If you’re still pondering the question about whether or not to move your manufacturing business and operational systems to the cloud, you could be left behind. Just like the question of getting a smart phone or a flip phone is outdated.
Why? Because manufacturing has changed.
Customer demands are shifting constantly. That means shorter product cycles and time to market schedules. Not only do you need to be efficient and ensure the highest quality but you also need to be fast and responsive.
On-premise and even hosted (private cloud) platforms cannot keep up with the ever-increasing complexity and demands of modern manufacturing. Your employees and supply chain participants (customers and suppliers) need timely and controlled access to your business and operations data for more-informed decision making—anywhere, from any device. True cloud platforms give you that connectivity.
Often, your IT team ends up spending most of their time ensuring that all users are on the correct version just to be able to use the functionality. As a result, your operations teams don’t have the visibility or control needed to turn on a dime. And your business teams can’t get insight to measure performance or act on changing demand. True cloud platforms are always current—there’s no version control issues—so you can focus on optimizing your business instead of on IT maintenance.
Operating with a single source of truth, which is an inherent benefit of cloud systems, eliminates disparate tools and data silos so the entire business knows what happening at any given time. No more manual input or delayed syncing up of data needed. If you need to know whether products are within quality or customer specifications, you simply login and find out in the “manufacturing moment.” And you reduce the amount of errors, bottlenecks, and mundane tasks in streamlining processes and workflows.
Investing in a cloud platform is not simply a technology decision—it’s a business strategy—one that gives you the agility, speed, and insight you need. With cloud manufacturing, you’re able to quickly and easily turn on new facilities and support market fluctuations because the onus is on the cloud provider to manage scalability. Not on you. Your cloud service provider is responsible for a secure, reliable, available, and scalable service—their incentives are aligned with yours. Their success depends on yours.
● Over 90 percent of global enterprises report using cloud computing in some part of their business.
● 66 percent of manufacturing enterprises from 17 countries reported using a cloud implementation.
● Cloud-hosted services are expected to account for nearly half of all organization-level software usage among manufacturers by 2023.
● 46 percent of respondents to a 2012 SCM World Survey contended
that cloud computing contributed to greater supply chain collaboration, and leads to problems being solved twice as fast.
Source: How Cloud Computing Enables Modern Manufacturing. American Enterprise Institute. The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. June 2017.
Cloud computing is transforming virtually every facet of modern manufacturing. Whether it’s how you operate, integrate into supply chains, design and make products, or how your customers use the products. Cloud computing is helping manufacturers like you to innovate, reduce costs, and increase your competitiveness. The question is not “should we” go to the cloud but “how soon can we get on the cloud,” because your competition may already be there.
Don’t be fooled by cloud pretenders. Download our ten-point guide to make sure you’re getting a true cloud solution built for manufacturing.
