Current economic pressures are forcing manufacturing industry to focus on lowering costs and reducing time to produce new products and variants and mobility adoption in manufacturing industry is enabling them to meet their business goals.
According to PwC’s 18th Annual Global CEO Survey, 86% of CEOs say a clear vision of how digital technologies including mobile can be determinant to the success of their investments.
How mobility is revolutionizing manufacturing
Mobile technologies are driving a revolution in manufacturing today. Companies have begun to embrace mobility in manufacturing to manage data more effectively and to increase productivity. Mobile technology enables manufacturers to improve existing processes ensuring conformance to the official operational procedure at every stage.
Some of the key ways in which mobile technology is changing the manufacturing industry include:
Access to real-time data
Manufacturing execution systems or MES are software systems can help managers to monitor, gather, and process real-time data. The availability of live data reduce the time spent on manual data entry and can improve analysis. Learning about errors or issues in real-time help to get a fast reaction and lead to positive outcomes.
Portability
Mobile apps are designed for on the go so you can use it anytime wherever you are. For instance, tablets allow workers to conduct quality checks, send out alerts for any problems and update job status instantly.
Mobile data provides access to work orders, maintenance schedules, schematics and procedures while on the go boosting productivity and efficiency. The ability to quickly update the status of a project or discuss it in real time may allow managers to be more proactive and present in the field.
Improved reporting
Most manufacturing processes involve multiple stages of production. Having real-time updates and performance metrics accessible to all personnel involved at any stage reduces production time. Having manufacturing intelligence ensure production and quality is hold in compliance.
Quality and inventory management
Quality management is a key process in any industry. In manufacturing, quality management keeps track of suppliers. Therefore, using an efficient tracking and reporting system for inventory can also reduce man-hours and cost involved in maintaining it manually. This industry is moving toward asset performance management (APM) which circumscribe the capabilities of data capture, integration, visualization, and analytics, improving the reliability and availability of physical assets.
Improved monitoring production
Tracking machine-level compliance and providing alerts to production engineering when maintenance is required. In highly regulated manufacturing industries including medical products, production machinery and systems need to be regularly calibrated to stay in compliance.
Predictive analytics
Manufacturing intelligence such as data collection enable predictive analytics on various cost metrics, cost analysis, comparative financials and defective monitoring and costing analysis and other metrics that can increase your business competitiveness.
Logistics and supply chain coordination
Mobility can enable better coordination when it comes to industries where the inventory turnover is very quick. In cases where production timelines are very tight and profit margins are very low, mobile systems provide effective real-time tracking and reporting to prevent losses and reduce costs.
Tracking machine-level compliance
Mobile solutions can provide alerts to production engineering when maintenance is required. In highly regulated manufacturing industries including medical products, production machinery and systems need to be regularly calibrated to stay in compliance. Manufacturers are starting to use mobile-based sensors to capture this data and report it in real time. Production and quality engineering teams get the alerts immediately and can plan on how to keep an entire shop floor continuously in compliance.
Bottom line
Mobility is making manufacturers compete in their prospects and customers timeframes while delivering higher value in less time than before. Mobility solutions are certainly introducing powerful new means of achieving efficiency in the manufacturing space, which are giving employees more access and visibility into information and speeding up production processes and cycles. Mobility allows manufacturers to integrate tasks in order to improve operational efficiencies and increase productivity.
