From visibility to action in manufacturing

Behind everyday products such as cars and packaged foods are interconnected production systems that enable manufacturers to see every step from order to delivery. That visibility can help managers to act before local issues become production, safety or customer problems. But visibility is only one component of the resilience manufacturers need to keep operations moving in the face of disruption. Manufacturers must also have the tools and knowledge to interpret what they see and co-ordinate responses across operations.

Operational risks extend beyond the factory. The Economist Enterprise Technology Resilience Index shows that supply chains are a particular concern. Nearly three-quarters of manufacturing respondents cite supply-chain operations as one of the hardest areas of their business to protect during disruption, compared with 52% who cite employee productivity.

That vulnerability reflects how much of the supply chain sits beyond a manufacturer’s direct control. Greater visibility across production, suppliers and logistics partners can help manufacturers to identify dependencies and to respond before a local issue cascades.

“Today’s manufacturers are balancing growing operational complexity across factories, supply chains, cloud platforms and connected devices," says Randall Porter, vice president of Global Enterprise Solutions at AT&T. “Resilience starts with secure connectivity and is strengthened by end-to-end visibility, the ability to act on operational insights and trusted access to data.”

Those pressures are pushing resilience higher up the leadership agenda. Eight in ten manufacturing respondents say maintaining it is an ongoing leadership priority, and connectivity is emerging as an important part of the response.

Source: Economist Enterprise Technology Resilience Index.

“Connected operations depend on data that is timely, reliable and secure," says Viraj Parekh, vice president of converged networking at AT&T. “When manufacturers can trust data across factory systems, suppliers and cloud environments, they gain clearer visibility today and create a stronger foundation for AI and automation over time.”

Turning data into decisions

Reliable connectivity helps operational data to move between sensors, machines, applications and teams across a facility. When data is visible and trusted, manufacturers have more time and a clearer context in which to make decisions and limit the impact of disruptions.

But smart factories are rarely built in one go. Manufacturers often have to integrate newer sensors, networks and applications with existing operational technology, while securing the links between them without introducing new points of failure.

“You are never going to prevent every disruption," acknowledges Jeff Burnstein, president of the Association for Advancing Automation. “The question is how quickly you can see it and respond, and that speed comes from the data.”

Once machines are connected and generating data in real time, manufacturers can use that information to anticipate maintenance needs, catch quality problems earlier and gain advance insight into imminent supply-chain disruptions “instead of getting blindsided”, Mr Burnstein says.

For example, global equipment supplier Alfa Laval uses IoT sensors to monitor heat exchangers and other equipment installed at customer sites. When something goes wrong, staff can identify and resolve some problems remotely, avoiding the expense and delay involved in sending a technician to the site.

From resilience to adaptability

Resilience is not only about recovering from disruption. It is also about building the visibility and flexibility to adjust as conditions change. Accordingly, more than two-thirds of manufacturing respondents say they are scaling resilience investments to match operational risks, according to The Economist Enterprise Technology Resilience Index. Those investments can support broader operational goals: the same connected systems that help manufacturers to detect problems sooner can also help them to reduce maintenance downtime and improve efficiency. 

“The goal is not connection for its own sake," Mr Parekh explains. "It is to give manufacturers the visibility and control to keep operations moving, make confident decisions and adapt as conditions change.”