Manufacturing may be one of the world’s oldest industries, but that doesn’t mean it is averse to new technology. If anything, it’s the opposite. The manufacturing industry is always embracing and becoming better by the day at using top tech. It is how businesses in this field continue to provide products and services of the highest possible quality.
Some of today’s technologies are having more of an impact on this industry than others, however. Here are three pieces of tech that are currently changing the game in manufacturing:
Artificial intelligence for Manufacturing
Artificial intelligence (AI) technology is designed to aid humans in their quest to optimize every task they are faced with in the workplace. This type of tech helps humans to work in a highly automated, incredibly customizable, and ultra-fast fashion. It’s no surprise, then, that it has already been adopted into the world of manufacturing. Above all else, what AI has done for manufacturers across the globe is improve their productivity, meaning they are now able to get more work done throughout each working day.
Many different facets of AI tech are proving beneficial to manufacturers and improving how they get on with their tasks within the workplace. There’s the Internet of Things (IoT) technology, for instance, which is now allowing manufacturers to operate their tools and equipment via voice control alone. Blockchain is proving to be of great use in the manufacturing industry, too, as it is granting workers the opportunity to store their all-important pieces of digital information in safeguarded storage areas.
Embedded metrology
In manufacturing, even the tiniest of mistakes can prove disastrous. If just one thing goes wrong throughout the production process, the whole operation could potentially be shut down and, subsequently, restarted.
That’s why embedded metrology technology is currently gaining a reputation as being an essential manufacturing tool. This factory control technology selects machines at random to run rigorous tests upon — if it finds something wrong with the machine it tests, it brings the whole production line to a halt until the problem is rectified. This results in less manufacturing projects being allowed to run their course only to be ruined right at the end by a problem that went unnoticed earlier on its production process. As a result, less time is wasted, and fewer resources are squandered.
Enterprise resource planning software
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software assists manufacturers when it comes to monitoring and tracking their data throughout the supply chain. As a result, the manufacturers of today can enjoy more clarity when it comes to their working process.
ERP software comes in all shapes and sizes, so it’s down to the manufacturer in question to choose the one that suits their specific business the best. As you can see from Better Buy’s IQMS EnterpriseIQ review, this type of ERP software proves particularly efficient for batch-process manufactures — it has detailed visibility and all-in-one functionality, which allows it to solve large discrete manufacturing challenges with ease.
Manufacturing may be one of the world’s oldest industries, but it is currently undergoing a real change thanks to the three technologies listed above.
