The manufacturing industry is changing – quickly. The rise of eCommerce has driven the need for reliable and efficient manufacturing processes.
So, how are manufacturing companies keeping up with the changing demand and increasing their capacity?
Keep reading as we explore the manufacturing industry trends driving innovation, efficiency, and productivity.
ERP Manufacturing Software
ERP manufacturing software is helping manufacturing businesses improve project management, productivity, and operational oversight. With ERP manufacturing software, you can access the following benefits:
- Live inventory management – manufacturing companies can stay on top of their raw material needs and ensure no delays in production with live inventory management. You can manage your inventory per your bill of materials to ensure you have the resources you need for production.
- Real-time master planning – use a single platform to gain oversight into your productivity and inventory levels, and set achievable goals for your teams.
- Purchase order tracking – you can easily manage your orders in line with your inventory levels, ensuring that your manufacturing business can always meet customers’ demands.
- Costing – the costing feature of the software allows you to keep track of your expenditure and profits and spy opportunities to cut costs and make significant savings on your daily operations.
- Custom workflows – you can create and oversee custom workflows for your manufacturing teams easily and quickly to ensure coordination from top to bottom within your business. Aligning your teams with shared goals is essential to achieve your overall goals.
For the above reasons, ERP manufacturing software is becoming an essential investment for businesses in the manufacturing industry. Consider investing in software solutions to provide your business with seamless oversight, uniting your data on a single platform for analysis and insight.
Predictive Maintenance
One of the biggest inhibitors to productivity in a manufacturing environment is maintenance. If your equipment and manufacturing tools need repairs, your productivity will plummet. Predictive maintenance is an AI solution that can help you to stay on top of your maintenance requirements. If you perform repairs early, you can ensure that repairs do not inhibit productivity, performing them conveniently when you won’t need to halt operations.
Predictive maintenance can let you know when parts are due for replacement and keep track of your repair records to make accurate predictions for future care. Productivity is critical in a manufacturing environment, making this technology extremely valuable. This is why accessing your data quickly and securely for troubleshooting and analysis via a process data historian software is crucial.
Cybersecurity
Many manufacturing businesses are implementing cloud-based software and technology to improve daily operations. However, the need to focus on cybersecurity comes with adopting new cloud technologies. When you store data in the cloud, it becomes vulnerable to interception by third parties.
For this reason, many manufacturing businesses invest in firewalls, cybersecurity staff, encryption, and other cybersecurity technologies.
However, many businesses need to remember to implement employee training. Human error is one of the leading causes of security and data breaches. Many manufacturing companies are implementing employee cybersecurity training to ensure they practice healthy cybersecurity to minimize this risk. This training covers password health, software updates’ importance, and spotting and avoiding malicious online activity.
Smart And Sustainable Products
Sustainability is a huge selling point in the manufacturing industry. Customers are veering towards sustainable and eco-friendly products with the increased concern over global warming and pollution. In response to this demand, the manufacturing industry is prioritizing the manufacturing of the following products:
- Smart products – smart appliances that minimize energy usage to reduce carbon footprint.
- Sustainable raw materials – manufacturing businesses are switching to sustainable alternatives for the raw materials they use to create their products.
- Recycled materials – increasingly, more manufacturing companies are investing in recycled packaging and product materials to ensure sustainable practices.
In these ways, the manufacturing industry prioritizes the planet and meets the increased consumer demand for smart and sustainable products.
3D Printing
3D printing is driving productivity in the manufacturing industry. Many parts are complex, requiring additional effort and precision during the manufacturing process, making the production of these parts more time-consuming. By implementing 3D printing, many manufacturers are automating the production of these complex parts. Automating the process allows for more accuracy, reducing the margin for human error and, thus, waste. It also allows for quick production of these parts, speeding up manufacturing.
IoT Devices
IoT devices are taking every industry by storm, and the manufacturing industry is no different. IoT devices enable remote visibility and management for manufacturing processes, allowing staff to operate production processes, security, and inventory management remotely. IoT, however, brings about the need for cybersecurity, as mentioned earlier.
Summary
With the changing customer sphere comes the need for manufacturers to keep up. There are currently labor shortages in the manufacturing industry, and using this technology, manufacturing businesses can ensure a lack of staff causes no gaps in productivity. Consider which technologies would provide the most ROI for your manufacturing business and the holes they can cover in your manufacturing strategy.
