Making what you’ve already got go further is a key part of almost every IT and business strategy, regardless of industry or sector. But for manufacturers, working with complex supply chains and facing disruptions to supply and shortages of skills and materials makes efficiency even more vital, and even more challenging.
“The right mix of technology adoption that strengthens the core (process automation, data analytics) while also pushing the edges can improve efficiency” 1
Deloitte
Use technologies to facilitate your IT strategies.
By leveraging the insights, control and capabilities smart technologies provide, you can drive strategic efficiency wins across your business. Technologies like automation, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) tools can help save resources, boost productivity and support sustainability initiatives.
As manufacturers undertake digital transformation initiatives on their journey to Industry 4.0, prioritising efficiency wins can have a positive impact on other objectives too, helping:
- Forecast, plan and model to cut costs
- Mitigate skills and materials shortages
- Diversify and fortify your supply chain
- Support the security and operations of your OT technologies
- Minimise downtime and disruption
Show that IT initiatives are closely aligned with overall business objectives and goals.
Do more with your data to boost efficiency.
With the right automation, AI, ML technologies—and the low-latency, high-bandwidth network supporting them—you can do more with your data. Data-driven insights gleaned from AI can help you make better decisions across the business, and an ultra-fast network can facilitate interoperability and connectivity between tools, systems and facilities. This can help eliminate silos and enhance the flow and transfer of the vital data your workforce needs to do their jobs effectively. Additionally, with improved connectivity your people can access the tools they need even quicker, supporting efficiency.
AI can monitor and analyse market trends, demand and historical data to help you:
- Forecast and plan budgets and resource allocation to drive efficiency
- Model changes and improvements with minimal disruption or resources
- Plan for and mitigate issues with markets, supply or logistics
- Identify areas where energy use and waste can be reduced and sustainability initiatives boosted
A better understanding of your estate helps you identify areas for improvement. For example, you could use AI and IIoT sensors to enable predictive maintenance on your machines. These technologies continuously monitor things like temperature, energy consumption and vibrations to determine their efficiency and predict when they’re likely to stop working. This can enable the reduction of costly scheduled maintenance and reduce the amount of human resource required.
AI can also suggest more cost-effective suppliers or efficient transportation routes, helping your business save time, reduce emissions and ensure product quality is retained throughout transit. Additionally, you can also utilise intelligent sensors and automation to regulate your energy consumption, helping improve your carbon footprint.
By including efficiency-focused smart technologies in their IT strategies, businesses can drive optimisation and improvements, stay competitive and remain adaptive in a market in near-constant flux. IT strategy teams play a vital role in leading their organisations towards Industry 4.0. Prioritising efficiency gains can help bring about progress in other key strategic objectives, including saving costs and improving workplace engagement and sustainability.
Let’s co-innovate and leverage the power of cutting-edge technology. Together we can enable incredible, productivity, efficiency and resilience-based wins across your entire business. We know this because we’ve already done it with other manufacturers. Our industry experts have decades of relevant experience, enabling them to provide practical and effective advice. Then, our global network, computing and security expertise and extensive ecosystem can help you put those technologies into practice. We can help you de-risk transformation, accelerate change and achieve the promise of Industry 4.0.