Manufacturing In the Cloud

In the world of manufacturing, continuous improvement is necessary to remain competitive and lean. It is also why we are experiencing a paradigm shift in the manufacturing industry from a singular commodities production capacity to include services networks and maintenance support. This is why many companies are seeking to begin manufacturing in the cloud by moving their software investments off premises.

This is the result of companies taking a cloud-first approach to business management. A cloud first approach can be a method of improvement for many businesses, in that their change is driven by faster, more agile technology capacities ran upon SaaS architecture (we’ve discussed the reasons for this before). Today we discuss the role that manufacturing in the cloud can play in the transformation of industrial production. This includes things like; tangible commodities, food and automotive objects, as well as, more modern commodities such as service support and preventative maintenance.

Rapid Deployment

An ever increasingly competitive and restricted manufacturing environment has created new adrenaline in the C-Suite to prioritize the limitation of waste, and increase sustainability faster than ever before. This often calls for the implementation of change management principles, new social responsibility and the eradication of legacy ERP solutions.

Using a cloud-centric approach to manufacturing provides businesses a faster implementation time. This means having a proven infrastructure addressing identified processes, tracking needs and data visibility with minimal disruption to transactions made internally or with suppliers and customers. A cloud-first strategy lessens the number of internal IT resources to be pulled from critical responsibilities to aid in the implementation of a solution.

Likewise, not only is an instance of cloud more cost effective in the implementation, but historically SaaS technology time to deploy is much quicker than an on premise solution, which means the business begins realizing ROI much sooner.

Improved Asset Management

Industrialists have been seeking a solution to improve customer satisfaction, alleviate over production and tap new demand. Have you heard the latest cliché’ “today every business is a technology business?” In actuality, this is true for industrial enterprises, like manufacturing and distribution. With a cloud first approach, these companies are now graded on their ability to house a full service network from end to end of a process. This made wholly possible through the use of cloud software.

Manufactures have begun embedding sensors inside of machines to explore and quantify the outcomes of these devices. Many manufactures have found this to be a profound way to increase revenue and decrease costs through the use of today’s most agile software.

Cloud infrastructure hosts an unlimited computing capacity, therein data storage is boundless. This feature allows the manufacturer to realize new revenues. Likewise, effective management of this data lessens the chance for bottlenecks, high direct costs, and noncompliance due to over production and product variation.

Lower Maintenance Costs When manufacturing In The Cloud

Modern cloud ERPs enable IT departments more time to focus on performance data and user inquiries, and less time quantifying software capacity disasters. Cloud infrastructure is a much cheaper, scalable and reliable for businesses. There is no turnover of hardware,and saves a company from paying the standard 25 percent hardware maintenance premium year after year.

Generally IT groups are left with more work than bargained for when configuring business systems in house; due to hardware and networking components of many projects. This inevitably bottlenecks the department and often disrupts operations in the business. Likewise, IT departments still hosting legacy software; which requires their continual care. Often times they are stuck feeding performance with third party utilities, installing updates, and managing middleware; rather than improving systems in general. This leads to the purchase of additional capacity or middleware licenses on an ongoing basis.

If an IT department is managing test environments, general data, and performing migrations, its most likely key performance data will fall through the cracks. This can delay insight to departments who rely on data; leading to mistakes and lackluster performance.

Scalability

In the world of big data and the internet of things, businesses will require a limitless storage capacity with instant data inquery to a variety of devices assessing information at the same time. Business users can ramp up data storage capacity or decrease it as warranted instantly from a simple setting located inside the most agile of cloud solutions today. This provides better control over data costs.

Plex Systems, for example, is known forf shop floor configurations in its cloud ERP, building up the idea of end to end tractability and quality control, among other identified capabilities for manufacturers. This is actually an important element of business software. Scaling these operations for small and medium businesses is arguably the most formidable way to operate and grow without operational disruption.

Wrap Up

For more information about manufacturing in the cloud contact the experts at Datix.