There are major shifts occurring right now in your industry: fluctuating customer demand, new manufacturing modes, and changing business technology that are affecting what you do every day. Your tried and true methods may not be as flexible to this new world as you need them to be. Your existing processes and systems may not be able to keep up with the increased demands on your business.

Many of your peers are addressing these shifts with connected manufacturing—a business strategy that leverages cloud computing to harness operational and business data for greater visibility, efficiency, control, and customer satisfaction. Here are the four reasons why you need to take a serious look at this strategy (sooner rather than later):

1. New Rules

Like it or not, the rules have changed. Customer demand is much less predictable than it used to be, and this drives shorter product cycles and lead times. Now, in addition to efficiency and quality, agility, customization, and speedy response are the norm—and there’s no going back to the way it used to be done.

2. Manufacturing Trends

External market forces have changed how things get made. Customers demand more individualized products and expect them fast. Industrial automation has created more efficiency and precision while generating lots of data. Finally, 3D printing (or additive manufacturing) enables manufacturers to shorten development cycles and keep costs down.

3. Technology Advancements

While you’ve been using technology for decades, recent technology advancements are serious game changers: cloud computing, mobility, analytics, and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). Each of these alone offer new ways to operate but combine them, and they become the backbone of connected manufacturing. Collectively, they help you reduce IT infrastructure management, lower the cost of connectivity, promote an untethered workforce, and leverage data from one source of truth to make more informed business decisions.

4. Operational Challenges

While all this change is happening, you still have day to day operational challenges to deal with like inventory management, too much waste, sub-optimal efficiency, lack of visibility, and more. You can’t just drop everything to shift how you do business. Production must continue.

That’s why connected manufacturing is critical. It’s a strategy that enables you to address your operational challenges now, take advantage of all the shifts occurring in your industry—and set you up for the future. Whatever the future may bring.

The solution is a fully-integrated and automated manufacturing system that enables connected manufacturing, and your competitive advantage. Our customers tell us this all the time. Discover what they already know by downloading: The Definitive Guide to Connected Manufacturing.