Industry 4.0 – The future of small and medium sized manufacturing enterprises!

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Manufacturing has traditionally been a laggard at adapting to new technologies. The industry is conservative and resists switching to new ways of handling processes; more so, if the firm or enterprise is small and  the funds available for capital investment are limited.

However, Covid has forced the manufacturers to change the way they think. It has alerted them that they can no longer be reactive to changing trends but proactive, with an eye for what the future beholds. It has taught us all to adapt and adapt quick.

In this article I will discuss three challenges the manufacturing industry faces today and how they can be resolved.

THE THREE MAJOR CHALLENGES FACED BY THE MANUFACTURING SECTOR DURING COVID

Drop in Capacity Utilization due to both lack of orders and being under resourced

A manufacturing unit’s biggest strength is its capacity utilization. Capacity utilization is the extent to which a firm employs its installed productive capacity.  Most of the manufacturing units took a big hit during Covid since their capacity utilization dropped drastically. The reason behind this drop was two fold. A drop in the number of orders due to uncertain times and even if there were orders, the units got under resourced because most of the employees were unable to come to work. The worst hit were the manufacturing units located in cities that had migrant workers from nearby towns and villages

Over dependency on people

The dependency on people in the manufacturing unit is not just limited to operating machines, but also in recording data, monitoring processes and maintaining machines.

Lack of meaningful insights

Most of the manufacturing units lack the intelligence to proactively predict failures or identify red flags. Data collected does not speak the language the managerial team can understand, to be able to arrive at business decisions.

At SMINDS, we are helping manufacturers solve the above problems using a three pronged approach

TECHNOLOGIES THAT CAN ASSIST THE MANUFACTURING SECTOR TO FACE THESE CHALLENGES

Industrial IOT

We automate most of their processes and machines using sensors and network technologies. The machines consume and generate data that is captured regularly. With our Web based SCADA systems, most of the machines can be operated and monitored remotely

Cloud Computing

The data generated is stored both on premises as well as on the cloud, based on project requirements. This helps to protect and maintain data securely. Also this ensures that the data can be accessed remotely even when the premises is closed.

Data analytics

Both  manually entered data as well as machine generated data are run through various algorithms to generate meaningful insights on the health of the machines, the flow of raw material, the quality of the product and much more. Every team member can use this to arrive at decisions that can reduce costs and improve productivity of the entire unit

The IoT spending in Canada alone is expected to reach around $20 billion by 2025. Covid or no- Covid, these technologies will help small and medium enterprises to quickly ramp up and surge ahead.

Now.. Let us get talking!!!

This Post Has One Comment

  1. Mark

    Thanks for your blog, nice to read. Do not stop.

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