Mobility in Manufacturing: Driving productivity and transformation

Mobility in ManufacturingDriving productivity and transformation

Mobility in Manufacturing: Driving productivity and transformation/ 2

The Makeover

The manufacturing industry worldwide is reeling under tremendous pressure to increase their output, improve quality and do it at lesser costs to expand their global footprint and reach to newer markets. To match up to the soaring expectations of the customers and other stakeholders in the ecosystem, manufacturing companies have initiated a stream of strategic and innovative measures with the objective of becoming competitive and, at the same time, cost-sensitive. Mobility in manufacturing is one such recent adoption that is enabling manufacturers to match their capability enhancements and resource mobilization with critical improvement in business processes. The convergence of mobile technology with manufacturing processes makes for a fascinating study with mobility playing a game-changing role. What we are witnessing is a major shift swiftly gaining the form of revolution that promises to reshape the manufacturing landscape by making it more lean, alert, and agile.

Our cover story this month takes a detailed look at mobility in manufacturing and understands the drivers behind adoption of mobility, the benefits achieved, the challenges in-front and the future ahead.

Shop floors are set for a makeover with the entry of mobile phones, apps and devices. While the last decade gave industrial units a new look with PCs, laptops and automated solutions, the current decade is adding a completely new dimension with the advent of mobility.

“Mobile and wireless technologies are more important to my organization today than they were last year.”

Agree

No-Opinion

Disgaree

87.1%

Source: Motorola Solutions Barometer 2011


Machine-to-Machine or M2M solutions are wirelessly connecting diverse devices like turbines, heat monitors, vending machines and trucks etc., to a network, enabling two-way communication and facilitating sharing of real-time data through radio signals. Engineers and technicians are no more tied to their machines. They are all over the floor, remotely managing and monitoring their machines via M2M and taking instant decisions, right on their feet. Mobility is reducing the unplanned downtime in the organizations via mobile eKanBan solutions. The solution enables manufacturers to place a call button at every station which when pressed will instantly transmit the call for inventory to a mobile device in the hands of warehouse personnel for his instantaneous response. Mobility is reducing manual processes, lowering errors by providing real-time visibility for better and cost-effective management of inventory. Floor supervisors are armed with time and attendance data of their entire workforce resulting in effective labor management. Mobility solutions via RFID are enabling automatic real-time tracking of assets thereby reducing human effort, theft and wastage. Managers are carrying real-time Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) on their mobile to keep a close track on it.

Processes, be it Production or Quality Control, are slowly getting mobilized and mobile devices like smartphones and Tablets have become the all important tools in the entire manufacturing ecosystem. In short, mobile apps and solutions are aiding transformation and bringing competitive advantage to the adopters by adding agility and precision. Manufacturing has got a new M- mobility- to add to its other three M’s- men, money and machines. Welcome the new wave in manufacturing!

“My organization has a competitive advantage by using mobile and wireless technologies.”

Agree

No-Opinion

Disgaree

72.7%



The Factors at Play

Several factors are converging to enable manufacturers to gain competitive advantage through mobility. Manufacturing companies, of all sizes, are looking to newer markets to boost future growth. Zero-defect manufacturing has become essential to be competitive and cost-effective in the current business economy. Resources are geographically getting dispersed and hence require anytime, anywhere collaborative mechanism. Employees used to the convenience of mobility in personal lives are bringing their own devices and want to use them at work. Mobile devices are fast emerging as the premiere channel for customer engagement. And, organizations are looking for virtualized operating models that enable real-time collaboration round the clock and on the move.

The mobile technology too has greatly evolved in recent times to emerge as the promising solution provider to many of the organizational concerns. Smartphones have become more powerful, Tablets with its various features are tailor-made for enterprise use and moreover, enterprise level app development is flourishing, providing a galore of choices in apps for manufacturers to pick and customize to best of their requirements.

Mobility - Concerns & Advantages

• Globalization of marketplace• Optimization of resources to lower costs & be

price-competitive• Reduced new product integration cycles• Integration of mobile apps with legacy systems• Data management cost• Stringent regulatory/compliance

• Real-time information sharing speeds up processes, faster time to market

• Lower cycle times means better costs• Increased regulatory/industry compliance

accuracy for quality reporting• Reduced manual errors• Low data management cost• Increased employee productivity

Concerns Mobility Advantages


Possibilities and Opportunities

Mobile technology has the potential to play a role in almost every step in the manufacturing cycle, right from raw material procurement to supply chain to delivery. From mobile ERP and mobile Business Intelligence to QC reports to PO/ requisition approval, we can see multiple points across processes wherein mobility can be a lean enabler. In other words, mobility doesn’t limit itself to simply shifting work from PCs to mobile but promises more through role-based applications, device integration and process synchronization.

Supply Chain• Inventory Management• Mobile ERP & Mobile BI• Forecast collaboration &

approvals• Receipt

Acknowledgement• Alerts

Operations• Plant operations

management• Plant maintenance

management• Scheduling alerts/report• Production alerts/reports• Asset tracking• QC reports

• Asset tracking & tracing

• Warehouse automation

• Fleet management• Route optimization

Fulfillment Procurement• PO/requisition approval• Status tracking• Supplier profile• Shipment notifications• Supplier alerts & reports

Product Development• Engineering

change/approval status• Program status &

notifications• Program project updates

Scope of Mobility

Oppurtunity for Mobility in Manufacturing Value ChainResearch & Development

Product Development Sourcing

ProductManufacturing

ProductDistribution

CustomerService

CustomerInteractions

MaterialsManagement

MaintanenceManagement

QualityAssurance

FactoryOperations

FacilitiesManagement

AssetTracking

WarehouseManagement

Value Chain

Customers feedback/data collected directly from user devices, through specialized mobile applications

Smartphones with barcode reading applications to track inventory in various stages of manufacture

Wireless sensors connected to machinery can send status informationon to handheld systems

RAD tags on inventory items can store QC state information such as expiration date

Remotely controlling multiple plant systems such as power and cooling and running operations diagnostics

Wireless surveillance systems that supply live feeds to handheld devices for security and emergency response

Sensors on company assets such as trucks allow employees to carry out better fleet management

Wireless sensors update ERP with entry/exit of materials. Data accessed from stakeholder smartphones

Rationale

Source : TCS Global Consulting Practice - Research Desk Degree of Significance


The Benefits

There are several benefits associated with mobility adoption in manufacturing. Instant access to critical data on-the-go not only helps in taking quick decisions but also helps enterprises engaged in manufacturing to deftly manage their resources and prevent wastage contributing to cost-efficiency. Smooth and real-time flow of data and information improves response time to all stakeholders including suppliers, vendors and customers etc., helping organizations resolve key internal and external issues in shortest possible time thereby boosting brand image and perception. Mobility also helps eliminate redundant activities, enhance collaboration within various units thereby speeding-up processes.

A study conducted by BlackBerry to examine a company’s ROI in adapting BlackBerry solutions came out with interesting results-

• Productivity- The study revealed that, on average, employee’s productivity increased by one h o u r per day because of using a smartphone. In monetary terms, on an average yearly salary of $100,000, it provided yearly benefit of $12,500 per user to the company.

•Workflow- The workflow efficiency increased by 38% as employees were able to maintain their contribution in team workflow even when they were outside the office. Based on the average annual productivity of $88,500 determined by National Competitiveness Council, the company gained $33,630 per employee annually due to boost in workflow.

• Immediacy- As per the study, employees on an average sent and received 24 emails/ day and approximately 9 of these emails were time-sensitive. On a conservative value of $5 each time-sensitive email/day provided an annual benefit of $4,400 per user to the company.

The total benefit of adopting BlackBerry solutions in the company was over $50,000 per employee per year.

Mobility benefits to organizations

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

Improve regularly and/or regulatory compliance

Reduce downtime

Improve product quality or consistency

Lower labor costs via automated processes

Increase customer/partner satisfaction

Decrease delivery time

Improve on-time delivery rate

Increase production efficiency

Improve order fulfillment accuracy

Decrease employee/manual errors

Improve supply chain performance

Improved business revenues/sales results

Increase employee productivity/efficiency

19.4%

21.9%

25.6%

25.8%

28%

31.5%

32.3%

35.6%

35.8%

38.2%

40.3%

40.7%

57.3%



The Challenges

While there are many critical business benefits associated with mobile adoption for manufacturing companies, they however have to encounter a few hurdles in their journey. There are a few critical challenges that has to be addressed by manufacturing organizations as they embark on the path of mobility. Security of data and information is one major challenge faced by the industry in its endeavor to mobilize processes. Enterprises have to create a formal governing policy which will define how mobile devices will integrate and interact with men and machines in the ecosystem and provide a secure mechanism to monitor and prevent data theft and fraudulency. Choosing the best technological infrastructure is one major factor which organizations have to consider. Diversity in devices and platform fragmentation only adds to the challenge as decision-makers sit to lay the blueprint. Organizations also need to consider mobile bandwidth and latency issues as the world moves to 4G networks. Meeting up internal and external demands and making mobility a hassle-free and smooth experience should also be factored-in to enable comprehensive adoption and usage of mobility within the organization and to derive desired benefits out of it.

Security Concerns Lead List of Challenges

0 1 2 3 4 5

Threats associated with network security,including data and IP security

Understanding and keeping pace with network technology changes, including the move to 4G

networks

Our workforce is currently not mobile

Insufficient number of useful business applications

Lack of executive level buy-in to deploy mobile solutions

Reliability and persistence of networks, signals

Production environment has unique requirements

Average Rating (1 = low , 5 = high)

Source: AT&T


Most organizations today are only picking the low lying fruits of mobility. And therefore we see the role of mobility limited to a communication & information channel with a few exceptions of device integration in a process. Complete synchronization of operational processes with mobility solutions and comprehensive integration of mobile devices and apps with the manufacturing ecosystem, are still in its early days. However, as organizations move in to the next level of adaption and the mobile technology further evolves, we will see much bigger role for mobility in manufacturing. Factory floors will be remotely controlled with mobile access to Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) and Distributed Control Systems (DCS). Machine-to-machine (M2M) and human-machine interfaces (HMI) will also enable supervisors and managers to supervise and control shop-floor activities from anywhere via their devices. Emerging technologies like NFC and RFID will be used to tag and track the movement of products, right from the production stage to inventory, logistics and store. Real-time business intelligence dashboards via blue-tooth enabled mobile devices will also see large scale adoption. GPS-sensors and accelerometers will be used to update controller’s dashboard, expediting maintenance-related responses. Augmented reality (AR) applications on mobile will also become a norm to train technicians in using various instruments and tools. The future will see more such experiments and innovation in mobile adaption.

• Enablemobilitybroadly.Mobility is the future and offers tremendous opportunities to manufacturing organizations. Explore how you can leverage mobile technology to transform your organization and bring agility and innovation to it.

• Thinkbig. Build a mobile strategy that optimizes your organizational capacity and the mobility advantage. Think beyond simple mobile usage and plan for wide-ranging implementation of mobility.

• Managetherisks. Mobility has risks associated with it. Understand those risks and then deploy an effective security mechanism to mitigate those risks.

• Bepatient.It takes time to get returns on your investments from mobility. So be ready for a long haul.

• Laydownthegroundworkfornextgenerationofmobility. Emerging technologies like NFC, RFID etc., promises more opportunities. Be ready to seize them.

Our Recommendations…

In Future…

[x]cube is the premier mobile solution partner for companies and individuals creating the next generation of digital applications. [x]cube develops custom solutions for the iPhone, iPad, Android and Windows Mobile platforms.[x]cube is a division of PurpleTalk, Inc.

xcubeLABS.com | 1-800-805-5783 | [email protected]

Mobility is more than mobilizing existing processes or providing mobile access for your employees to the corporate network. The application of mobility we are witnessing today in manufacturing enterprises are just the tip of the iceberg. There is much underneath to explore and leverage. A long-term mobile strategy with sufficient ground work for future up-gradation and improvements therefore is the right way to approach. Mobile devices and apps can be a key enabler for the industry seeking to answer many challenges like quality improvement, cost-efficiency, improved margins and to be competitive in the current business environment. Now is the time for manufacturing organizations to seriously consider mobility and make it a part of the overall business strategy. Invest in it today to prepare your organization for tomorrow.

It’s just the beginning

[x]cube LABS is one of the leading mobile apps development and consulting firm, headquartered in Dallas, U.S and with offices in New York and Hyderabad, India. With expertise across all the major mobile platforms, [x]cube has delivered over 500 apps till date and has an enviable client list comprising of some of the biggest brands like GE, Intel, Texas Instruments, Hasbro, Mattel and 24 Hour Fitness. [x]cube’s understanding of the mobile space and technology, complimented by its rich experience across all the major industry verticals and the capability to deliver end-to-end solutions, make [x]cube the perfect mobile consultant of choice.

About [x]cube LABS

Reach [x]cube [email protected]

1-800-805-5783

www.xcubeLABS.com

To integrate your enterprise people, processes and products with customized, avant-garde mobility solutions or to explore mobility opportunities in your enterprise with our experts, please feel free to contact us at [email protected].

We encourage you to continue exploring our website ( www.xcubeLABS.com ) to find out more about our services.

Mobility in Manufacturing: Driving productivity and transformation

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