While the principles behind Manufacturing 4.0 are promising, you might be apprehensive about how you can implement these lofty ideas in your industry. That said, by implementing just one small improvement which cascades into others , your organization could become a lean, mean Manufacturing 4.0 machine.

The Industrial Revolution conjures images of smoggy London skies and Dickensian toil.   A lot has changed since the 18^th century and the initial transition of manufacturing from hand methods to mass production.   In fact, there have been two additional industrial revolutions in the meantime.

The Second Industrial Revolution occurred around the turn of the 20^th century thanks to technological advancements such as the railroad, electrical power, and the widespread use of machinery. Then came the Third Industrial Revolution, or the Digital Revolution, which kicked off in the middle of the 20^th century.  This stage marked a shift from production via analogue machines to a digital infrastructure including computers, microprocessors, and the Internet.

But  let’s talk about today.  We stand at the very beginning of the Fourth Industrial Revolution in which new technologies promise to bridge the physical and the digital. The world is in for rapid, disruptive change thanks to artificial intelligence, the democratization of mobile technology, quantum computing, the Internet of Things, and myriad other advances.

These fast-paced changes inspire equal parts excitement and fear. On one hand, new efficiencies in supply chain, transportation, and communications promise to improve the quality of life around the globe. Meanwhile, many people fear that their livelihoods will be replaced by automation.

This leads us to the concept of Manufacturing 4.0, a movement which zeros in on how these technologies impact the manufacturing industry.

The principles behind Manufacturing 4.0

We’re optimistic for an increase in safe and rewarding jobs spurred by concrete technological improvements in manufacturing. Done right, Manufacturing 4.0 will be realized through four central methods:

• Interconnection. People will be able to communicate with machinery and tools via the Internet of Things. Importantly, machines and devices are also able to share data with one another.
• Information transparency. Expect a huge influx of data enabled by these interconnected technologies and people. Improved information has the potential to touch every point in the manufacturing processes. Operators, managers, and workers will be able to make data-driven decisions when it comes to improving processes, training, factory layouts, and more.
• Technical assistance. Humans will not have to parse through this information alone. New systems will aid leaders and teams to make informed decisions based on the quick and systematic aggregation of the data collected with the help of information transparency. Computers can detect trends and produce visualizations so that managers and workers can make data-driven choices and plan ahead. Aside from helping people think and reason better, cyber physical systems aka smart machines, will also be there to perform or support physical tasks that are too difficult or unsafe for humans.
• Decentralized decisions. In some cases, systems will make decisions on their own. This is automation. The promise of automation relies on the imagination of people performing manufacturing processes today. These folks know their work best and can provide the best insights into how technology can amplify and standardize their hard work.

People-powered innovation

While the principles behind Manufacturing 4.0 are promising, you might be apprehensive about how you can implement these lofty ideas in your industry. After all, manufacturing touches a wide variety of industries from automobiles to clothing, specialty chemicals to aerospace equipment, and everything else produced on planet Earth. How can you make business decisions about technology that will produce specific, yet ongoing, impact?

Start small. Ask around. The people who work in your manufacturing plants and facilities are the experts at the work they do every day. Seek the input of manufacturing workers and managers on how their jobs could be made easier.

Does paperwork keep foremen working late into the night? Think about ways that smart technology could streamline this work, such as replacing pen and paper with tablets that store data in a centralized, cloud database. Explore optical character recognition (OCR) solutions that detect handwriting to convert scattered, paper-based information into digital files. Voila! The beginnings of interconnection and information transparency at your organization.

There are countless examples of how manufacturing processes can be improved today. And given the volume and complexity of work done on any manufacturing site, it’s inevitable that one small improvement will cascade into others until eventually, your organization will become a lean, mean Manufacturing 4.0 machine.

Talk to us about creating powerful Apps directly from your date with AppSheet

The post What is Industry 4.0? appeared first on SmarterBusinessProcesses.

Stefan Reid, who recently left Forrester, said the cloud’s biggest impact on the implementation of intelligent business processes is that processes, not just infrastructure, will be much more hybrid. He explained, “This means that business processes might start in the cloud, be mashed up with business logic or data from on-premises, continue on-premises, and end up in the cloud again.”

A recent Forrester survey predicts that the combined software markets around business process management, multichannel capture and information-intensive smart process applications are expected to grow from $7.1 billion in 2012 to $14 billion in 2016. One of the fastest-growing segments is expected to be packaged cloud services for smart process applications, which is predicted to grow from $600 million in 2012 to $3.9 billion in 2016, representing a 59.7% compound annual rate of growth.

BPM vendors being pushed to the cloud

Along with the explosion of the Internet of Things and wearable devices, the cloud is making it possible to engineer improved business processes and leading BPM tool vendors are rapidly expanding their offerings to take advantage of the cloud.

There is finally recognition that BPM is not just a technology that automates business processes, but one that will also revolutionize the way development is done.

While many organizations still need to keep some of their business process in-house for governance, risk and compliance reasons, BPM vendors are also implementing iBPM solutions that can efficiently cross firewall boundaries.

Many organizations have one or more BPM systems in-house. The thought that a complete, end-to-end process will be implemented on a single BPM is no longer the norm with the cloud. You might have a business process-as-a-service in the cloud acting as a subprocess of a proprietary process hosted on-premises or in another cloud service. This is leading to a hybrid BPM solution as an orchestration of business processes.

The post Growth of Business Processes Management (BPM) tools appeared first on SmarterBusinessProcesses.

For the delegates present it was 3.15pm but for Brent Frei it was 07.15 am in Seattle. Fortunately Brent is an early riser and was prepared to put his family festivities on hold in order to present his ideas on “What constitutes a Smarter Enterprise App?” and how we select the right APP when we are faced with APP overload?

Brent talked about how we are all utilising a variety of devices to view and update our work and Enterprises have had to accommodate the BYOD users.

He went on to comment:

• That corporate consumers are demanding that their APP providers tick all their boxes in order to succeed .
• How adoption relies on the corporate culture that encourages collaboration and visibility to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the very best Cloud solutions, in preference to 20^th Century legacy systems.
• How the decision making process has evolved from being top down to bottom up.

Brent explained how Smartsheet is one of the big winners in this evolving Enterprise area. Because in just one company it has many uses across departments and it is so good to use, the uptake from new users typically goes Viral across the Enterprise.

Delegates at this EXPO were from Private sector businesses across the European Union, Public sector and Universities, from the Midlands and wider UK.   They came to find out more about the opportunities presented by the best Cloud and Data solutions, to find out about the Smarter Cities being planned at Government and University level in conjunction with the Automative industry like Jaguar Land Rover, who are major employers in the area, along with their supply chain.

Digital Birmingham’s  speaker Raj Mak explained the plans to build the Smarter Cities that will benefit us all and interact with our vehicles and devices as we move about the cities of the future.

Cisco’s Head of Enterprise Networking, Sarah Eccleston explained us how Cisco has stayed ahead of the game and enabled users to BYOD and how the Network can operate with the highest level of intelligence and facilitate the benefits of BYOD while securing sensitive corporate date from inappropriate use. The explosion in internet ready devices is set to continue to grow in the Smarter City where even the Traffic lights will be “on the internet” and in an emergency they can be set to speed the progress of an ambulance across this Smart city or visitors can be guided to available parking spaces by their “Smarter (Internet enabled) car”. Plus Big Data can be utilised in so many ways to make our lives easier and smoother.

Mike Leddy, The Lord Mayor of Birmingham and Chancellor of Birmingham City University, the EXPO venue,  opened the event and welcomed delegates from all over the UK and Europe.

Richard Rymill, UK Smartsheet Consultant said: “This event has been a great opportunity for SkillsFinder to raise awareness of our consultancy services and Smartsheet  in the automotive  heartland and European  Enterprise Zone. The event has been a huge success for Skillsfinder in opening dialogue with new Smartsheet users.”

The post Smartsheet Success at West Midlands Cloud Data and Smart Mobility EXPO appeared first on SmarterBusinessProcesses.