How Digitization Transforms the Discrete Manufacturing Industry

1. How Digitization Transforms the Discrete Manufacturing Industry Managed Outsource Solutions 8596 E. 101st Street, Suite H Tulsa, OK 74133

2. To stay competitive in this world, the discrete manufacturing industry, just as any other industry sector, requires comprehensive visibility to improve production performance. Customers are in constant need for “innovative solutions” and discrete manufacturers are expected to deliver quality products and services. This can be achieved only with fast, reliable and accurate information. Paper-based procedures and homegrown systems are characteristic of many production environments, and these have not kept up with the current demand for more speed, traceability and agility. Since more efficient practices are very much in demand now, organizations in this sector are adopting digitization and modernizing their functioning. The focus now is on integrating real-time manufacturing data into their corporate information view. A professional document scanning service can help with challenging data extraction, conversion and management. Accurate data made available can be used to effectively manage manufacturing operations and optimize supply chains. Challenges in Discrete Manufacturing Increased demand for customization and quality: Customer demands for speed and flexibility, along with the volatility of markets pose a major challenge. To bring about a balance between meeting customer expectations and minimizing costs, manufacturers are increasingly looking for adapt to new business model. Achieving this without compromising the quality is a challenge. Limited development times: The demand for new products is rising everyday but the window of time for developing and introducing a new product is narrow. The timeframes for ROI on products developed is smaller and the market increasingly looks to the next products coming behind them. Rising price pressure: From costs to labor and warranties to operational overhead, discrete manufacturers are looking for various ways to minimize cost. But with rising competition comes the rising cost for materials, labor, energy and maintaining a profit margin while keeping the prices down is a challenge. To overcome these challenges and drive growth, discrete manufacturers need real-time actionable data and must switch to digitization. It helps to leverage actual information to automate their processes, save time as well as provide consistent high-quality products. Digitization sets a path for discrete manufacturers to evolve with the trends of the future, enables www.managedoutsource.com (800) 670 2809

3. transition towards more advanced capabilities, and helps them grow with the rising expectation of the customers. Aveva’s Release of Discrete Lean Management Software Harpreet Gulati, the senior vice president of planning and operations at AVEVA says that their software is designed for those plants that are still using paper-based systems. With this software physical records can be replaced with digital ones to improve operational efficiency, bring digitalization to work management for manual and automated production lines,and provide visibility into production performance. KPI and dashboard notification are included so that the operators can get the information needed for continuous improvement. This software is as part of the company’s flex subscription offering, which reportedly offers IoT device connectivity to more than 200 plant automation systems. It has more than 70 of Schneider Electric’s smart factories globally, that ensures productivity increase of 10% due to downtime mitigation and a 70% improved response-time due to automated escalation of production issues. Hany Fouda, vice president of systems portfolio at Schneider Electric said that the use of Discrete Lean Management software at Schneider Electric’s 60-year-old Lexington, resulted in 20percent reduction in maintenance costs and 90 percent reduction in paperwork by connecting operations for direct access to asset data and documentation. According to Nathalie Marcotte, President of process automation at Schneider Electric, the cooperation between Avevaand the Discrete Lean Management software was driven by the understanding that there should be some easy ways for manufacturing companies to get started with digitalization. So, implementing technologies like this becomes really helpful in the field of operations. This provides deep visibility across their operations and sets the path to drive growth and competitiveness. Discrete manufacturers have to compete in an increasingly global and competitive business environment and the need for digitization cannot be overlooked. So, to begin with, they need to convert all paper-based documents into digital format with the help of a document conversion service provider. Digitization will help with greater production accuracy, better integration with suppliers, minimize cost and enable better business decision making. www.managedoutsource.com (800) 670 2809