Manufacturing insights firm IDC believes that, by 2020, 60% of all enterprises will have fully articulated an organisation-wide digital platform strategy and will be in the process of implementing it. They predict that by then, 50% of the Global 2000 will see much of their business depend on their ability to create digitally-enhanced products, services, and experiences.

The question businesses need to ask is whether they are ready for digital transformation, and whether they’ll find themselves forging ahead, or falling behind? It’s time discuss how manufacturers can better prepare themselves for Industry 4.0 and take that all important step of digitising their manufacturing facilities.

Kevin Dherman, SYSPRO’s Chief Innovation Officer, believes the best way to prepare your business for Industry 4.0 is to implement an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that can pave the way for digitisation by providing real, working solutions that will enable manufacturers and distributors to leverage on new technologies and trends that are shaping and redefining the competitive landscape.

For this reason the SYSPRO team has worked hard to ensure that they have embedded the most pragmatic and useful features and functionality of Industry 4.0 into their latest ERP release. The inclusion of Industry 4.0 functionality in SYSPRO’s latest release helps to create more intelligent manufacturing processes by combining humans with machines, resources with processes and systems.

Manufacturers will experience the benefit of increased accuracy and speed of automated data collection from machines and devices, for the measurement of Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE). Real-time status-tracking of equipment and jobs, and greater accuracy of job costings are now possible, and the software supports continuous improvement and visualisation of loss with out-of-the-box productivity and availability analysis and alerts.

The benefits of IoT

Imagine being able to arrive at your customer’s store to change lightbulbs just before they go out, or to regas their fridges before they stop keeping your customer’s perishables cool. The implications are huge. Not only will you be able to fulfil your service level agreements (SLAs) with your customers; you’ll also help them fulfil theirs too.

Implementing Internet of Things (IoT) technologies opens up a world of infinite possibilities for manufacturers; however, the resulting data needs to be carefully managed and processed, which is why it is important to implement an IoT-enabled ERP system. Not only will it facilitate more streamlined and automated business processes, thereby reducing the need for human intervention, it will also improve service delivery, and enhances the customer user experience. It will allow manufacturers to manage their warehouse inventory in real-time, using IoT sensors to monitor and track incoming and outgoing items.

More than that, by incorporating data pulled from auto identification tags that are tied to GPS-enabled connections that continuously update location and movement, it is also able to improve traceability across the supply chain. This allows for business intelligence and alerts to be automatically delivered directly to relevant operators and service agents.

“When developing features for our latest release we focused on improving on our automation and data exchange capabilities to support the Internet of Things and cloud computing, to provide users with unparalleled deployment and usage flexibility, and to supply ubiquitous, real-time information through device- and platform-agnostic software,” says Dherman.

Tapping into the power of AI

The coupling of ERP and artificial intelligence (AI) has allowed manufacturers to make sense of structured and unstructured data. Previously unidentified trends, exceptions, and anomalies in your business are brought to the fore, helping to improve decision-making.

The integration of AI means that detecting fraud or operator errors is easier, as AI identifies anomalies in customer or internal sales orders, requisitions and purchase orders, and then alerts the relevant people immediately. AI is also able to pick up trends in customer behaviour and then push relevant information to you, taking your ERP from a simple system of record, to one of proactive engagement.

The advent of Digital Citizens

The employment of Bots, or Digital Citizens, has numerous benefits in the manufacturing environment. The incorporation of AI into ERP software has facilitated the development and introduction of human-like chatbots, which answer – and even predict – customer queries quickly. The (AI) web robot resides within the SYPRO ERP ecosystem and streamlines business functions through natural conversations with the bot.

By employing a Digital Citizen in your business, you could provide your customers and your suppliers with an always-on, consistent and improved customer experience, 24/7, across the globe. Digital self-service agents provide insights and information, running price queries, stock look-ups, order status and more.

Opening the door to greater efficiencies

By embracing new, exponential technologies such as machine learning, AI, and Digital Citizens, and by implementing a future-fit ERP solution that allows for their incorporation, manufacturers can not only make the digitisation process easier, but also open the door to greater efficiencies and growth.

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