into practice. We can help you de-risk transformation, accelerate change and achieve the promise of Industry 4.0.