Smarter Manufacturing: Six Opportunities Manufacturers Have To Pounce Upon

IndustryWeek (Dave Miller, IBM Global Business Services) - Intelligence must become a top priority in manufacturing -- it has to be planned, implemented, managed and invested in.

Through my experience with hundreds of manufacturers, I have gained insights on how manufacturers are becoming more flexible, agile, and efficient. I think there are six incredibly potent opportunities that the best manufacturers have to pounce upon if they wish to stay competitive through smarter manufacturing...

1. Manufacturing Intelligence
   Intelligence must become a top priority in manufacturing -- it has to be planned, implemented, managed and invested in. It usually requires a completely new view and perspective on what is traditionally looked at as strictly a mechanical or procedural challenge. It will include advanced data collection from sensors and actuators; immediate knowledge of inventory, assets, production condition; and increased process, productivity and cost granularity.
2. Predictive Analytics in Manufacturing
   Manufacturers have to take their manufacturing intelligence and use it in ways that will predict the future so that decisions and actions are taken before problems emerge, before risk events happen and before opportunities are squandered. This includes embedded analytics; enabling predictive technologies; and rapid response capabilities.
3. Production Quality Management
   This is how manufacturers achieve nearly zero waste, zero incidents and zero emissions. The new improvements in quality will stem from information visibility, connectivity, and analytics.
4. Integrated Scheduling and Operations Execution
   New techniques are being developed to completely change how manufacturing scheduling can make plants and factories more flexible, produce more, and support more product designs. Again, this is driven by sophisticated uses of information and includes: dynamic execution planning and scheduling; sense and respond capabilities; and advanced modeling.
5. Manufacturing Visibility and Visualization
   Information is useless unless it helps you understand and act. Imagine being able to have a holistic, dynamic view of your operations in real-time, being able to visualize people, systems, assets, and inventories as they make their way through a complex supply chain. New instrumentation, networks, and control rooms will enable manufacturers to see multiple factories in a single view, utilize advanced manufacturing dashboards; and optimize their capacity across the entire enterprise.
6. Manufacturing Network Monitoring
   The ability to see and act on your entire network enables you to predict problems, quickly deploy corrective actions (such as repairs) and keep the entire network humming. This leads to improved operational decisions; enhanced remote visibility; and lowest cost of production possible.