Lean revisited: Taking a fresh look at lean manufacturing strategies

whitePaper | November 28, 2022

Smart manufacturing is driving the manufacturing industry to modernize its software infrastructure. Whether you call it Industry 4.0 or the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), manufacturing is in the midst of a significant transformation. A key motivation in this push to modernize is that realtime data and dynamic decision making yield meaningful performance improvements for businesses.

whitePaper | March 23, 2023

The fourth industrial revolution is transforming the manufacturing industry as we speak. Industry 4.0 is digitally driven, and like all other revolutions, the transformation did not happen overnight. Since the first personal computer on a factory floor in 1970s, computer-aided design has developed and matured exponentially. Strategically eective evolutionary steps has resulted in productivity and eciency gains in manufacturing. We live in the Industry 4.0 era, characterized by the digitization of manufacturing processes. Inevitably, today, information plays a significant role for an enterprise transformation. Data on how the product’s design and manufacturing information is authored, exchanged, and processed is critical to competitiveness. Information ‘silos’ for various life cycle processes are gradually connected to form a digital thread of information, envisioned to integrate and drive modern product design, manufacturing, and product support service processes.

whitePaper | March 17, 2022

Manufacturing industry professionals must corral and understand massive amounts of data from many systems to drive operational efficiencies, higher levels of service, supply chain resiliency, and ultimately a complete view of the business. Having the ability to explore the impact of and interplay among changes in production efficiency, product quality, customer demand, and service excellence isn’t possible without visibility into data and meaningful data analytics. This “big data” approach to manufacturing operations and supply chain optimization can deliver big results and is at the heart of the digital transformation initiatives of many industrial companies.

whitePaper | April 25, 2022

In the late 18th century, the first industrial revolution transformed hand production methods into steam machines. The second industrial revolution which occurred at the end of the 19th century revolutionized communication and transport methods with the telegraph and railway. The third revolution brought computing power to manufacturing processes in the second half of the 20th century.

whitePaper | November 17, 2022

Changing customer expectations, coupled with pandemic, natural disaster, and geo-political impacted supply chain delays, renewed the spotlight on business agility and digital maturity in manufacturing. Just as customers demanded more transparency into the production process, the world saw shortages of raw materials and parts, pushing droves of manufacturers to reevaluate the way they do business. For many, the answer was smart manufacturing—achieved through cloud-based technologies that simplify digital transformation.

whitePaper | October 23, 2021

Artificial Intelligence (AI) will increase the level of intelligence in the manufacturing industry by promoting, inter alia, the matching of production and demand, improving quality inspection, increasing product yield, reducing product failure rates, and improving production efficiency.1 While the last decade of Industry 4.0 was determined by technology-driven innovation, the coming years will focus on data- and intelligence-driven innovation. In this perspective, AI is an enabler for the transition from smart factories towards intelligent factories with self-optimising and self-healing characteristics. While smart factories are capable of applying previously acquired knowledge, intelligent factories will be able to autonomously acquire new knowledge and apply it for self-optimisation purposes.