Week #18, 2023

Why do Companies need a Supplier Collaboration solution?

• Sourcing plays a significant role in product development, yet companies often lack information to standardize and manage data across their manufacturing and supply chain partnerships.
• Without control, designers can inadvertently introduce duplicate or unqualified parts, driving up the overall cost of development.
• A solution is required that offers parts classification and search capabilities to enable companies to define and manage a hierarchical classification system of outsourced components and supplier profiles.
• By providing enterprise-level visibility into component and supplier selection, companies can better manage costs and minimize development risks.

Manufacturing industries today face severe talent and labor crises as well as struggle with knowledge capturing and skill development for key personnel. In addition, advanced CNC machining is critical for agility and flexibility in manufacturing to meet customer demands. While these are challenges to some, they also present tremendous opportunities for companies to create value for their customers.

Smart, connected products are increasingly more complicated due to a proliferation of embedded software, microprocessor-based controls, and electronics systems. The scope of electronics and software in products is changing product design, development, and manufacturing for many industries. Market demands and regulations are creating more sustainability requirements for businesses as well. As organizations look to meet the demand for more complicated products as well as support compliance objectives, they need a framework that enables them to “design-in” sustainability and performance while offering transparency across the entire product and asset lifecycle.

The high cost of change has meant that discrete manufacturing as an industry has not always embraced cutting-edge technology, but that’s changing today as many manufacturers explore the use of augmented reality (AR) to address challenges around aging/retiring workforces, issues around attracting and retaining new talent, and the difficulty of training new hires on increasingly complex machines and processes. AR, a visualization technology that uses computer vision software running on smartphones, tablets, and headsets to “augment” a worker’s environment, can help manufacturers to modernize and streamline processes, eliminate costly errors, and reduce downtime by making it possible to digitize existing work instructions and create AR work instructions to visually guide front-line workers.