Manufacturers are increasingly turning to technology to differentiate themselves amid a crowded field. Download our free report to discover our key trends for 2020, and discover powerful new opportunities for the next 12 months.
These trends are opportunities already being tackled by companies in industry to drive increases in revenue and safety, and decrease costs.
Increase revenue
A key factor in increasing revenue for many retailers is efficiency in supply chain management. Advances in intelligent supply chains have made a huge difference in recent years. Greater data access has allowed for a better understanding of the contexts and environments goods are being transported in, affording industries like food and drink to ensure products are kept in optimum conditions during shipment to reduce waste, better predict disruptions and respond to them faster. A case in point, Lenovo is currently able to respond 95% faster to disruptions due to the implementation of smart supply chain management.
Decreased costs
Growing availability and quality of data has propelled predicative analytics to one of the fastEST-growing spaces for improving quality of efficiency, leading to 30-50% reductions in machine down times and cutting costs by $100k for a single hour in a large enterprise [CITE]. Through predictive data analysis, manufacturers can understand the health of individual components or machines by monitoring real-time stresses and performance of equipment, allowing for more accurate estimates of when machines will fail. This boosts maintenance planning and avoids costly shutdowns or production delays, while also extending equipment lifespans. Among the notable examples, Rolls Royce has introduced AI analytics within the past few years to monitor engine components in real time and optimise maintenance.
Safety
Our report also highlights key insights into how manufacturers can increase safety. These include the growing use of cobots, predicated to make up 34% of the robot’s market by 2025. These small-form robots are designed to work alongside humans acting as a safer, cheaper and a more productive method of manufacture; where traditional industrial robots require physical separation from humans, cobots can work in shared human-robot spaces due to the improvement in sensor technologies to better understand and adapt to their environments. Airbus has been an early investor in cobots, with staff currently piloting them at assembly centres resulting not only in greater productivity, but a boost in staff satisfaction.
The future of manufacturing lies with the companies who invest early in transformative technologies to drive opportunity and stay ahead of their competition. We are an innovation agency working with manufacturers to consult, conceive, design, develop and deploy leading edge solutions to help them stay at the forefront of their industries. Click here to read our full report on the key trends in the manufacturing industry, and get in touch to find out how we can help you take advantage of them now.
Colm
Graduate Producer