While there has been a lot of buzz surrounding digital transformation in the manufacturing sector over the last few years, most manufacturers are still lagging behind in making the transition. This lack of transformation was made particularly evident by the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, explains author Vatsal Shah in a recent article for Forbes. “As a pandemic swept the globe, there were quickly winners and losers as an incredibly important driver emerged on top of the age-old manufacturing focus on quality and operations—agility.”
Shah explains that smart manufacturing contributes to more agile operations in a variety of ways, including:
Another issue that Shah presents is this: many manufacturers have implemented a digital transformation but have failed to achieve total transformation. As a result, their smart manufacturing initiatives have not gotten off the ground, so they do not enjoy any of the benefits listed above.
Shah believes that manufacturers are caught up in the belief that they must transform fully to an Industry 4.0 platform—that partial adoption of new technologies is not an option. However, in light of the benefits that smart manufacturing has to offer, sole focus on total transformation is not the best path for manufacturers. Shah concludes that “the moral of the story is this: Those large, bulky, difficult-to-implement IoT initiatives should be put on hold in favor of simple smart manufacturing solutions that can make a manufacturer more agile immediately.”
For more details, click here to read Shah’s article in full at Forbes.
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