Integrating advanced technologies into your manufacturing business

Sponsored

Modern manufacturers are turning to advanced technologies to accelerate innovation, help them scale and deliver greater productivity whilst becoming more resilient and sustainable. Automation, robotics, faster prototyping, additive manufacturing, IoT sensors, and novel materials all offer new ways of delivering products at lower cost and/or greater quality. However, they also add complexity to your information systems and create new issues that can slow growth and hurt profitability.

Your innovation doesn’t stop where the new technologies end, you want digital tools that integrate with these technologies and fit your unique needs. That’s where Intergy Consulting can help – we enable your digital innovation, so you get the solution you need. Intergy has created solutions for manufacturers like KONE that integrate external suppliers and warehouse technology, and for Cut-Rite integrated online order forms and production tooling to automate made to measure orders.

Manufacturing Megatrends

CSIRO Future’s Advanced Manufacturing Roadmap outlines five megatrends that are influencing manufacturers globally, these might even be affecting your business;

Sustainable Operations – driven by environmental and social concerns.
Supply Chain Transformations – specialisation and vertical integration in different areas/technologies, whilst geopolitical changes increase disruption.
Made to Measure – advances in technology and consumer expectations are shifting from mass production towards custom solutions.
Service Expansion – beyond making products to integrating services, especially ongoing digital services, into product offerings.
Smart and Connected – increasing data capture and analytics helping optimise operations and drive efficiency across the value chain.

These all benefit from digital integration, either inside your business or outside.

New Technologies Bring New Problems

The sorts of new technologies that advanced manufacturing covers will include;

Automation,
Robotics,
Faster prototyping,
Additive manufacturing,
IoT sensors, and
Novel materials

Introducing these sorts of technologies into your factory floor, workshop, or warehouse means you are likely to have unique or novel requirements which only exist because of that new technology.

Dr Paul Wong, from Applied Robotics sums up the problem this way:

“Without thoughtful planning, the hard truth is that up to 80% of manufacturing projects fail to achieve either business case target costs or timelines, despite no limitations with the technology itself.”

The Glue You Need

To create seamless integration between advanced technologies, like AI, Internet of Things sensors, or automated production lines, and your existing systems, you need custom digital tools to act as the glue that holds them together. Whether it’s just a small software bridge to ensure data ends up in the right place, a system that ensures your organisation’s business rules are followed properly, or a custom web portal that links your suppliers, customers and internal systems, custom digital tools offer great benefits.

Conclusion

Embracing advanced technologies offers manufacturers a way to benefit from global manufacturing megatrends rather than just being disrupted by them. However, to ensure that they truly are of benefit, you need to consider how to integrate these new technologies and systems with your existing business, and how to digitalise more of your business processes so that you can respond to increased demand without negatively impacting quality and profitability.

Custom digital tools offer manufacturers the ideal way to achieve these outcomes, by dealing with unique and novel integration requirements in a way that truly suits your business.

Intergy, along with Microsoft, and tax and grant specialist RSM Australia are offering a free industry webinar on the 19th November to address important questions about using advanced technologies: