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5 Innovations in Manufacturing Processes and Their Effect on the Bottom Line

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5 Innovations in Manufacturing Processes and Their Effect on the Bottom Line

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Manufacturing is a rapidly evolving industry. With a broad spectrum of sectors depending on manufacturing, modern facilities are often quick to adopt new technology that improves on their existing processes.

The rise of automation, artificial intelligence (AI) and data have created a wave of digital transformation. As manufacturing grows and becomes increasingly competitive, capitalizing on Industry 4.0 innovations can determine whether or not a company will succeed.

Here’s a look at five of these innovations and how they affect the bottom line.

1. Cobots

Robots aren’t new in the manufacturing industry. But as automation has grown, new approaches and technologies have emerged that can take its benefits further. Collaborative robots, or cobots, are one of the most significant of these upgrades to factory automation.

In a 2021 study, 44.9% of surveyed businesses said that robots are an integral part of their operations. Of those companies, 34.9% had adopted cobots. Cobots have slowly become more popular as manufacturers have realized the limits of traditional automation. Other robotic solutions are expensive and inflexible, making it difficult to scale, but not cobots.

Since cobots work alongside humans instead of replacing them, they typically automate fewer processes at once. Consequently, they’re often more affordable than traditional automation and easier to implement. Manufacturers can then automate one process at a time, slowly scaling up to meet demand or new challenges.

This incremental approach to automation removes the high upfront costs and disruptions of traditional automation. As a result, cobots enable manufacturers, especially smaller businesses, to scale up and down with ease. These companies can then enjoy quicker, higher ROIs.

2. IoT Sensors

Another growing innovation in manufacturing is the implementation of internet of things (IoT) sensors. While these technologies aren’t a manufacturing-specific phenomenon, they hold considerable potential in this sector. Perhaps their most popular and impressive use case is predictive maintenance.

Predictive maintenance improves on traditional maintenance schedules by avoiding both breakdowns and unnecessary repairs. According to a Deloitte report, it reduces maintenance costs by 25% on average. That’s an impressive figure on its own, but it also reduces breakdowns by an average of 70%.

Considering that an hour of downtime costs more than $100,000 in 98% of organizations, that adds up to considerable savings. Predictive maintenance isn’t the only application of IoT sensors in manufacturing, either.

Manufacturers can also use these sensors to gather data points throughout their operations. This data can then reveal areas of potential improvement, enabling ongoing optimization. The longer manufacturers use these technologies, the more they can save through them.

3. Additive Manufacturing

One recent innovation that is specific to manufacturing is 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing. While this technology is most well known as a tool for hobbyists, it originated as an industrial production technique. Recent advances have made it a more viable solution, leading to a comeback in industrial manufacturing.

Additive manufacturing lets manufacturers produce parts and products as a single piece instead of assembling multiple smaller components. Like mil-spec buffer tubes, which are made of a single piece of aluminum, this improves products’ strength and resiliency. As a result, they produce fewer defects, improving the company’s bottom line.

Since additive manufacturing adds material instead of cutting it away, it also reduces waste. Manufacturers can get more parts or products from the same amount of materials. 3D printers also typically work faster than traditional production techniques, leading to a quicker time to market.

Additive manufacturing is also more energy-efficient. Some products, like car batteries, require a lot of energy to handle the sensitive materials they need, leading to higher costs. By reducing energy consumption through additive manufacturing, facilities can increase their profit margins. Alternatively, they could reduce end prices, selling more with consistent profit margins.

4. 5G Connectivity

Like the IoT, 5G isn’t strictly a manufacturing technology, but it has impressive potential for the sector. 5G networks aren’t widespread enough yet to bring substantial improvements to the consumer sector, but they’re ideal for manufacturing facilities. Their higher bandwidth, increased speeds and lower latency let smart manufacturing reach its full height.

5G networks can theoretically support up to one million devices per square kilometer, ten times 4G’s limits. That will allow manufacturers to expand their IoT infrastructure to virtually every machine in the facility. Lower latencies will allow these interconnected systems to communicate more efficiently and reliably, unlocking Industry 4.0’s potential.

With all of these machines connected to one another, manufacturers could create cohesive autonomous environments. If a disruption occurs in one process, machines down the line could know and adapt to it, minimizing its impact. As a result, manufacturers could maintain higher productivity levels, minimizing their losses from lost time.

5G lets manufacturers use technologies like the IoT and automation to their full extent. This leads to higher ROIs for these significant investments.

5. Machine Vision Error Detection

AI has many use cases in manufacturing, but one of its most enticing is machine vision. Machine vision systems let manufacturers automate quality control processes at both the front and back end of production lines. This automation, in turn, improves the efficiency and accuracy of their error detection.

When Heineken installed a machine vision quality control system in its Marseille, France bottling plant, it highlighted this technology’s benefits. The facility’s bottling machine operates at 22 bottles per second, far too fast for human workers to spot any bottle defects without stopping it. The machine vision system, on the other hand, can analyze bottles at speed with a 0% error rate.

Machine vision error detection lets manufacturers increase production while maintaining the same level of quality. Since these systems deliver a level of consistency impossible for a human, they’re also more accurate. As a result, facilities will also produce fewer defects.

Fewer defects translate into less waste, and faster checking enables increased output. These factors combined result in an improved bottom line.

New Technologies Make Manufacturing More Profitable

These five technologies aren’t the only ones pushing manufacturing forward, but they are among the most notable. As more facilities embrace these innovations, manufacturing is becoming a more profitable industry.

Technologies like these improve efficiency, minimize errors, optimize operations and more. Manufacturers that can capitalize on them early will ensure their future success, and those that don’t may quickly fall behind.

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How Will Telematics Transform the Modern Supply Chain

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Today’s consumers expect goods to be delivered faster and on shorter notice than ever before. For the logistics industry, meeting these demands for greater flexibility and agility has required change, where it’s the adoption of lean logistics principles or the use of Industry 4.0 technology.

Novel telematics technology, powered by recent developments like Internet of Things (IoT) devices and artificial intelligence, are already helping the supply chain satisfy the needs of a growing and accelerating global economy.

This technology could revolutionize logistics in the near future, and here’s how.

Key Benefits and the Impact of Vehicle Telematics

One of the most significant obstacles logistics companies have faced has been the difficulty of tracking vehicle location, health and performance. New telematics technology can help businesses overcome this obstacle by vastly expanding the amount of accessible information on trucks and driver behaviors.. New telematics technology can help businesses overcome this obstacle by vastly expanding the amount of accessible information on trucks and driver behaviors.

GPS trackers can continuously track a vehicle’s location. Other telematics devices can communicate directly with internal car modules, like an engine or battery control unit. This provides a company with direct access to information on the engine health and performance of fleets.

With the speeds offered by 5G, these devices can transmit information in near real-time to the cloud, providing telematics data to the fleet owner and their business partners. The technology has a wide range of applications for logistics companies. Better knowledge of a driver’s current location and behavior can provide more accurate estimates of when a shipment will arrive.

GPS and engine data can also help businesses conform to new regulations like anti-idling laws. If a vehicle remains parked in the same place for long enough while the engine is active, the system can automatically alert the driver and log an idling event. Having a direct line to car data can also be extraordinarily helpful for technicians wanting to maximize the lifespan of fleet vehicles.

On the road, telematics systems can provide a great deal of information to drivers. Some can continuously monitor and report diagnostic trouble codes. Vehicle operators and the technician they work with can instantly know if an illuminated check engine light is caused by something like a loose gas cap or a much more serious problem.

Typically, this information is only accessible via an OBDII reader or code scanner, which may provide codes without explaining what they mean. The telematics solution makes this data more accessible and useful to non-technicians.

Early notification on potential vehicle issues can help fleet managers avoid or mitigate some of the most common maintenance issues in semitrucks and similar vehicles.

Transparency, Traceability and Data-Sharing

Telematics makes it possible to create a log of all information relevant to an order while it was in transit — where it was, what conditions it was exposed to and even the speed it was traveling while in the care of a particular driver.

As a business grows, this information can help managers coordinate an increasingly complex network of drivers, fleet headquarters and vehicles. It can also help companies improve the transparency and traceability of their logistics network.

Data gathered on drivers and shipment location can be provided to business partners, allowing them a real-time view of where critical items are while in transit. This information can also be stored for later use — like providing someone with a fuller picture of how a shipment moved from point A to point B after the fact.

In other cases, IoT can also help provide businesses with more information about how goods are shipped. IoT temperature sensors can supplement an existing telematics solution to provide real-time updates on the temp inside a vehicle.

This information can enable drivers to take quick action if storage temperatures move out of a safe range during transportation. Stored data from a particular shipment can also resolve conflicts if a product spoils while in transit. Temperature information can determine exactly when an item spoiled and more accurately pinpoint who may have been at fault. This technology can reduce the scale of recalls and prevent them from happening in the first place.

Similar devices measuring in-vehicle conditions like humidity and vibration can provide additional information to drivers and managers. This data can help them optimize storage and transportation conditions — reducing the risk that packages are damaged while in transit or sent at suboptimal conditions.

Optimizing Processes With Telematics Data

The data gathered by telematics devices can have value long after the moment in which it was generated. The rise of artificial intelligence and big data analytics means the massive amount of information produced by telematics systems can be analyzed to uncover insights that may have been impossible to find with conventional analytic approaches. This includes moment-to-moment information on driver behavior, location and engine performance.

For example, real-time information on driver routes and vehicle health can be used to create route optimization algorithms that use traffic data and driver behavior information to plan the fastest way to a destination. It could also be used to determine roadways that minimize gas consumption.

Data from deliveries can also be aggregated and used to create new planning algorithms in the long run. They can help companies develop more accurate estimates of how long a particular delivery will take based on available information like drivers available, driving behavior, traffic and weather conditions.

These improved estimates can ensure on-time deliveries and reduce the risk that a company commits to orders they cannot fill in a timely fashion.

Telematics Paves the Way for a More Efficient Supply Chain

Novel telematics technology, assisted by innovations in IoT and AI, greatly increases the amount of data that logistics companies have access to. A business can plug directly into their fleet vehicles with the right solution, allowing them access to truck health and sensor data.

Other telematics devices, like GPS trackers and temperature sensors, can provide additional information on the location of a shipment or the environmental conditions it may be in.

This information will allow businesses across the sector uncover new insights and develop algorithms that can optimize route planning and fleet management.

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Archives, Global Logistics, Global Trade Daily

The New Normal in Manufacturing – A Digitized Future

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We can learn a lot from history. In the face of a global pandemic that has upended the business world, the measures taken in the short-term will lead to significant shifts that will last for decades.

We saw how the Great Depression dramatically changed the role of government within financial markets. Likewise, how the Great Recession of 2007-08 created a shift in value from ownership to experiences.

The global pandemic has already introduced and accelerated several trends that will likely become entrenched into our daily lives for years to come. We see a virtual shift happening with consumer trends like work-from-home, video communication, online purchasing, e-learning, streaming services, and more taking hold.

This is the new normal in which we live, work, and trade. And it’s here to stay. For manufacturers, the new normal is an opportunity to address short-term challenges and lay the groundwork for future resilience.

Acceleration of Industry 4.0

COVID-19 created immediate challenges for manufacturers.

1. Consumer demand shocks in both volume and variety of manufactured goods

2. Workforce shifts with social distancing regulations, hygiene mandates, and employee health-related absences

3. Supply chain fragility resulting in raw material and finished good shortages, impacts to just-in-time production processes, and stockouts

To address these short-term issues, manufacturers undertook various initiatives to build supply chain resiliencies to improve visibility, diversify their supply chains through reshoring, and deploying innovative technologies.

It’s fair to say that the pandemic is the catalyst that pushed the smart factory vision (Industry 4.0) forward faster.

Manufacturers are now able to gain a competitive advantage by adapting and building on this new normal. According to Bain & Company, “For companies willing to take the right actions during this critical recovery phase: the rewards may prove transformative, propelling them into the ranks of true performance leaders.”

The Future of Manufacturing Looks Digitized

A McKinsey survey of manufacturers found that:

-93% of manufacturing and supply-chain leaders plan to focus on the resilience of their supply chain

-39% have already implemented a nerve-center/control-tower approach to increase end-to-end transparency in their supply chain

-A quarter are fast-tracking automation programs to address worker shortages

-90% plan to invest in talent for digitization

As manufacturers look to advance their long-term strategies of building supply chain resiliency, reshoring production, introducing new distribution strategies, and implementing Industry 4.0 technologies, the key to success will be creating a digital muscle.

Supply chain resiliency – manufacturers must establish end-to-end visibility of the supply chain to improve resiliency. Enhanced visibility is made possible through technology, such as manufacturing execution systems, that can deliver network agility and visibility, digital collaboration, insights for decision-making, and team empowerment.

Reshoring – to reshore production, effective inventory management and supply chain tools that provide tracking and authentication are necessary. Automation of manufacturing processes will also be essential to make reshoring economical and attract technology-savvy workers.

New Distribution Strategies – direct-to-consumer (D2C) strategies have proven valuable during the pandemic. While it will take a cultural change to implement D2C in manufacturing, it will also require integrating technology systems, such as warehouse management systems and manufacturing execution systems.

Industry 4.0 technologies – manufacturers have rapidly deployed technologies that have better positioned them in the new normal. These technologies include 5G connectivity, IoT sensors, advanced automation, AI-powered analytics, and robotics solutions. With many of these rollouts completed in record time, manufacturers need to keep their eye on the big picture and look to further optimize these systems to increase efficiencies and transform capabilities across the supply chain.

A Partner for Your Digital Journey

At Generix Group North America, we are experts in creating efficiencies across the entire supply chain. With over 20 years of experience and a global team of 600+ experts, our series of solutions within our Supply Chain Hub product suite can help build the resilience and visibility your organization needs across your manufacturing operations and supply chain.

Our solutions are in use around the world by more than 6,000 customers and our experience is second-to-none. We invite you to contact us to learn more.

You can also read our eBook, “Manufacturing and the New Normal: Moving Forward from 2020,” to learn more about how digitization will prepare your manufacturing organization for the future.

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Doug Mefford has more than 25 years experience in the Supply Chain industry.  His diverse background includes roles across many operational functions, from inventory control to operational leadership within an Omni Channel distribution operation.  Additionally, within the software space he has held roles including quality and business analyst, design lead and product management.  He brings his cross functional experience in supply chain operations and software product delivery to bear in helping define the direction for Generix Group North America’s Solochain WMS. Prior to his time at Generix, Mefford was the operations manager for the Dallas Cowboys for eight years, overseeing their warehouse operations, retail distribution, silk screen manufacturing and direct-to-consumer order fulfillment. Doug studied at Northern Illinois University, and is greatly involved in the Illinois Special Olympics

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Archives, Global Logistics, Global Trade Daily

Why Technology – Not Tariffs – Is the Key to Reviving US Manufacturing

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Reshoring has captured the imaginations of politicians and economic developers for years, particularly in parts of the country hit hard by the loss of manufacturing jobs. The COVID-19 crisis gave reshoring advocates another rallying cry, as supply chain disruptions rippled through the economy and the general public awoke to the fact that we are dependent on Chinese manufacturing for most of our medical supplies.

Some will no doubt call for a response in the form of tougher trade policies – tariffs that aim to level the playing field and to deter Chinese “dumping” of cheap, below-profit goods with which US manufacturers can’t hope to compete.

But while tariffs can be an effective weapon in the short term, they won’t help revive American manufacturing. In fact, they might do serious damage, especially amid an economic downturn. Most economists now believe the 1930 Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which leveled crippling tariffs on US imports from all over the world, played a significant role in sinking the country deeper into what would become the Great Depression.

Fortunately, tariffs aren’t the only way. We can reverse the decline of domestic manufacturing and return factory jobs and investment to US soil, but the key isn’t policy – it’s technology.

American manufacturers can regain their global competitive advantage by widely investing in and deploying automation and robotics that will enable them to produce everything from auto parts to cellphone screens cheaper, faster and better than factories in China and elsewhere.

The technology won’t replace workers. They’ll be needed to operate and maintain the sophisticated machinery involved. Much of the investment I’m calling for will be in people – training Americans to work with the kind of technology that can transform and revive our manufacturing sector. We call this Industry 4.0.

Doing What Americans Do Best

Before I explain further, I should lay some groundwork. Even as wages for Chinese workers have risen in recent years, they remain much lower than US workers’ pay. Other countries can undercut China, leaving Europe as the only part of the world where American manufacturers have any sort of cost advantage.

That means we must do what America does best: innovate. If we can get ahead of the curve by investing technologies such as robotics, Internet of Things and 3D printing, we can automate shop floors in a way that speeds production, sparks new-product development and creates new high-skilled factory jobs. We can also produce competitively priced goods that enable our local manufacturers to grow by taking market share from rivals overseas.

Jergens Inc. is a 78-year-old company in Cleveland, with a campus on an abandoned railyard site. The company, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of standard tooling components, vises and other workholding equipment, has fully embraced automation – but not as a way to eliminate jobs.

“With every robot, more jobs at Jergens are created,” says Jack Schron, the company’s president. “We use one robot to get higher production on one of our popular items. Right next to that robot are skilled technicians assembling these same items for small-run, custom applications. Because of the one, the other follows.”

Automation has actually increased headcount in some Jergens departments; because the robots helped increase production and broaden its offerings, Jergens has hired more sales, marketing and shipping workers.

A Technological Cold War

Jergens is far from alone, even among the subset of Northeast Ohio manufacturers I work with. What we learn from them is that automation is more affordable, more accessible and more effective than ever.

Unfortunately, far too many small and mid-sized companies in our industrial heartland understand this. That’s partly why few have taken the first steps toward automation. In a February survey by our organization, 94 percent of manufacturers in Northeast Ohio said they were actively innovating – but more than 60 percent said they weren’t using or just starting using automation, and half said they didn’t plan to increase automation spending.

Too many American manufacturers don’t understand the technology, or how their shop floors or market strategies could benefit from automation. Others see the potential but don’t have the funds to invest, or see the investment as too risky, or fear the lag between investing and seeing a return would destroy their balance sheets.

None of those things is true, but various combinations of flawed perceptions, lack of knowledge, lack of funding and risk aversion prevent factory owners and leaders from investing in technology that would make them more profitable and competitive.

Meanwhile, China has been investing in automation technology for years. The country has now become the world’s largest and fastest-growing market for industrial robotics, according to the International Federation of Robotics. The mental image of Chinese sweatshops is no longer accurate (though other countries still use those methods). Google “manufacturing process” and you’ll see highly automated, high-tech manufacturing facilities in China.

Put simply, we’re in a cold war of technological advancement that very few people – including many manufacturing leaders – see and even fewer understand. And we’re losing. Could COVID-19 provide the motivation we need to fully embrace innovation, advance toward Industry 4.0 and win the innovation war? It absolutely could. Or perhaps American manufacturers will embrace Industry 4.0 for simple business reasons – it will undoubtedly make them more profitable.

Whatever it takes, investment in technology is a critical step toward a new, sustainable era of reshoring. And at the very least, widespread investments in technology will create better-paying, safer, more stable jobs in parts of our country hit hardest by the deindustrialization of the last 30 years.

That is the promise of Industry 4.0.

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Dr. Ethan Karp is an expert in transforming companies and communities. As President and CEO of the non-profit consulting group MAGNET, he has helped hundreds of manufacturing companies grow through technology, innovation, and talent. He is passionate about driving economic prosperity in his home region of Northeast Ohio. Dr. Karp is a recognized thought leader on manufacturing issues and a frequent media commentator on the future of manufacturing in America. Prior to joining MAGNET in 2013, Dr. Karp worked with Fortune 500 companies at McKinsey & Co. He received undergraduate degrees in biochemistry and physics from Miami University and a Ph.D. in Chemical Biology from Harvard University.

MAGNET is part of the NIST and Ohio Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) program to support small and medium manufacturers across the US.