With digital disruption at the head of the manufacturing industry, CIOs are moving forward to smart manufacturing solutions for better quality control. Despite this adoption rate, smart manufacturing strategies are still nascent. 

Smart manufacturing involves the use of data, technology and human interaction to disrupt and digital transform the production role in the manufacturing business. 

But creating a successful smart manufacturing solution requires an end-to-end approach, from gathering knowledge, and strategy development with pilot projects, to implementing and then a full-fledged smart manufacturing strategy. Because to scale, an approach or technology adoption requires a candid assessment of both challenges and benefits, as it's not just about putting technology in the right place. 

For manufacturers, technology adoption and scaling automation in their manufacturing operations are much less of a challenge. Instead of this, organizational complexity, integration, and complex operational process re-engineering are the top challenges that are lagging behind smart manufacturing strategies for manufacturing leaders. And together these obstacles create a whirlwind of challenges that makes smart manufacturing success a far-fetched dream.

Hence, moving away from these challenges requires a smart strategy and roadmap that is actionable and sets realistic expectations. Let’s dig further to know the top 5 key actions for a smart manufacturing strategy. 

Top 5 Key Actions for Smart Manufacturing Strategy.                             

1.          People Come First

   Whenever it comes to integrating any technology and digital transformation, there comes a paradigm shift in organizational design that includes IT, operational teams, and supply chains. Manufacturing leaders need to build innovative, empowered teams that recognize the opportunities offered by optimizing the business ecosystem, rather than the individual parts. Moreover, as this team is going to take part in critical decision-making, it is vital to develop and coordinate a strategy that integrates each individual and every aspect of a company. This would help people across the organization to proactively manage the change. Manufacturing leaders also ensure that every person in the company must understand what is happening, why it's happening, and how it affects their work.

2. Articulate a Smart Manufacturing Vision

   As the manufacturing industry is moving from the optimization of an individual unit to the optimization of entire production systems, it's important for manufacturing leaders to understand enough about new technologies before creating a vision of what their company wants to look like. They need to understand what they want to deliver with smart manufacturing, whether it is a quality control measure, cost efficiency, better product defect detection, ease of AI or any other benefit they are looking to offer their customers. Achieving this vision will lead to all other IT and manufacturing leaders being able to make decisions collaboratively.

3. Create a Business Process Roadmap

    

   Once the vision and team are in place, the next phase is to create a business roadmap that helps enterprises achieve the company vision step by step. Additionally, the first and foremost step in creating a business process roadmap is understanding what are the business requirements, and what improvements are needed to make as per the vision. The roadmap must lay out a plan that illustrates how every project in the business operations will lead to the vision. This roadmap helps the organization avoid the impossible task of building the business requirements.

4. Select Supporting Technology

   Once the process roadmap is in line, the next important step is to choose the supporting technology that is going to support achieving the articulated vision. Although smart manufacturing requires a new technology solution to be added to the business process, technology is still only an enabler. How would you know whether you need AI technology or which capabilities you need to solve business problems, and what competitive advantage does your business want to deliver? Because when organizations begin with technology rather than business requirements, some business requirements and solutions might be ignored. So, focus on technology that helps you manage change and avoid any constraints.

5. Launch a Pilot Project

   As of now, all the groundwork is completed, it's time to start implementing the plan by connecting people, technology, and culture altogether. In the beginning, it's important to start slow and create constant improvement in the process. Once that is completed you can merge your smart manufacturing vision with the right business strategies. Knowing what benefits to emphasize and de-emphasize is critical in this scenario. Improved ways of working also increase with technological change. The benefits might be limited in the beginning, but remaining realistic will pay off in the long run.

   Conclusion

Creating smart automation solutions requires constant effort, and with changing technologies it's important to take the right action at the right time. Looking for a smart manufacturing solution to create a better model and enhanced supply chain operations? Get a chance to learn more about LINCODE, an AI visual inspection software for better quality control. Contact us or book a demo with our experts.

*https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/6-key-actions-for-a-successful-smart-manufacturing-strategy