The right product, at the right price, at the right time. This is what manufacturers get paid for. It’s a promise that is getting harder to keep. Increasing disruption in supply chains and fluctuations in demand are putting enormous pressure on what occurs within the four walls of the factory to make up the difference.
Can Traditional Manufacturing Compete?
Like a falling tide, supply and demand challenges are exposing the problems that have existed below the surface within the factory. Traditional manufacturing lacks the feedback loops required to rapidly respond to changes in the supply chain. It fails to deliver the depth or breadth of information needed to optimize itself. As a consequence, rather than overcome the external challenges it faces, Traditional Manufacturing can fall victim to them.
The Data Terrorist: Manipulating Data to Mislead Future Actions
One example of Traditional Manufacturing hitting its limits is having no one version of the truth. Everyone has their own data that they bring into meetings where they spend most of their time debating the data instead of what action to take. This can lead to the emergence of the data terrorist, that individual within your company who carefully curates their data to support their agenda. This is backward; action should spring from the data, the data should not be manipulated to support the desired action.
Paper & Excel Prisons: Data Silos Blocking Digital Transformation
To be fair, Traditional Manufacturing does capture data, but it typically does so manually without validation, which can lead to errors. It’s often captured first on paper resulting in paper prisons that make it difficult to extract information in a timely fashion. Other companies use Excel. It’s digital, right? Yes, it’s digital, but being digital is just one necessary but not sufficient component of solving the digital transformation puzzle. It’s not a connected system. It leads to data silos and no one version of the truth. It’s a digital version of a paper prison.
Digital Manufacturing is more than just 3D printing, robotics, inventory by drone or machine learning. At QAD, we believe in a pragmatic approach to Digital Manufacturing focused on releasing the greatest value now.
Welcome to QAD Tomorrow: Digital Manufacturing
QAD Tomorrow is an online broadcast being held on December 1st. The purpose of the event is to explore the role of Digital Manufacturing in enabling the Adaptive Manufacturing Enterprise. Global manufacturers are facing ever-increasing disruption caused by technology driven innovation and changing consumer preferences. In order to survive and thrive, manufacturers must be able to innovate and change business models at unprecedented rates of speed. QAD calls these manufacturing companies Adaptive Manufacturing Enterprises. Digital Manufacturing is one of five key capabilities enabling the Adaptive Manufacturing Enterprise. During the event, a pragmatic approach to Digital Manufacturing is shared with a focus on:
- Digitizing Quality and Industry Compliance
- Digitizing the Shop Floor
- Automating Material Transfer
- Building a Digital Foundation
After the broadcast, attendees receive a link to a diagnostic to assess where they are on their journey to Digital Manufacturing. The Digital Manufacturing Diagnostic is designed to provide insights into the areas of focus that can have the greatest impact. We can’t control the supply chain but we can take the necessary steps to lessen adverse impacts on manufacturing.
Interested to learn more about your digital strengths and weaknesses? Check out the replay of QAD Tomorrow: Digital Manufacturing!
