Smart Manufacturing is no longer limited to the factories but has expanded to the end-to-end manufacturing value chain. Manufacturing organizations are striving to become modern enterprises that do not limit “smart” only to the shop floors.

The Modern Business Enterprise is comprised of three primary themes, (i) Next Generation Customer Experience, (ii) Visibility and Predictability, (iii) Learning Organization. These themes are characterized by a number of attributes and in turn are unlocked by a defined set of strategies. The buildup to the achievement of the themes and modern manufacturing enterprise is realized through digital initiatives and by building business/functional capabilities.

Next generation customer experience is characterized by attributes such as collaboration, self-service, and the ability to spawn new business models. Visibility and Predictability is characterized by traceability, predictability, optimized operations, resilience, and intelligent synchronization while attributes such as knowledge, innovation, modern experience, and continuous learning characterize Learning Organization.

The themes and their attributes are unlocked by the following set of digital strategies –

• Enhanced experience at customer touchpoints
• Leverage of partner ecosystem and data towards expanded and new business models
• Integration of physical and digital worlds (IT-OT convergence)
• Human-systems collaboration towards smart factories and supply chains
• Democratization of data paving the way for valuable insights and data-driven decisions
• Leverage of automation and ML/AI to enhance human skills and decision making
• Democratization of knowledge through harvesting and structured re-use
• Leverage of digital engineering models for definition, development, deployment, and operation of software and system products
• Integration of customer facing systems and re-wiring of the existing enterprise systems

Digital strategies would be used to deliver these attributes and themes through a set of initiatives identified during a business environment and strategy capture stage of a proposed approach. This would discuss the priorities and approaches needed to become a modern manufacturing enterprise based on the foundation of supply chain efficiency and resiliency, Industry 4.0/5.0, the power of data, and adoption of digital technology. It would also discuss real examples of organizations embarking on the journey towards becoming a true modern manufacturing enterprise.

Key takeaways –

• What does smart manufacturing mean to end-to-end value streams and not limited to the factories? What are the key principles and actions in the journey towards achieving this?
• Real examples of becoming modern manufacturing enterprises?
• What does this mean in post COVID pandemic world?