A decade ago, consumers accepted waiting a week for their product but now with the infusion of companies such as Amazon and Alibaba, consumers are making their purchase decisions based on how quickly they will receive the product. In order to stay competitive in the marketplace, companies are turning to 3D printing to create their products quicker.
Anritsu was determined to get out of its "firefighting" mode, and craft a supply chain built around being proactive and managing exceptions. Dave Stenfort, director of operations, explains how it was done.
Let's say you're about to design a brand new product. You have a lot of work ahead of you. You need to define the specs, create the design, source suppliers, check in with experts in legal and in safety, set up a testing procedure, do trial runs. Then the product will go into mass production, require a warranty, be put into actual use.
Zoltan Pekar, vice president of the Global Supply Chain Division of Roland DG Corp., discusses how the company is transforming itself from a maker of computer peripherals to a leading provider of digital solutions.
Realizing that "the forecast is always wrong," Trinity Rail opts instead to focus on creating a "sense-and-respond" supply chain, to deal with real-world developments in demand for transportation equipment.
In the latest Worldwide Commercial Robotics Spending Guide, International Data Corp. forecasts global spending on robotics and related services to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 17 percent from more than $71bn in 2015 to $135.4bn in 2019. The guide measures purchases of robotic systems, system hardware, software, robotics-related services, and after-market robotics hardware on a regional level across 13 key industries and 52 use cases.
Analyst Insight: Manufacturers are under greater pressure to improve product reliability and reduce cost-of-quality non-conformance, while increasing product functionality. This can be done through increased use of software, mechatronic systems, new materials and manufacturing technologies. Still, more pressures await, as manufacturers struggle to reduce a product’s time-to-market, all while keeping capital investment low. Doing more with less requires manufacturers to reduce the time from detecting a product issue to correcting it, known as detection to correction (D2C). - Kevin Reale, Senior Manager, Advisory, Ernst & Young LLP
Analyst Insight: The connected nature of today's business environment is driving exponential growth in data, which is subsequently driving improvements in advanced analytic capabilities and the opportunity to leverage advanced analytics in manufacturing processes. For industrial manufacturing firms, capturing real-time data relative to asset performance and condition enables predictive maintenance and helps to realize productivity improvements and cost savings by reducing unscheduled downtime and optimizing asset performance. - John Santagate, Research Manager, IDC
