Manufacturing Magazine May 2015 | Page 8

TECHNOLOGY
THE FUTURE OF the UK ’ s manufacturing sector remains uncertain . Regulations are becoming tighter ; export demand has been hit by the weak Eurozone and difficult conditions in developing markets ; customers are becoming more demanding . Increasingly , they expect products and services to be developed and delivered quickly , personalised to their specific requirements .
It is getting more difficult for manufacturers to keep up-to-date with this fast-paced , constantly evolving environment and manage disparate customer and supplier bases in a globalised marketplace . Adding to these problems , the continual rise in the cost of raw materials and parts , fuel , and energy is putting huge pressure on operating costs . The priority for manufacturing businesses , therefore , has to be the optimisation of working processes ; delivering operational efficiencies and positively impacting the bottom line . Manufacturers of all sizes and types , however , have limited resources to invest in improvement initiatives and so they need to decide where to focus and why .
Making more effective use of the data is a good place to start . Few manufacturers are doing enough with their shop floor data . Even fewer have made use of the myriad of external data sources available - whether that be customer sentiment data , competitor information , weather details or engineering service records .
It is those manufacturing businesses that can combine more effective management of data with more intelligent use of IT that are likely to be the leader in the sector over the next decade . There are two key principles on which to focus – tighter integration to ensure effective use of the right data across the enterprise and having a holistic end to end view to realise
8 May 2015