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Main
Interview
Historically , manufacturers have been very cautious about adopting cloud technologies
have vehicles out in the production yard , waiting for a particular chip or component to arrive . Having the visibility to enable finding work in progress and managing rework is crucial . Transportation is also a huge cost . Manufacturers want to manage the way that supply flows to and from their factories . It ’ s increasingly critical to have a better handle on operations as there ’ s less slack in the system to accommodate any errors that do occur ,” he emphasizes .
“ In modern production , I believe manufacturers will experience numerous efficiency gains that are mediated by systems that necessitate working in a completely different way , involving a more dynamic environment and increased use of sensing technologies . This is going to involve big change and technologies like 5G will be useful . Wireless networks are still under-utilized in manufacturing , mainly because historically , the network would not have been incredibly reliable . I have seen a few small-scale pilots rolling out greater connected networks however and can only envisage this becoming increasingly the norm .
“ Historically ,” he concludes , “ manufacturers have been very cautious about adopting cloud technologies . While the rest of the world embraced the technology , manufacturers still wanted to retain control because of concerns surrounding reliability . Yet , we are starting to see change . Some of our customers now operate systems that are entirely cloud-based and there are benefits in doing so in terms of ease of maintenance and installation , for example . Thus far , reliability is proving to be as good as on-premise systems and manufacturers are rethinking the way their IT works to better support Industry 5.0 and whatever comes after it .” ■
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