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Jeff McAlvay The manufacturing industry is seeing a turning-point in its growth and development, moving from decades-old operational processes to new implementations of IoT and connected technology such as smart robotics and industrial systems. A report from Statista reports that the smart manufacturing market is expected to grow to approximately $480 billion USD by 2023, from just a few hundred billion in 2018. As more systems become connected, the industrial and manufacturing industries, as well as the whole supply chain, must continue to mature to give manufacturers a set of tools for optimizing and increasing efficiencies in their connected factories that help them compete in the market and ultimately enable greater innovation. At the heart of these industrial connected systems is the technology that comprises their infrastructure, networks and other key components. Currently, many factories and industrial settings are focused on optimizing data and networks for increasing operational efficiencies—this includes trends like the growing implementation of IT/OT to converge IT systems with the operational (OT) systems. But in order to drive continued change and growth, manufacturers should consider a software-based approach: streamlining their factories to use software to control systems and provide valuable data analytics while at the same time learning from that data to continuously improve. Software also helps fill knowledge-gaps between personnel working in the factory—from those working in QA/QC on the factory floor up to senior-level management. In the traditional manufacturing process, particularly in the electronics industry, the process is slow, opaque, and low-quality. This is due in part to the fact that the machines and people are all analog and disconnected, making the factories islands of isolated technology. Without any kind of industrial internet of things (IIoT) or software-based systems, these factories are unable to provide engineers with insight into the outcome of their designs […]