Smart Manufacturing

whitePaper | August 3, 2022

Automakers, OEMs, and suppliers have faced unprecedented challenges in the wake of COVID-19. From chip shortages to truck barricades on the US–Canada border cutting off the flow of products, the automotive industry has been severely impacted by challenges that are leading to a loss of sales and frustrated customers. Advanced technologies are no longer “nice to have” but are now essential as automotive manufacturers step up their game to provide customers with more for less. Patched together, legacy systems, and outdated functionality tend to create more confusion than answers. Disconnected, siloed teams struggle with unreliable data and no clear vision for gaining new customers and retaining the old.

whitePaper | December 22, 2022

Most manufacturers have a limited understanding of what it’s like to own and manage a robotic automation system. In fact, according to an MITsourced survey, 90% of U.S. manufacturers have zero robots in their facility1 .

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 | November 22, 2022

Manufacturers are facing a time of unprecedented challenges. Global supply chains are being stressed by rapidly shifting political and macroeconomic environments. Customer expectations are rising and loyalty is waning. And the pace of digital transformation is putting growing pressure on organisations that are often still dependent on legacy systems.

whitePaper | August 29, 2022

With the evolution of Industry 4.0 and the focus placed on lean manufacturing, the contemporary smart factory is expected to have made the transition to a fully connected, flexible, transparent, and maximally automated system. The realm of legacy industrial machines and industrial automation systems is becoming increasingly obsolete as companies are consolidating knowledge and insight and integrating legacy devices into novel IoT infrastructures.

whitePaper | September 4, 2022

It’s the clarion call of today’s marketplace and the prime directive for executives in any business that designs or produces physical goods, no matter how simple or sophisticated. Fortunately, every product can be improved and made at less cost. But how quickly a company can satisfy such demands – before, say, its competitors do, or the market moves on to something new – is largely a function of the product-development cycle. Shorten that cycle, and you can improve the numbers across the board, from customer satisfaction to market share to profitability. However, one seemingly intractable barrier to faster product development lies within the traditional design process. That process starts with identifying a need in the market or within one’s organization; it ends with the manufacture of a finished product, whether a massive, complex assembly or one tiny part. In between are multiple iterations of designs and tests: engineers sketch out a solution, prototype and test it (or run a computerized simulation), and then go back to the design to address any shortcomings. But trade-offs complicate matters each time the cycle repeats: make a part lighter and it’s likely to become weaker, make it stronger and it will probably cost more, and so on. A workable, if not optimal, solution can usually be found. However, finding it often takes longer than the product-development timeline or budget will allow.