As Australian manufacturers move into a new era of digital business transformation, information technology forms the structure for the country’s reimagined manufacturing efforts. In the past, IT advances have been used to optimise existing processes. Today’s manufacturing teams are looking for trusted technology partners that can take them beyond a simple upgrade into the realm of transformative change. This revolution began to take shape as manufacturers began realizing the potential for boosting efficiency but quickly expanded to encompass processes throughout the industry. See how gains in information technology continue to blur the lines between traditional manufacturing, distribution, retailing and customer service.
How Technology Supports Globalisation
Businesses around the world struggle with unfamiliar laws, tariffs, communication and billing difficulties — all in the name of expanding their reach beyond the borders of their country. Australia’s manufacturing businesses are looking to globalisation to provide the growth that the organisations need. Technology is a key input for this expansion beyond Austrialia’s borders, as businesses must store and protect customer information and increasingly-complex business transactions. Each new country added to Australian manufacturers’ list of buyers could potentially include new security and risk compliance requirements, which can be confusing and contradictory at best. Sophisticated data structures, consistent backups and advanced cybersecurity are a few of the many ways that technology vendors are helping Australian businesses be competitive throughout the world.
The Age of Predictive Analytics
In traditional manufacturing, there is a great deal of pressure to remove any type of variance from your processes. The growth of predictive analytics allows you to feed vast quantities of data into a computer and create detailed models that can help business leaders determine potential weak links in a process and work to shore them up. The easy flow of data between organisations is part of what is helping to bring this new reality to life as vendors and manufacturers, customers and shippers are all in constant communication regarding order status. Manufacturers are creating global dashboards by leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) and interconnected devices (IoT) that allow them to monitor manufacturing status and defects in real time as well as identify bottlenecks or slowdowns in their manufacturing processes.
Revolutionising Manufacturing?
Autonomous robots and advanced machine learning may still be a bit futuristic for manufacturers, but these data-driven applications are coming to the forefront of manufacturing in a big way in Australia. IBM estimates that factories are currently under-utilizing their data — making it more challenging to be truly revolutionary instead of evolutionary in the use of technology. This is where many manufacturers are turning to IT managed services partners to provide them with hands-on knowledge of data integrations, AI, predictive analytics, smart devices and autonomous businesses processes. Until these new information technology solutions are pulled together, it will be difficult for manufacturers to fulfill their vision of revolutionising their still-traditional manufacturing processes. This requires moving beyond the legacy applications and forging new ground that may not be familiar territory for IT manufacturing teams. After a recent study by BSquare, IBM shared that 78% of manufacturing organisations plan to increase their investments in sensors, data and other connected devices, a strong indicator that they are gearing up for significant change in the near future.
One thing is clear: Australian manufacturers are focused on the future and trying to determine where digital transformation can take their business. It is often difficult for these business leaders to bring their vision into reality, due to the complexity of the interrelated data and systems. A proactive technology support partner can help untangle the messy web of interconnected information and clarify how other organisations throughout the world are leveraging information technology to boost revenue, reduce expenses and increase overall productivity for their business. When you are ready to see the difference a committed IT partner can make for your business, contact the professionals at Steadfast Solutions at 1300 739 335 or fill out our quick online contact form anytime.