Industry Perspectives

The need for manufacturing organizations to modernize their digital computing environment requires business and technology investments that innovate and streamline distribution and supply chain processes. Providing products and experiences that meet customers’ needs is the most impactful revenue driver possible for wholesale, distribution channels and retailers. Optimizing supply chain and supplier relationships can enable a more efficient and cost-effective manufacturing processes that is digitally effective and provides the most sustainable efforts to support environmental social governance (ESG). Ventana Research has identified three key technology trends every manufacturing organization should address to unify its customer and product processes across the supply chain and digital commerce experiences through its applications.

The first highlighted technology trend is the ability to blend industrial internet of things (IIoT), event processing and architectures to apply sensors and intelligent software to the manufacturing floor. An effective IIoT enables machines to collect data and communicate together and with humans in real time. Manufacturing organizations can then determine how accurately machines are identifying anomalies, examine efficiency improvements and gain direct and immediate visibility.

Then there is the growing trend of digital twins, which use virtual reality and digital replicas of a product or machine to simulate scenarios. Digital twins of factory equipment enable product development and engineers to simulate performance under certain conditions. Digital twins can scale to simulate any aspect of a product and utilize data across sensors. They enable manufacturing organizations to provide immersive training to new workers without risk or requiring a skilled worker present. Customer service can also walk customers through troubleshooting and repair of their product by using a digital twin.

Our last highlighted technology trend is the blending of big data and artificial intelligence (AI) to drive a smart manufacturing organization and to gain the most effective insights from analytics. Digital modes of factory support demand forecasting, predictive maintenance and supply chain transparency that can be obtained by utilizing AI/ML to detect challenges and issues. Gaining this visibility and product information allows manufacturing organizations to track and manage inventory across the supply chain to improve visibility, warehousing cost reduction and increase quality.

Digital transformation has created inefficiencies that require digital modernization. The manufacturing industry is working through a portfolio of investments to gain supply chain efficiencies. The ability to achieve digital effectiveness in supply chain processes is a critical step forward. Ensuring differentiated product experiences through product information management will help manufacturers gain the efficiency needed to enable the automation and intelligence they may not yet utilize. Through 2024, one-half of manufacturing organizations will include guided analytics processes and storytelling capabilities to help create and deliver insights for line of business personnel.

Manufacturers should assess existing technology investments and their organizational readiness to meet customer and operational pressures. Applying a new generation of analytics from across the supply chain for manufacturing requirements is critical to strategically advance the organization. Ventana Research recommends that manufacturing organizations dramatically shift their technology investments to more agile and modern digital and cloud architectures that supports the key trends from IIoT, digital twins and AI to ensure direct support for consumers by unifying demand and supply chain efforts.