Technology

Companies Are Only Beginning to Leverage the Advantages, But the IIoT Is Already Producing Tangible Benefits for Many Corporations By Carol Miller, MHI Vice President of Marketing and Communications When the 2017 MHI Annual Industry Report, “Next-Generation Supply Chains: Digital, On-Demand and Always-On” was released last April, it included—for the first time—research and insight into the Internet of Things (IoT). ...

Anyone who attended ProMat 2017 experienced it. Technology is disrupting supply chains and transforming them into more digital, connected and intelligent models. And there is no end in site. Consumers are driving this trend as they demand more buying options and faster service from supply chains that are always-on. Sensors that enable the collection of massive amounts of supply chain ...

The next generation models of the supply chain will be “successfully combining automation and digital technologies to drive superior performance,” according to MHI’s recently released 2017 Annual Industry Report titled “Next-Generation Supply Chains: Digital, On-Demand and Always-On,” developed in collaboration with Deloitte Consulting. The Internet of Things (IoT) and Industry 4.0 are concepts that are key to gaining the efficiency, ...

At ProMat, people were saying: ‘That’s the future!’ I was saying: ‘That’s the present,’” says Rafael Granato, marketing director for MHI member PINC Solutions. He’s referring to the company’s drone systems, which can fly through a manufacturing or distribution center facility under their own direction to take inventory. Automation and robotics have come of age; they’ve reached the tipping point ...

This Emerging Technology Making Inroads within Specific Supply Chain Processes If seeing is believing, then manufacturing, warehousing and distribution facilities throughout the supply chain can expect to be taking a closer look at the latest wearable technology emerging as a viable competitive advantage in operations: smart glasses leveraging augmented reality. Augmented reality (AR) is a term often used interchangeably with ...

When Each Piece Complements the Whole and ‘Failure’ Isn’t a Bad Thing It wasn’t that long ago that the concept of predictive analytics was the stuff of thought leadership pieces and futuristic white papers. The recently released 2017 MHI Annual Industry Report, “Next-Generation Supply Chains—Digital, On-Demand and Always-On,” however, places predictive analytics squarely in the category of here and now. ...

What’s your initial reaction when you hear the Internet of Things (IoT), Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) or Industrie/Industry 4.0? Are you excited because it represents an unparalleled opportunity to make things better? Or are you defensive because you fear that robots are taking over the world and will significantly degrade humanity? Well, I don’t have the answer to that ...

Blockchain, the technology that enabled the creation of bitcoins and shook up global financial systems, may one day be disrupting supply chain operations as well. Ginny Rommety, CEO and chairwoman of IBM, has predicted that blockchain has the potential to transform transactions in the way that the Internet transformed communications. That could include all transactions and movements along the supply ...

Heard the term “Smart City” yet? In researching the 2017 MHI Annual Industry Report, to be released on April 5 at ProMat 2017, Deloitte Consulting’s Patrick Salemme was surprised to discover that 47 percent of the more than 1,100 survey respondents (all manufacturing and supply chain professionals) were aware of the concept. “Further, of that 47 percent, 24 percent reported ...

In these days of rapidly advancing technology, Big Data can be seen one of two ways: as a vehicle for simplification or the speed bump that makes things more complex. The difference? In terms of the supply chain, the experts say it’s understanding big data’s new business case, using it to automate processes and discover end-to-end supply chain visibility and ...