FACTORY OF THE FUTURE
“ We ’ ll see how customers start to build on the foundation that they ’ re establishing with IIoT and create the industrial metaverse ” INDRANIL SIRCAR CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER FOR MANUFACTURING AND MOBILITY , MICROSOFT
into inventory , material movement , inbound and outbound supply chain and any critical manufacturing functions where raw materials , components and parts are received .
Additionally , customers will be able to better combat disruptions by making informed decisions to plan and prioritise products to manufacture , while remaining transparent with customers .
“ It is a little-known fact that we are a manufacturer ourselves ,” says Sircar . “ Not only does Microsoft understand supply chains , but we have modernised our own . For example , within our Xbox and Surface supply chain , we manufacture 45,000 SKU ’ s , ship close to 100m units to 1.3m locations in 120 countries .”
As Microsoft ’ s data was siloed , sitting in disparate systems and Excel spreadsheets , the team brought all data into a single data lake and created a digital twin of the entire global operation , which provided Microsoft with visibility and signals across factories , parts , logistics providers , destinations , inventory , orders and more — all within minutes .
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