The worst may be over for the manufacturing industry as the pandemic is taking a downward turn. Even though a good number of manufacturers are yet to commence operations at full throttle, but it will not be a bad time to invest in strategic technologies that could prove instrumental after the pandemic.
While the end of the pandemic is not in sight yet, strengthening their technological capabilities should be considered. This could be what manufacturers need to maintain social distancing in their operational factories.
Even though investments are difficult to tale on during a period of uncertainty like this, manufacturers are without any other choice than to make the right decisions. To stay ahead and afloat, the following technologies are suggested;
Internet of Things
IoT is transforming a number of industries, including the manufacturing industry. While there are different use cases for IoT in manufacturing, three tops the list. These include remote monitoring and operations, just to be sure if the machines are running as scheduled.
Another use case is in the area of predictive maintenance and smart asset management. This will help to ascertain the state of the machines on the manufacturing floor. Lastly, there’s also the place of autonomous manufacturing, this will help the machines to run with little or zero human interaction. In the end, IoT will help to create a smart and automated factory, even beyond the pandemic.
Augmented Reality
Another important technological investment to be made in the manufacturing sector is into AR. Most importantly, the technology will allow manufacturers be able to train their employee remotely, even outside of the manufacturing environment.
There’s always a constant need to reskill employees, and AR has proven to be a viable alternative to providing the requisite knowledge.
However, based on the realities of the current period, AR will be relied on to provide safety, maintenance and quality assurance.
Digital Thread Technology
As simple as the digital thread idea is, it has become more relevant than ever before. According to Forbes, digital thread technology is the weave hat holds smart manufacturing together. Digital thread technology is one means to turn an economic powerhouse.
Through the digital thread technology, the manufacturing industry is able to reduce costs, improve decision making and create new ways of doing business. Digital thread technology can help with product retrieval, and recall. Ideally, it solves problems with equipment, materials, and customer issues.
Analytics
With the use of real time analytics platform, you are able to get an insight into the supply of your manufacturing chain. You are able to understand the cost and efficiency of every component in the production life cycle.
In essence, manufacturing analytics helps to reach better decision by visualizing the final results through analytics. Manufacturing analytics also helps you to create systems that can fix itself and perform under heavy load. More importantly, analytics helps to eliminate wasted time during the manufacturing process. When IoT is combined with analytics, manufacturers are able to get better results from the manufacturing process.
