Amid major global disruptions like what has been brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, it is a critical moment for innovative companies to bring forward new ideas and innovations to help protect the lives and livelihoods of communities and industries around the world.
MachineMetrics' Graham Immerman
It’s undeniable that we are living in uncertain and ever-changing times. The coronavirus outbreak is causing widespread fear and economic hardship for consumers, businesses and communities across the world. The situation is fast-moving, with widespread affects. One thing is for certain—it has and will continue to have global economic and financial ramifications that will be felt throughout the manufacturing industry.
Some of the concerns we’ve heard from our customers and partners include how to best keep their employees safe, and mitigate the risks to their business as this pandemic continues to unfold. For digital companies like us, the impact is significant but manageable. For manufacturing companies, this is a less feasible scenario. We have spent the past days focused on ways in which we could better help our customers at this time.
How has COVID-19 affected the near term global manufacturing supply chain today? How will it be affected moving forward? How do we reshape and rebuild an industry both more sustainable and resilient for the future?
Manufacturing remains the largest industry in the world with the least digitization. This lack of data leads to massive inefficiencies that affect every component of the manufacturing lifecycle. However, It is estimated that 60% of global manufacturing companies will use connected device data for analysis in the coming year, which is evidence that IoT is already driving unprecedented disruption in a notoriously slow-adoption industry for technology. This access to data can transform traditional manufacturing operations and supply chains into dynamic, sustainable, more resilient interconnected systems.
The value of data-driven technology cannot be understated during this time. We have on our hands a whole new arsenal of data informing our decisions. In an increasingly complex manufacturing environment, manufacturers are looking for any edge they can get to remain competitive in a heavily globalized economy.
But it’s not just manufacturers that have the opportunity to advance at the hands of data; our industry’s digital revolution requires a fundamental adoption of new ways of thinking and new paradigms for all those within the manufacturing lifecycle to drive new revenue streams and increase innovation.
From small, medium and large manufacturers; operations, supply chain and IT leadership; operators and engineers; IT and OT system integrators; platform and software vendors; equipment builders; research, education and training...everyone stands to gain from these new technologies and data-driven insights.
Legacy business and operational structures will transform into horizontal, flexible and agile business opportunities more readily capable of being a part of a connected-partnership ecosystem. This newfound ability to focus on what everyone does best will reveal opportunities for a more sustainable industrial economy.
Last week, MachineMetrics announced that it has joined forces with the World Economic Forum’s Global Innovators Community, a group of the world’s most promising start-ups and scale-ups that are at the forefront of technological and business model innovation, to engage with public and private sector leaders and to contribute new solutions to overcome the current crisis and enable future resiliency. We are proud to work alongside the World Economic Forum to help define the global agenda on key issues and to work together to build a more sustainable, resilient industry for the future.
Progress happens by bringing together people from all walks of life who have the drive and the influence to make positive change. Will you join us?
Graham Immerman is director of marketing with MachineMetrics.
