ERP implementations for manufacturing are finding the cloud first, mobile first world has created new opportunities to support complex manufacturing environments. As the mobile world is driving change in semi-conductor and computer chip production machines are becoming more intelligent while the cloud enables the Internet of Things.
Software as a Service models account for about 22 percent of installed manufacturing software solutions and will climb to account for 48 percent in the next ten years, according to a 2013 article at Forbes.
Manufactures continue to be lured by improved agility and prospect of reducing capital expenditures by moving to the cloud and ERP implementations for manufacturing are likely to move increasingly towards the cloud to connect their production data, financial data and people on a single system.
As lean manufacturing principals play an increasingly important role, the value of real time analysis into production will prove more and more valuable to manufacturing leaders. Similarly, the ability sync machines on the shop floor to employee devices via a centralized cloud management system will become critically important.
“The idea is to go beyond simple monitoring of these, well, things, to advanced analytical services that let devices provide critical information about how they are functioning and what they are doing,” said David Linthicum in an article at InfoWorld. “That, in turn, lets automated corrective action take place based on remote analysis of this data. An example: An industrial robot could spin out data to a remote analytical application, which can determine likely failure patterns for the machine and eventually lead to the robot automatically changing its function.”
The future is not-so-distant. As device and computer manufacturers continue to make devices smaller, faster, smarter and more powerful in the consumer market, smart machines in manufacturing are following suit.
The push to do more with less for manufacturers is powerful and the prospect of enabling smart manufacturing to support improved efficiency and less waste will drive a cloud first, mobile first mindset when it comes to IT systems for manufacturing.
“In the next ten years computing hardware systems will be fundamentally different as our scientists and engineers push the limits of semiconductor innovations to explore the post-silicon future,” said Tom Rosamilia, IBM Systems and Technology Group senior vice president in a recent report on IBM's work on nano-technology.