Typically, manufacturing applications have been locally-hosted, on-premise deployments mostly developed from scratch to be extremely specific to the user needs and business cases they cater to. Manufacturers have frowned upon cloud-based application deployment due to perceived availability, latency, and security issues. However, that perception is changing and changing fast. Software as a service–or SaaS, as it is popularly referred to–is bringing all Industry 4.0 technologies to the forefront for manufacturers. Everything from edge computing to AI and IIoT to augmented reality is being enabled through cloud-based deployment, which is faster, better, cheaper, and more secure than any on-premise deployment could ever be.
Up until recently, frontline workforce management and platforms that enable the establishment of a connected-worker ecosystem were not priorities for manufacturers. This, too, is changing rapidly, and frontline workers, their practices, their data, and their ability to make decisions in real-time based on contextualized and actionable intel are becoming priorities. Cloud has the potential to go beyond plug-and-play deployment. When it comes to FLW platforms, it can be as simple as pay and play, with citizen developers creating their own applications and generating value from the get go faster than the on-prem alternative.
So, it is imperative for us to understand what has changed about cloud and manufacturing. Why does SaaS make sense for manufacturers now? And what do manufacturers need to consider, change, and achieve when they decide to give SaaS and cloud-based solutions a chance?
Understanding What Makes SaaS Work:
Accenture published a guide that addresses two main questions: What is the value of cloud in manufacturing? And how can manufacturers effectively go about implementing it? While this guide references MES and MOM applications, the knowledge can be applied universally to all software platforms and solutions that are cloud native or offer some combination of local plus cloud-type hybrid infrastructure. Cloud works in manufacturing if it maximizes business efficiency, maximizes IT efficiency, and minimizes IT risk. Let’s take a closer look at how Accenture explains these three factors and establish why cloud works for manufacturing and how manufacturers can get the best out of their cloud deployments.
Maximizing Business Efficiency- Cloud brings with it the entire technology gamut associated with Industry 4.0, big-data analytics, artificial intelligence, IIoT, and other SaaS capabilities. Manufacturers can greatly benefit from using a platform that already incorporates these technologies rather than modifying or completely rebuilding their current applications and point solutions. From a business-efficiency perspective, the SaaS model has a few distinct advantages:
Maximizing IT Efficiency- SaaS-based platforms directly impact operational margins and help manufacturers reduce the costs associated with full-fledged on-premise hosting, including the manpower cost required for developing, maintaining, and supporting such applications. These are the distinct advantages of SaaS platforms from an IT efficiency perspective:
Minimizing IT Risks- Cloud has been a contentious discussion in manufacturing because of security and resilience concerns. However, due to modifications made to the technology stack, cloud is now one of the safest and most reliable hosting solutions:
Webalo Insights:
Based on the insights from Accenture’s guide, it seems that going for a SaaS-based platform should be a no-brainer for manufacturers. However, specifically for FLW management and optimization, what should the ideal platform look like?
Connected-worker applications are a whole different ball game when it comes to deployment and user adoption. The SaaS platform is considered cloud agnostic, with on-prem virtualization delivery and native mobile services. It must allow app development and deployment to be driven by users on their own mobile devices, and it should intuitively adapt to the devices in use.
Webalo offers on-premise, cloud, and hybrid solutions. We believe centralization leads to better analysis, agility, and visibility. Therefore, we are heavily investing in the SaaS model for more accessibility and easy data aggregation. While every plant can run its own server, collect data from local workers, and then aggregate the data at region levels and the corporate level, our plan is to centralize all of the data within multi-tenant server structures for future deployments. This will provide already aggregated, structured data for faster and more accurate analysis. Machine learning will provide results sooner with broader exercised data.
The ultimate goal of Webalo’s SaaS offering is not only the elimination of IT infrastructure costs and improved bottom line for the manufacturer but also the frictionless transition from legacy or paper-based systems to the most modern FLW platform for the entire organization and extended supply chain.