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skilled engineers and factory workers leaving due to retirement or other more appealing opportunities. This combined with stretched IT and OT team staffing creates conditions for project failure. Manufacturers need to incentivize and empower the teams working on these projects. The institutionalization of human knowledge and know-how is key as smart manufacturing technology needs this human element to be effective.
3. Providing a hard ROI on initial investment in new smart manufacturing technology As with any investment in new technology, it’ s essential to justify the ROI for the investment. This can be troublesome for smart manufacturing technology, especially if clearly defined business goals are not set and communicated. There are countless projects that fail due to the lack of business outcome focus with the right business metrics and clearly defined expectations.
Common issues that smart manufacturing can address
Many manufacturers are looking at how they can augment their workforce with automation, robotics and AI, especially in countries where manufacturing labor and skills shortages exist.
Even in countries that aren’ t short of skilled workers, companies are looking to improve productivity and efficiency and empower their workers with smart manufacturing technology to make better decisions in a timely manner. Solutions that streamline or automate business processes to improve productivity or improve product quality are in demand.
For example, AI supported quality control helps to minimize quality issues with products and increases efficiency vs 100 percent human checks. This results in reduced cost of quality and increased customer satisfaction. Along with this, the likes of digital twin
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