A week ago, I posed a question to the LinkedIn community, my network and several related manufacturing groups. I have a question to ask. What is your greatest impediment to implementing Industry 4.0?
The challenge is to find a manufacturing operations management system which does not repeat the failures of its predecessors in an over complicated, super flexible implementation. A system with proven structure, because all manufacturing falls into certain categories and processes, and the adaptive flexibility to mimic your process without limiting the ability to further adapt. Yet it also must be designed to scale, adapt, and evolve, without a huge direct development penalty.
When a company is considering how to engage in Industry 4.0 and IIoT to facilitate manufacturing they are faced with several aspects to such an endeavor. Every software system has areas in their feature-set and functionality which do not necessarily meet all the expectations of the end-users, hence a Gap.
There is no argument that Digital manufacturing, Data-Driven Manufacturing, MTConnect, Industry 4.0 and IIoT are here to stay and is mature enough to be considered beyond the early adopter phase, yet companies of all sizes are still treating the adoption of these technologies as the wild west. Due diligence in assessing an approach to employing and applying disruptive technologies is essential before committing a company to a direction.
Insightful business owners have an opportunity today during the COVID-19 crisis to leverage their resources to position themselves for explosive expansion once restrictions are lifted. It’s understood that the most difficult aspect of running a successful project is having human resources available. There is no better time than while operations are slowed due to the crisis.