Three Steps Toward Manufacturing Resiliency

The manufacturing business environment can be unpredictable. Supply chain disruptions occur, demand for products fluctuates, and game-changing innovations quickly appear on the horizon. To stay in business and remain competitive, manufacturers must anticipate and respond to both foreseen and unforeseen changes.
What’s the key to this responsiveness? Manufacturing resiliency. And the driver behind this resiliency is data-driven production execution supported by digital technologies.
Hard Lessons
Hard lessons have been learned in the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Manufacturing has been particularly hard hit. Companies that were able to react quickly, retool their factories, redirect their supply chains, and take advantage of digital technologies quickly switched gears to meet crucial needs and create new opportunities

For example, clothing designers and manufacturers such as H&M, Brooks Brothers, and Hanesbrands retooled their factories to produce face masks, medical gowns, and protective aprons for hospitals. Spirits manufacturers Bacardi and Brown-Forman shifted their distillery operations to manufacture hand sanitizers for first responders. And production lines at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Ford, and GM are now turning out ventilator parts, respirators, and other much-needed medical equipment.[i] In addition to meeting urgent worldwide needs, these companies have created a culture of resiliency in their operations that will be valuable to them and the communities they support in both the short and long term.
Three Steps to Resilient Manufacturing 
By taking the following three steps, you can transform your manufacturing environment to become more resilient and improve operations. You can more effectively meet the needs of your customers under any circumstances while creating new opportunities for your business.
1/ Increase flexible automation to create resilient operations.
The manufacturing industry has come full circle, from the days of hyper-customized craft production before the first Industrial Age, through mass production in the early 1900s, to manufacturing as it is today. With the trend toward personalization that we’re now seeing in the marketplace, the manufacturing industry is moving back to hyper-customization, or a lot size of one.
However, in this Industry 4.0 iteration, hyper-personalization is being done at scale. Flexible automation is at the forefront of this evolving story. Robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) are the key technologies that make flexible automation at scale possible, enabled by 5G, Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) and Open Platform Communications (OPC).

On the road to full automation, we can also expect to see more scenarios where humans work collaboratively with robots. This collaboration could take many forms. For example, workers could adapt their tasks to preconfigured robotic operations. However, with rapid advancements in robotics and AI, future production lines could also be staffed with robots that have the intelligence and situational awareness to easily work alongside humans, adjusting their behavior according to each worker’s style and speed.
The technologies that will drive this digital transformation include robotics and mixed reality, with 5G, IoT and AI serving as the digital backbone and application enablers.
2/ Introduce remote operations to ensure business continuity in adverse situations. 
Prior to the pandemic, there was a lot of industry buzz and some solid proof points for deploying augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) in manufacturing, particularly within the maintenance function. However, not everyone believed this technology would be quickly and widely adopted.
Now, as companies have been forced into embracing remote working, we’re seeing a renewed enthusiasm among executives for these technologies. There’s a heightened urgency to incorporate remote operations as an integral means of supporting manufacturing operations, whether for product quality inspection, equipment maintenance tasks, or even collaborative tasks involving product design and production planning.
Technologies that can be seamlessly integrated into work environments will quickly evolve to include key enablers such as digital twins, 3D visualization, and private 5G.
3/ Adopt a digital infrastructure that connects all parts of the supply chain. 
One of the serious manufacturing-related impacts of the pandemic and subsequent shutdowns was the significant disruption to the supply chain. Many enterprises were scrambling to source needed materials and components, and distributors were scrambling to deliver them. This situation brought home how essential digital technologies are for managing the complexity and variability of today’s sophisticated and vulnerable manufacturing supply chains.
Industrial data lakes play a key role in transforming traditional production software stacks into digital production platforms. In the manufacturing environment, data lakes enable real-time connectivity to various information layers involved in manufacturing operations, from programmable logic controllers (PLCs), to manufacturing execution systems (MES), to enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. This end-to-end connectivity will enable a seamless information flow across the entire supply chain. In addition, it will help scale any application deployed in one plant, to any other plant anywhere in the world, improving overall return on investment (ROI).
Together, with several other emerging technologies, industrial data lakes will eventually help shape the vision of distributed manufacturing and personalized manufacturing. Additionally, industrial data lakes will play a critical role in scaling digitized accumulated know-how as we transition toward the vision of the digital worker.
Lessons Learned 
Though the manufacturing industry doesn’t always operate in crisis mode, there are valuable lessons about resiliency to be learned from the pandemic. Any manufacturer can take these lessons to heart and transform their factory into an agile, responsive environment resilient enough to weather whatever changes may come.

[i] https://www.triplepundit.com/story/2020/companies-retooling-operations-covid-19/88921

GM: Data’s Infinite Potential

Posted by Paul Tate | Oct 29, 2020 | Ideas & Insights, 2020 Virtual Rethink MLC Summit

With a vast global network of production facilities ranging anywhere from 25 to over 100 years old, and a production staff of over 140,000 people around the world, General Motors generates massive amounts of data every day.
As the cars it produces become ever more intelligent, and as new production technologies like dedicated additive manufacturing systems in all its factories, new developments in collaborative robotics on the shop floor, and specialized new metal forming innovations underway, those data volumes are growing fast.
So how does GM view the potential of all this data for the kind of products it makes and how it will make them in the years ahead?
“It’s infinite,” predicted GM’s Executive Vice President of Global Manufacturing, Gerald Johnson, in conversation with MLC Co-founder David R. Brousell during the opening keynote session of the 2020 Virtual MLC Rethink Summit this week.
As the recent winner of the MLC’s 2020 Manufacturing Leader of the Year Award, Johnson was talking about GM’s Manufacturing Vision and its own journey to Manufacturing 4.0.

“There’s no real destination to our smart manufacturing journey,” continued Johnson, “because the technology keeps growing. It’s really about grabbing and integrating what allows us to move forward from where we are today, and then looking out as we start strategizing and planning our future to make sure we are always able to incorporate what’s available to us.”
Understanding and using data more effectively is a key part of that journey. “I think the technology will help people make better decisions and help make decisions faster,” he added. “We will be able to do things better in a digital world, shrinking the time it takes to go from idea to execution, and shrinking the time it takes to move from equipment on the floor to full operation.
“It’s about understanding how much we can put into the digital world with enough accuracy that it allows us to predict better, allows us to prevent better, and allows us to move from an idea to a tangible, physical asset in a highly efficient execution faster. That’s where I think the greatest opportunity is.”
To help drive this digital ambition, GM has a rapidly expanding data analytics organization where analysts spend significant amounts of time on GM’s plant floors asking front line management and operators exactly what problems they are trying to solve. “Then they are coming back to us and saying, ‘I think we can help you with this by aggregating these sets of data’. So, it’s a marriage of the experts who understand data techniques, and the plant guys who understand the problem. Then they are collaborating together in workshops to find new ways that data can help to solve things,” he said.
But for Johnson, that’s only the beginning of harnessing the potential of all the data that GM is now collecting. “The reason I say it is infinite is because I don’t know the question that I will need to ask a year from now, or five years from now. But if I have an infinite data set, when I get to the right question, I don’t have to create all the connectivity and create all the data gathering we need. All I have to do is to find the right tools to extract that data in very intelligent ways.
“So, it’s infinite”, he concluded. “There’s millions of bits of data that we are now collecting every day that I don’t even know I need yet. But I’m grateful to IT team for finding efficient ways for us to keep it, so when I figure out the question I want to ask, it’s there so we can start manipulating it to answer questions that we aren’t smart enough to know we need to answer yet. To me, that’s exciting.”
“It’s like looking up into the universe and trying to count the stars,” he explained. “You can’t. But it’s amazing that it’s out there.

Virtual Rethink: An Embrace of All Things Digital

Posted by Penelope Brown | Oct 27, 2020 | Ideas & Insights, 2020 Virtual Rethink MLC Summit

Rethink: The Manufacturing Leadership Council Summit kicked off on October 27, for the first time as a virtual event since its inception. MLC Co-Founder, Vice President and Executive Director David Brousell kicked off the event with remarks focused on the immense disruption that manufacturing has faced during a challenging year – and the ways that digital technology has helped organizations rise to the occasion.
Brousell cited MLC’s own research that demonstrated how the ability to adapt to rapid change was clearly linked to an organization’s digital maturity. In May, 67% of respondents to an MLC poll said digital technologies were important to their ability to respond to the crisis, whether it was shifting production lines, enabling remote capabilities, or mitigating supply chain disruptions.
Also noted were the challenges to developing a digital-first organization, including the mind-numbing volume of data that manufacturers can now acquire – everything from equipment utilization to product lifecycle to customer satisfaction. While acquiring that data is the first step, it is essential to have the ability to organize that data, rely on its accuracy, and make decisions based on that information. As an industry, many manufacturers still struggle to achieve this level of digital mastery.
Additionally, executive leadership is now tasked not just with needing traditional business skills but also digital acumen – an area where many find themselves still lagging.
“Perceptions change as a greater sense of urgency comes on,” Brousell said. “It seems the digital revolution is no longer in the future, but it is now.”

2020 Manufacturing Leadership Award: Winners Recognized at Virtual Gala

Posted by Penelope Brown | Oct 8, 2020 | Uncategorized, Ideas & Insights

Winners of the 2020 Manufacturing Leadership Awards were honored at the 16^th annual ML Awards Gala, hosted by the National Association of Manufacturers’ Manufacturing Leadership Council. The event took place online.
Gerald Johnson, Executive Vice President, Global Manufacturing at GM, was selected as the Manufacturing Leader of the Year for his leadership in GM’s pivot to ventilator production in a partnership with Ventec Life Systems, code named Project V.
Corteva Agriscience was selected as Large Enterprise Manufacturer of the Year for its strong nominations in multiple project categories, using data to streamline operations, boost supply chain resilience, and meet demand.
Humtown Product was named Small/Medium Enterprise Manufacturer of the Year. A longtime leader in the metalcasting industry, the company utilized 3D printing to revolutionize production, boosting its capabilities and allowing it to serve new markets and customers.
“The need for digital transformation in manufacturing is more urgent than ever, and these companies and leaders are examples of some of the best,” said MLC Co-Founder, Vice President, and Executive Director David R. Brousell. “I commend this year’s winners for their noteworthy accomplishments and for continuing to expand what is possible.”
Also honored at the ML Awards Gala was Jeff Moad, creator of the Manufacturing Leadership Awards and its director until his retirement in 2019. Since its inception in 2005, the awards program has recognized thousands of projects from global manufacturers, and Jeff was instrumental in creating its mission and leading its development.
Nine recipients of ML High Achiever Awards were also announced. The High Achiever Awards are presented to the project that receives the highest score from the judges in that category.
High Achiever Award Winners:

• Lockheed Martin in the Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Analytics Leadership category for F-35 Augmented Reality Shop Floor Mobility
• Merck & Co., Inc., in the Collaborative Innovation Leadership category for Digital Fingerprinting
• Humtown Products in the Engineering and Production Technology Leadership category for Commercialization of 3D Printing in the Metal Casting Industry
• IBM in the Enterprise Integration Technology Leadership category for Migrating Supply Chain Quality Workload to Cloud
• Cooley Group in the Industrial Internet of Things Leadership category for Cooley Group Transforms Legacy Machinery into Smart Tech
• Hologic Inc. in the Operational Excellence category for Building a Culture of Operational Excellence
• Starkey Hearing Technologies in the Supply Chain Leadership category for Starkey Supply Chain Management Transformation
• The Boeing Company in the Sustainability Leadership category for Diverting Waste to Landfill While Upcycling Excess Airplane Carbon Fiber
• Nexteer Automotive in the Talent Management category for Nexteer for m.e. Global Talent Management and Training Program

 

The manufacturing sector faces a slew of challenges due to the pandemic. A recent survey by the U.S. National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) found that nearly four out of five manufacturing companies expect a financial hit from COVID-19. More than half (53.1%) anticipate a change in operations primarily due to the injection of new technologies and reimagined business processes.
Writing for Forbes magazine, Anna-Katrina Shedletsky, CEO of Instrumental, said: “Between solutions that leverage the power of the cloud for visibility and automation that optimizes work, necessity will drive invention: manufacturers will do five years of innovation in the next 18 months.”
Indeed, the cloud will be a staple for every manufacturer’s technology stack in these challenging times. Even before the pandemic, the cloud was poised to bring undeniable benefits for manufacturers. It includes a 22% rise in profitability and a 23% decrease in operational costs, on average. And spurred by the pandemic, manufacturers are likely to ramp up their investments in the cloud. In IDC’s wave 3 of its COVID-19 Impact on IT Spending Survey, analysts predicted, “a significant increase in demand for cloud software”.
Five Drivers of Change
There are five clear drivers for this trend. Across industries, the demand for cloud infrastructure has seen a sharp uptick, growing a record 34% YoY in Q1 of 2020. This surge is because the cloud dramatically shrinks their dependence on physical, on-premise infrastructure, and consequently, physical proximity. This facet has immediate benefits for companies that are following social distancing measures. In the long-term, the cloud could unlock better connectivity and more seamless supply chains, overcoming supply chain disruptions arising from COVID-19 as expected by 35.5% of companies in the IDC survey.
These benefits span short, near, and long-term impact areas for manufacturers:

1. In the short-term, the cloud enables business continuity. 

Several of the critical activities on the manufacturing value chain, from product design to marketing and customer service, rely on in-person contact. The cloud eliminates this dependence by providing an “anytime, anywhere” platform for communication. This has immense implications for new product development (NPD) as companies no longer need to press pause on innovation. Still, they can stick to their planned go-to-market (GTM) strategies by leveraging the cloud. Similarly, on the operational side, the cloud can help maintain business continuity across people processes, production, and even marketing/sales via online platforms.

2. The cloud simplifies compliance with EHS regulations

Employee health and safety (EHS) regulations are a key focus area for manufacturers even in the best of times. With the onset of the pandemic, this demands even more attention for manufacturing companies. Business continuity and growth cannot compromise on employee health in any way. The cloud allows manufacturers to operate near-lights-out production, assembly, and shipping, thanks to cloud-based automation. Employees can work from the safety of their homes, cementing their trust in the employer and strengthening long-term relationships.

3. In the near-term, the cloud extends the manufacturing ecosystem

The pandemic has compelled business leaders to rethink their existing procurement and distribution networks, lying stress on localized availability and supply chains. When it comes to global pathways, the cloud helps to overcome curbs on international travel and stay connected. It is possible to monitor and manage this entire landscape on a cloud-based platform from the safety of one’s home. The convergence of information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) via cloud-solutions makes it easier to orchestrate the manufacturing ecosystem remotely.

4. In the long-term, the cloud will accelerate process modernization

Business leaders were discussing the importance of the fourth industrial revolution even before the pandemic. Now, it is no longer a mere possibility. COVID-19 has pushed manufacturers to reduce dependence on hands-on processes, physical infrastructure, and physical workspaces. A modernized manufacturing enterprise, where cloud-based artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI and ML) scans EHS data to spot non-compliance; where a cloud-based contact center replaces hundreds of employees working within a confined campus; and where cloud-based project management platforms ensure on-time delivery, will soon be the new normal.

5. Cost optimization is a recurring benefit of migrating to the cloud

It’s no secret that traditional, on-premise infrastructure is prone to severe inefficiencies. Companies cannot dynamically allocate resources, leading to resource waste and challenges in scaling up at peak demand periods. The cloud could help manufacturers improve their bottom line by maximizing technology investments. It could also drive topline revenues by enabling innovation and business growth when the competition stutters.
Beyond the Pandemic
Enterprise migration to the cloud shouldn’t be reactive. After all, it has far-reaching benefits extending well into a manufacturer’s long-term roadmap. It will help business leaders get a step ahead of the competition, leapfrogging into the industry 4.0 era, and ready to take on fresh opportunities post-COVID-19. This requires well-articulated cloud adoption strategies encompassing every sphere of business, starting today.

The coronavirus pandemic has tested manufacturers’ resilience in unprecedented ways, straining supply networks, shuttering factories, and pushing some industry sectors to the brink. Now more than ever, the times call for an agile, adaptable, and responsive workforce.
Manufacturers are continuing to hire during the outbreak, albeit often with modified practices such as virtual interviews and delayed onboarding. Some are responding to an uptick in demand or adjustments to production, while others are positioning themselves for the eventual upswing. In either case, manufacturing’s chronic shortage of skilled talent adds another layer of challenge to the process.
One source of skilled talent with technical know-how is the military veteran community. Veterans are motivated, able to respond to change and trained to stay calm under pressure. They have often been given technical training during their military career, and many are willing to relocate for good job opportunities as they transition to civilian life.
The Manufacturing Institute created the Heroes MAKE America program to provide skills training to veterans to prepare them for careers in manufacturing and then connect that talent with hiring managers at manufacturers nationwide. In addition to instruction, veteran participants also have engagement opportunities at manufacturing facilities to meet with other veteran employees, hiring managers, and plant leadership.
In the era of COVID-19 restrictions, those engagement opportunities have moved online to a program called Heroes Connect. This means that manufacturers anywhere are now able to connect with veterans who are ready to be hired. Heroes MAKE America currently operates at five military installations and has placed program graduates in 37 states and three countries.
The resilience exhibited by our nation’s military veterans makes them an ideal fit for moving to the front lines of manufacturing. In this critical time for our industry, our economy, and our nation, it is more vital than ever to build a connection to this important group.
If you’d like to know more about how your company can participate in Heroes MAKE America and build its outreach to the veteran community, contact Babs Chase at [email protected].       

In these particularly challenging times, business operations are being disrupted in unprecedented ways. Amid extreme and sudden changes in supply and demand, manufacturers are putting together action plans and recovery initiatives to manage the current pandemic crisis, and they’re looking to automation to help lighten the load.
As an industry heavily reliant on dependable processes, manufacturing is primed with opportunities for robotic process automation (RPA), which delivers huge gains in efficiency. These use cases discuss RPA and its uses specific to manufacturing, outlining four common solutions the technology is supplying the industry.

1. Data Migration

As manufacturers see widespread adoption of IoT equipment, upgrading legacy systems is inevitable. But that is no small feat. Luckily, it is a perfect use case for RPA.
Legacy systems often aren’t easily capable of sharing data with other systems. Custom interfaces must be built to allow the transformation of data before it is loaded into the new system. But because RPA bots can work independent of APIs, RPA acts as an intermediary between new and old systems, efficiently integrating the applications. What’s more, bots can be programmed to monitor the migration along the way, flagging and correcting any inconsistencies in real time. This saves time and money on auditing with precise, error-free results.
2. Secure Proof of Deliveries (PODs)
PODs are a critical component to customer service, but they can also be a tremendous drain on resources, leading to errors, delays, and an increase in days sales outstanding (DSO). It’s a tedious process that is time-intensive and high-risk for human error. With RPA, bots can regularly query carrier tracking systems and link the shipping data to the original orders in warehouse management systems—all without human assistance.
This relieves employees of time-consuming tracking work, freeing them to do more direct customer service and other important tasks. It also improves response times and DSO metrics and supports strong, consistent cash flow.
3. CRM and Sales Order Integration
Sales order integration is another common area RPA is helping manufacturers (and really businesses in general). It’s no secret that sales staff are usually quite skilled at selling. Their work depends on relationship building and constructive communication—activities in which humans excel. But there is often much more involved with the sales process than just the sale itself. There are estimates, product availability, order processing, fulfillments, logistics and more. Sometimes, these tasks are further complicated by being completed in different departments. Either way, the sales cycle can be a challenging process with hang-ups and headaches.
With RPA, you can allow your people to perform work aligned to their unique skills, while bots automate the rest of it. Once the salesperson enters their prospecting opportunities into the CRM, the bot can take the info from there, checking pricing, cross-referencing other software for product availability, auto-generating quotes and shipping times, and more. Once an order is approved, the bot can extract and validate sales order data and send it downstream to other systems to optimize the entire sales lifecycle. All the while, people continue to do their best work, generating leads, building relationships and selling products.
4. Regulatory Compliance
The world is a rapidly changing place. And in manufacturing, that unfortunately means changing compliance requirements. From safety protocols to individual product regulations, regulatory compliance is a part of the industry. RPA simplifies the process, providing accurate data processing, detailed records in the event of an audit, and real-time monitoring of all bot activities. And because the technology is rules-based, it can be updated at any time to comply with new regulations.
These are just a few of the most common applications we see with RPA. And it’s important to understand that the technology is only just the beginning of process optimization. As the foundation for process mining and process intelligence, the potential of RPA—and its ROI—truly becomes limitless.
 
 

Why should you consider nominating your team for a Manufacturing Leadership Award? One word: Innovation. Your company depends on it to stay competitive in the digital era. How can you inspire your team to discover your next big idea?
Nothing drives innovation quite like competition. When your team beats out other industry leaders to win a prestigious award, something incredible happens. They continue to innovate and work even harder to help your company thrive.
The Manufacturing Leadership Awards is the ultimate innovator’s competition. It’s the only award that recognizes achievements in Manufacturing 4.0. It rewards forward-thinking manufacturers in front of their peers and fuels further innovations—to move the industry forward.
But is it really worth your time and effort to enter an awards competition? The short answer is yes. Benefits are numerous and include improved employee engagement and retention. Engaged employees are more likely to share ideas that can improve efficiencies, enhance your processes and reduce costs.
Additionally, winning a Manufacturing Leadership Award can reinforce your customers’ decision to do business with you. You could also gain new business through networking at the Manufacturing Leadership Awards Gala along with highly publicized awards recognition.
The Manufacturing Leadership Awards nominations are now open. This year’s competition includes 12 categories – nine for company-level project awards and three for individual leaders. New for 2020, each project category will include a small/medium enterprise high achiever award to recognize the most innovative small businesses. A new Community Service Leadership individual award has also been introduced to recognize leaders who have had a measurable impact on giving back to their local community.
Nominate today to reward your team and drive innovation at your company. Learn more at https://mlawards.manufacturingleadershipcouncil.com.
 

Is U.S. industry lagging behind in its adoption of Manufacturing 4.0?

“It probably is,” said John Fleming, Chairman of the Manufacturing Leadership Council’s Board of Governors and former Executive Vice President of Global Manufacturing & Labor Affairs, Ford Motor Co., during his on-screen speech at last week’s 2019 ML Summit in California.
“But there’s still a huge opportunity ahead for U.S. industry, and now is the time to accelerate its efforts,” he added.
Industry predictions suggest that around $220 billion will be spent globally by industrial companies on adopting Manufacturing 4.0 technologies and approaches by 2025.
Taking a global perspective, Fleming identified Germany as currently leading the global M4.0 pack, having first coined the Industry 4.0 name back in 2011 to highlight the concept of the digital industrial revolution. Japan and the rest of Europe he considers as “fast followers”; while he believes China is swiftly catching up thanks to its government-led initiatives such as China 2025.
The U.S. meanwhile, has good federal funding but is slow at implementation, and while the federal network of manufacturing innovation institutes look at the what and why, U.S. companies now need to focus on the how, who, and when.
Those companies need to be willing to learn about and embrace new M4.0 technologies, develop the organizational structures and corporate cultures that are capable of harnessing the power of the data these technologies create, and nurture a spirit of digital acumen among both its leaders and employees to help drive efficiencies, accelerate innovation, fill the workforce gap, and deliver global competitive advantage.
“It will be very difficult for the U.S. to grow competitively in the future without increasing the speed of M4.0 adoption,” he warned.
“The M4.0 opportunity is now,” he added, “but we need to move quickly.”

Data is manufacturing’s new gold, but much like any raw material, it only has value once it’s mined, refined, and polished to make it shine.
Manufacturers generally have no problem collecting massive amounts of data, but leveraging it to its best advantage is still a tall order for many. At the 2019 Manufacturing Leadership Summit, Hitachi Vantara Director of Digital Solutions for Manufacturing Sath Rao shared insights on some of the tools and technologies that are helping with that challenge.
“It’s the ability to realize that data is not just outward; data is also something we need to look at monetizing,” Rao said. “In the not too distant future, companies that are not operating at peak efficiency might want to sell off their plant operating data for AI systems to learn about their challenges and issues and then educate other factories” from those insights.
Rao says it’s often about “choosing to win,” and also about choosing uses cases that tie back to the overall corporate mission to gain more attention and support from C-suite leadership. “The research is already out there,” he said. “The KPIs from the (World Economic Forum’s) Lighthouse factories are giving an idea of what’s possible.
“Instead of ‘don’t fix something that isn’t broken,’ the new paradigm with data will be to break things to fix them, because of the power to look at data across siloes for new insight and discovering new points of improvement,” Rao said.  “In my opinion, the factories of the future will only be possible if you are realizing the data factories that are available today.”