Flexibility to Customize Products with

Intelligent Industry
NA Manufacturing Scenario
The manufacturing industry of North America has multi-generational workforce and as the baby
boomers are aging and hence retiring. There is a significant lack of skilled workers to fill the positions
which are getting vacant.

With an ever evolving customer buying journey, manufacturers need to be more customer-adaptive,
which means innovation and business agility are key. Even as manufacturers have started adopting
new technologies on the manufacturing floor, many are yet to adopt the new digital technologies in
their various other business functions like marketing, sales, and supply chain management which will
enable them in having a competitive advantage in both domestic and international markets.

To prosper in this new era of data richness, manufacturers should improve data mining from the
manufacturing shop floor. Along with smart software systems, these advanced technologies are
making it easier to assign labor, improve efficiencies and balance the different elements of the
complex systems — based on real-time information rather than assumptions or past occurrences.
With advanced technologies like digital twins, AR/VR, etc. training of workers will also become more
efficient.

The market of smart manufacturing in North America is expected to reach a CAGR of 22.3% during
the forecast period from 2018 to 2026. Increasing requirement for automation to attain efficiency
and quality, proliferation of the IoT and need for compliance and government support for
digitization are some of main drivers which are impacting the growth of the market.

The smart factory can be defined as a flexible system which can self-optimize performance across a
wider network, adapt itself to and also learn from new conditions in real time, and autonomously
run the production processes end-to-end. The major features of a smart factory generally include
transparency, agility, connectivity, proactivity, and optimization. The outcome is increased improved
ability to capture market share, speed to market, improved product quality, better profitability, and
stability in workforce. With a flexible design redesign costs can be significantly reduced and this will
also enable quicker response to customers as well as increased performance.

Industry 4.0 involves asynchronous manufacturing, and makes use of auto-identification technology
in the various parts of production flow in order to inform each machine and its respective operator
about what actions need to be completed for producing customized end products at the completion
of each step of the production channel. New flexible machines can adapt to the requirements for the
differentiated parts made in another section of the Smart Factory. With the use of such machines,
the manufacturers can achieve a highly lean, flexible and agile process of production. The outcome is
that the same production facility can produce a variety of different products. Production of small
batches, even a batch of one, is possible through profitable mass customization. This is possible
because the machines can configure rapidly and thus adapt to the ever-changing specifications
provided by the customers and also use additive manufacturing to further increase the efficiency of
this entire process.
Communication and sensor technologies enable every machine in the production line to gather data,
interact amongst themselves and lastly generate instructions autonomously. These processes can be
integrated with the supply and distribution chains, connecting other business units, and driving
efficiency savings even further. With this technology, manufacturers are able to create digital twins
of products which are being used by customers currently. These receive real-time updates from the
sensors integrated with the physical products.

With the above-mentioned technologies, product designers can use real-time data of customers’
needs to design and produce products which customers really want, thus continuously improving
customers’ satisfaction. In this process, the product lifecycle becomes non-linear, which makes it
possible to provide customised products for different customer demographics, hence improving
customer relations and experience. Even single-unit production runs are possible, i.e., true product
personalisation.

To learn more about NA Manufacturing practice, contact Vamshi Rachakonda.