Mobile Solutions for the Manufacturing Industry Driving Flexibility and Productivity for Your Enterprise

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1 Driving Flexibility and Productivity for Your Enterprise

2 Introduction Today, manufacturing is one of the major industry sectors which is witnessing a notable transformation in the form of product refinement and process re-engineering. The manufacturing industry is under pressure from the potential customers, suppliers and rivals to deliver better outcome, better quality and do it within a stipulated cost in order to survive in the consistently changing business dynamics. To enter into the new markets, cut down the costs and improve the business revenue, many manufacturers are getting into joint ventures, mergers and outsourcing to expand their global reach. However, to maintain their competitive advantage and improve value for stakeholders, customers, suppliers and workers, manufacturers should be on top of the industry trends. We re at the peak of an ever rising wireless phenomenon. Just as has changed our lives and the way we work, mobility in the manufacturing industry will penetrate each and every department and change the way we do business. Enterprise mobility has rapidly emerged as one of the crucial strategic initiative among the leading global manufacturing organizations.

3 Technological advancements in the mobile and wireless arena bring immense opportunities for the manufacturing companies to expand their enterprise support system while improving the resource planning, eliminating the paperwork, streamlining the manufacturing process and enhancing the level of custom satisfaction. Enterprise mobility is a major shift, which will reshape the manufacturing industry by making it more agile, responsive and lean! In this whitepaper, we will get a closer look at the growing importance of enterprise mobility in manufacturing industry and understand the reasons behind the adoption of the mobility, how the manufacturing industry will benefit from it, key challenges and scope of mobile solutions in the manufacturing industry.

4 Mobile Solutions for the manufacturing Industry Importance of Mobile Solutions in Manufacturing Industry Enterprise mobility in manufacturing helps both discrete and process manufacturers establish new and improved efficiencies within their organization. Mobility has always been customer-driven, flourishing B2B environment. As the manufacturing industry entirely focuses on B2B, it requires more efforts to see how it applies to this industry. Mobility helps manufacturers drive people cost down, improve asset utilization and cut down the material cost. Moreover, it minimizes the error to a great extent by offering more precise data, which at the end results into a greater profitability, customer satisfaction and an edge over the competitors. According to the Enterprise Mobility Market Barometer, mobility has seen a great importance in the enterprise IT agenda. 71% of the decision-makers and mobile workers agreed that mobility is more important for their enterprise today than it was in the previous year.

5 Enterprise Mobility Market Barometer 71% of the decision-makers and mobile workers agreed that mobility is more important for their enterprise today than it was in the previous year. Have a look at the figure: 44% 38% 33% 27% 22% 18% 2% 6% 5% 5% STRONGLY DISAGREE SOMEWHAT DISAGREE NEUTRAL SOMEWHAT AGREE STRONGLY AGREE Decision Worker Mobile Worker

6 Enterprise Mobility Market Barometer Mobility helps enterprises or organizations to reduce the uncertain downtime. As per the Enterprise Mobility Market Barometer, key manufacturing mobile workers and decision makers found that almost one-third of surveyed manufacturing mobile workers are able to recover the downtime at least 50 min/day by utilizing mobility solutions with an average of 52 minutes saved. 35% 30% 25% 29% 20% 15% 10% 14% 19% 13% 20% 5% 0% 5% No downtime recovery 25 mins or less 26 to 50 mins 51 to 75 mins 76 mins or more Unsure

7 Driving Factors and Challenges Mobility offers an extraordinary value to the enterprises or organizations of any shape and size. Manufacturing enterprises implemented mobile technology strategies have seen a few clear benefits to counter their major challenges. Let s have a look at the challenges or concerns of manufacturing industry: Globalization of marketplace Reduced new product integration cycles Rising data management costs Optimizing internal resources to get down the costs to become more price-competent Integration mobile applications with the legacy systems Strict regulatory or compliance A few of the factors or challenges cause manufacturers to opt for mobility to gain an edge over the rivals. Manufacturing with zero-error or defect has become a necessity for the enterprises to be more competitive and cost-effective in today s dire business economy.

8 Mobility allows manufacturing organizations to create business value. R&D Product Development Sourcing Product Manufacturing Product Distribution Customer Service Value Chain Customer Interactions Materials Management Maintenance Management Quality Assurance Factory Operations Facilities Management Asset Tracking Warehouse Management Customer feedback/data collected directly from user device through specialized mobile applications Smartphones with barcode reading applications to track inventory in various stages of manufacture Wireless sensors connected to machinery can send status information to handhold systems RAD tags on inventory items can store QC state information such as expiration date Remotely controlling multiple plant systems such as power and cooling and running operations Wireless surveillance systems that supply five foods to handhold devices for security and emergency response Sensors on company assets such as trucks allow employees to carry out better fleet management Warehouse sensors update ERP with entry/exit of materials. Data accessed from stakeholder smartphones R A T I O N A L E Source: TCS Consulting

9 Mobile Solutions for the manufacturing Industry Driving Factors and Challenges The days are gone when manual timesheets and excel spreadsheets were used to track the production. If your organization truly wants to overcome rising material & labor costs, smaller margins and other obstacles while increasing throughput, than you should start embracing enterprise mobility. Know few instant benefits moving in this direction? Let s have a look at the benefits: More precise and clear inventory counts Reduced cycle times, which means lesser costs Improved margins When you integrate mobility solutions, it will automate all the operations within your organization, which will help you get instant and real-time updates or information. It will enable you to manage the inventory in a more effective way while eliminating the production downtime. By providing easy and timely access to the critical information within the organization, it will help you minimize the cycle times. You can easily reduce the average cycle times and monitor the variances from it. Moving towards the mobility solutions at the end result in a reduced overall cost structure and this will result into a better bottom line. The more precise inventory count will enable the purchasing department to negotiate more favorable pricing.

10 Before Incorporating Enterprise Mobility Solutions Loss of productivity No precise data Rising costs Poor service Tasks take too long Lower average tasks completed per worker Too long driving time Data entry errors Delay in status reports Redundant data entry Unwanted overtime Poorly-planned additions to permanent headcount Raised support infrastructure Too long downtime Repeat visits Inability to fulfil the expectations Unorganized appointments Liability issues Reduced efficiency Reduced moral Poor communication Regulatory compliance Lease management obligations Disclosure to safety interactions Reduced outbound calls Too much paperwork and non-selling time Poor interaction with customer Feel pressured by administration Impact on personal earnings Waste of time finding people and resources. Managing ad-hoc groups to accelerate problem resolutions

11 After Incorporating Enterprise Mobility Solutions A Cygnet Infotech Whitepaper Improved customer service Enhanced competitiveness Improved revenue Reduced service costs Quick response Enhanced first-time fix rates Speedy reports to clients Improved customer retention Enhanced brand awareness Get new customers Up sell potential Increased no of calls per service person each day Minimized service penalties Reduced operation costs Low overtime costs 20-30% improved efficiency Better intelligence Improved work morale Reduced selling costs Enhanced employee communication Enhanced service level agreement Improved community knowledge Better analytics Precise visibility into outsourced activity Reduced paperwork Lesser complaints to manage Minimum office visits Enhanced sales productivity Reduced non-selling time More calls Improved efficiency of the sales manager Reduced wasted time in finding people and resources Collaborate more effectively with colleagues

12 Scope & Opportunities

13 Scope & Opportunities Mobile solutions play a crucial role in almost each and every aspect of the manufacturing cycle, starting from raw material collection to the supply chain management and the delivery of the end product. Mobile solutions doesn t limit restrict itself from changing the work from the traditional PCs to the handheld mobile devices. Manufacturing enterprises present various challenges for the implementation of mobility as they operate in diverse environments which comprises of warehouses for incoming material and outgoing products, clean or industrial production areas and so on. A few of the critical challenges in implementing mobility include: Network security related threats Data and IP security Poor number of useful business applications Lack of executive level buy-in for deploying mobile solutions Reliability and persistence of networks and signals Diverse requirements of production environment

14 A Case Study Cygnet Infotech developed an iphone Application for a client which offers a simple and easyto-use machine service scheduling solution that allows the user to manage and keep track of service dates and service needs for machines. The application reduces costs by minimizing time spent on scheduling, avoids scheduling conflicts and provides latest servicing information. Highlights: Manage machine details Schedule the present and future servicing checks Schedule events into calendar for a particular machine service check Add Notes for a particular event Keep track of the servicing for a particular machine In addition to this it is also synchronized with the device Calendar that sends reminders to the user for the events scheduled earlier.

15 Conclusion Enterprise mobility for manufacturing industry is not all about mobilizing the existing process. It is all about rethinking and searching new ways to embrace the growing mobile workforce. It is the right time to take the mobility solutions part of your small, medium or large-sized IT infrastructure. Invest today in enterprise mobility and position your company to take the maximum benefit of the Next BIG Thing of the future! Cygnet Infotech is a global IT services and IT solutions provider with clients in 24 countries. Mobile application development is our forte and we have developed mobile apps for various industries including healthcare, education, entertainment, telecom, travel and tourism. Talk to us about using Mobile Solutions in Manufacturing Tel: (India) (USA) info@cygnet-infotech.com Web: