Good data underpins almost every good IT operations decision. To get that data, you need intelligent infrastructure connecting all your devices and machines seamlessly and securely. With smarter, more connected manufacturing, you can solve problems faster, increase visibility and boost operational efficiency across IT operations and beyond.

Manufacturers face ongoing challenges. These include:

• Continuing economic instability and uncertainty
• Ongoing skills shortages
• Increasingly sophisticated and frequent cyberattacks
• The threat of infrastructure instability due to the need to innovate and keep up-to-date with the newest technologies

Smart manufacturing investment is critical to staying in control of your IT operations across the business and having actionable, accurate data to inform your every move.

Make faster, better IT operational decisions.

Make important operational decisions based on accurate and near real-time data. By using Industrial Internet of Things technologies, you can gather data from across your supply chains, manufacturing operations and quality processes. And with Private 5G and multi-access edge computing, you can turn that data into insight and action at speed.

By embedding connectivity throughout your operations, you can:

• See which teams and functions need more resources and support your employees
• Monitor where resources can be reduced, enabling leaner and more efficient operations
• Identify where automation could help improve productivity and reduce waste
• Model the impact of integrating new technology to reduce disruption and risk

When it comes to decision-making, there’s no room for guesswork. With high-performance, reliable and secure connectivity throughout your operations, you can reduce the uncertainty in planning, forecasting, budgeting and resource allocation.

Data-driven insights can also help you monitor policy compliance and demonstrate compliance with legislation, industry regulation and contract terms. This can help  improve safety, increase security, and reduce the likelihood of noncompliance fines and reputational damage.

Use data insights to protect intellectual property (IP), systems, data and privacy.

By leveraging insights, you can help keep your data and systems secure, thereby reducing downtime and unnecessary costs. This can help keep your plans and IP under wraps, as well as your customers’ personal information out of the wrong hands by:

• Restricting access to data to a “need to know” basis only, reducing likelihood of data leaks
• Improving identity and access management, giving you more control
• Preventing attacks before they get to your front door, reducing disruption and costs

Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) is a framework for network and security that’s in tune with today’s fast-moving and hybrid-working businesses.

To help your organisation enhance security and stay agile, you need insights into where your infrastructure is at its most vulnerable, and—when breaches do occur—to manage your response and recovery. The less time your employees spend cleaning up preventable disasters, the more time they will have to spend on keeping your networks operating smoothly, your applications running efficiently and your manufacturing lines running at their best.

Use data to help improve safety.

Data and technology can help with the critical issue of workforce safety. For example, you can use artificial intelligence (AI) and intelligent video analytics to help monitor for any infringement of safety protocols and take remedial action before accidents happen. This can include automatically shutting down machinery if somebody enters a dangerous area, preventing the operation of equipment if the user isn't wearing the right safety gear, or simply flagging the need for additional training.

AI and innovative new technology can also help with training, onboarding and upskilling staff. For example, cutting-edge AI can overlay instructions on devices and machines to make training more efficient and engaging. Better trained and more engaged workers are good for productivity and quality.

Use data to predict and prevent issues and downtime.

Unexpected crises can result in downtime, loss of reputation and additional costs. Access to robust, real-time data can help take the unexpected out of the equation.

Real-time data gathering and analysis can enable intuitive decision-making. They can help deliver the insight to fix problems before they happen and enable predictive IT maintenance that focuses resources and can help avoid downtime.

With AI and digital twins, you can help teams improve forecasting and model the outcomes of changes—improving efficiency, enabling agility and avoiding disruption. For example, digital twins can help model ways to help improve existing IT infrastructure without making physical changes. With the insight, you can help production teams to be confident that their plans will deliver the expected savings and not have unexpected repercussions. This can lead to better results and fewer headaches.

Should issues arise, data-driven visibility can help identify and resolve the underlying causes. By helping spot problems sooner, you can help save money and reduce impact on productivity.

We understand that for IT operations within manufacturing, visibility means everything. Having reliable, real-time data to bolster key strategic decisions throughout your operations can make or break your business—from IT security all the way through to maintaining essential IT infrastructure. You need to be confident you can always see exactly what you’re working with.

Verizon can help you to change the game. We’ve worked with many manufacturers and helped them get more from their data. Our industry experts have decades of relevant experience, enabling them to provide practical and effective advice. Our global network, computing and security expertise and extensive ecosystem can help you put those ideas into practice. We can help you de-risk transformation, accelerate change and achieve the promise of Industry 4.0.