The signposts are pointing the way: the Factory of the Future is straight ahead and the road leading to it is a five-lane superhighway of technology, product innovation, customization and advanced performance capabilities. A creative mind-set for problem-solving, late-stage assembly, configuration tools, accelerated prototyping, and sensor tracking is the price of admission. Stubborn adherence to traditional processes — whether it’s holding on to a legacy ERP or insisting that IT modifications are necessities — will cause serious roadblocks for the slow adopters. Some manufacturers are already leading the way to modern manufacturing, setting new production standards for product lifecycle management (PLM). They are making bold advances and reaping greater rewards. Here are some tips you can learn from these early pace setters. Are you keeping up? While some manufacturers are eager to move to the next generation of technologies, there are those who seem to be waiting for clear best practices or product alignments to merge. Granted, some disruptive technologies, like the Internet of Things, are still in their infancy and we have yet to fully comprehend the true potential. But manufacturers who are not already mapping their routes to the future will be left behind in the dust. Converging forces are dramatically transforming product lifecycle management, from engineering design through prototyping and product launch to customer feedback, warranty claims, and after-market service. In today’s highly competitive global economy, it is more important than ever that manufacturers accelerate and streamline their PLM strategies. Advanced PLM capabilities steer toward the Factory of the Future A holistic approach is required to propel manufacturers into the modern realm of advanced PLM practices. Multiple IT capabilities need to be harnessed in order to fully benefit from the next generation product innovation technologies, including collaboration on product design, price-quote-configure tools, assemble-to-order capabilities, stringent quality […]