10 Ways Cloud Computing Is Revolutionizing Manufacturing

The best manufacturers I’ve visited this year all share a common attribute: they are obsessed with making themselves as easy as possible to work with from a supply chain, distribution and services standpoint.  Many are evaluating cloud-based manufacturing applications including Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and several have adopted cloud-based applications across their companies.

With so much interest, there is much confusion as well.  I recently spoke with Cindy Jutras, founder and CEO of MintJutras.  Her firm has recently completed a survey of SaaS adoption in manufacturing, distribution and other industries.  She found the following:

• 49% of respondents in the manufacturing & distribution industries do not understand the difference between single- and multi-tenant SaaS architectures.  Overall 66% of respondents to the survey did not know.

• SaaS-based applications are 22% of all manufacturing and distribution software installed today, and will grow to 45% within ten years according to MintJutras.

• The three most important characteristics of a SaaS solution in manufacturing and distribution include giving customers a measure of control over upgrades, consistent support for global operations and allowing for rapid and frequent upgrades.

Why Manufacturers Are Looking To Cloud Computing 

Manufacturers are under constant pressure to increase accuracy, make process speed a competitive force, and capitalize on their internal intelligence and knowledge to make every supplier, distributor and service interaction count.  The manufacturers spoken and visited with to gain the following insights are in the high tech, industrial and aerospace and defense industries, where rapid product lifecycles and short time-to-market schedules are commonplace.

Cloud-based strategies give these companies the chance to bring their own innate intelligence and knowledge into every sales situation.  While on-premise systems could also do this, cloud-based systems were quicker to roll out, easier to customize and showed potential to increase adoption rates across resellers.

One manufacturing manager explained how during a new product launch the speed and volume of collaboration was so rapid on between suppliers and distributors that an allocation situation was averted.  That he said, made senior management believers.  These epiphanies are happening daily in manufacturing.

Based on my visits with manufacturers, here are the ten ways they are using cloud computing to revolutionize manufacturing:

• Capturing and applying company-wide intelligence and knowledge through the use of analytics, business intelligence (BI), and rules engines. For the many manufacturers who rely on build-to-order, configure-to-order and engineer-to-order strategies as a core part of their business models, using cloud-based platforms to capture knowledge and manage rules is accelerating. A key part of this area is mobility support for analytics, BI and rules engine reporting and analysis.
• Piloting and then moving quickly to full launch of supplier portals and collaboration platforms, complete with quality management dashboards and workflows. Among the manufacturers visited, those in high tech are the most advanced in this area, often implementing Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) and demand management applications that deliver real-time order status and forecasts.
• Designing in services is now becoming commonplace, making cloud integration expertise critical for manufacturers.  From simplistic services integration on iPhones to the full implementation of voice-activated controls including emergency assistance in the latest luxury cars, adding in services integrated to the cloud is redefining the competitive landscape of industries today.  Revising a product or launching an new product generation with embedded services can mitigate price wars, which is why many manufacturers are pursing this strategy today.
• Accelerating new product development and introduction (NPDI) strategies to attain time-to-market objectives. Using cloud-based platforms in high tech manufacturing is growing today as time-to-market constraints are requiring greater collaboration earlier in design cycles.
• Managing indirect and direct channel sales from a single cloud platform tracking sales results against quota at the individual, group and divisional level is now commonplace across all manufacturers visited.  Dashboards report back the status by each rep and for sales managers, the profitability of each deal.
• Using cloud-based marketing automation applications to plan, execute and most important, track results of every campaign. Marketing is under a microscope in many manufacturers today, as marketing automation applications have promised to deliver exceptional results and many manufacturers are still struggling to align their internal content, strategies and ability to execute with the potential these systems promise.
• Automating customer service, support and common order status inquiries online, integrating these systems to distributed order management, pricing, and content management platforms. Manufacturing industries are at varying levels of adoption when it comes to automating self-service.  The cost and time advantages in high tech are the highest levels of adoption I’ve seen in visiting manufacturers however.
• Increasing reliance on two-tier ERP strategies to gain greater efficiencies in material planning, supplier management and reduce logistics costs. Manufacturers are also using this strategy to gain greater independence from a single ERP vendor dominating their entire operations.  Several manufacturers remarked that their large, monolithic ERP systems could not, without intensive programming and customization, scale down to the smaller operational needs in distributed geographic regions.  Cloud-based ERP systems are getting the attention of manufacturers pursuing two-tier ERP strategies.  Acumatica, Cincom, Microsoft, NetSuite and Plex Systems are leaders in this area of ERP systems.
• Reliance on cloud-based Human Resource Management (HRM) systems to unify all manufacturing locations globally. This often includes combining  multisite talent management, recruiting, payroll and time tracking.  Contract manufacturer Flextronics uses Workday to optimize workforce allocations across their global manufacturing centers for example.

Bottom Line:  Using cloud-based systems to streamline key areas of their business, manufacturers are freeing up more time to invest in new products and selling more.

Courtesy – Louis Columbus

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Please Help the Maasai, They need YOU

Firstly, I am sorry to be off topic in my last couple of blog entries but as said there are certain stories that is good or rather must to share. This is one which I will put in the must category.

Today I got the below email in my inbox, and considering that I am big Fan of Maasai People who have managed to stay in the place which most of us would term inhospitable, I believe its my duty to share and spread the word.

Trust me, Tanzania without the majestic animals and more magnificent Maasai People cannot be the same.

Please help them, even if you have never seen them in person or on TV;  and sign this petition. It takes less time than what it takes you to order a coffee.   

---

Dear friends,

Within hours, Tanzania's President Kikwete could start evicting tens of thousands of the Maasai from our land so hunters can come and kill leopards and lions. Last time Avaaz raised the alarm, the President shelved the plan.Global pressure can stop him again. Click to help us urgently:

We are elders of the Maasai from Tanzania, one of Africa’s oldest tribes. The government has just announced that it plans to kick thousands of our families off our lands so that wealthy tourists can use them to shoot lions and leopards. The evictions are to begin immediately.

Last year, when word first leaked about this plan, almost one million Avaaz members rallied to our aid. Your attention and the storm it created forced the government to deny the plan, and set them back months. But the President has waited for international attention to die down, and now he’s revived his plan to take our land. We need your help again, urgently.
President Kikwete may not care about us, but he has shown he’ll respond to global media and public pressure -- to all of you! We may only have hours. Please stand with us to protect our land, our people and our world’s most majestic animals, and tell everyone before it is too late. This is our last hope:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/stand_with_the_maasai_loc/?bFVWDbb&v=23847
Our people have lived off the land in Tanzania and Kenya for centuries. Our communities respect our fellow animals and protect and preserve the delicate ecosystem. But the government has for years sought to profit by giving rich princes and kings from the Middle East access to our land to kill. In 2009, when they tried to clear our land to make way for these hunting sprees, we resisted, and hundreds of us were arrested and beaten. Last year, rich princes shot at birds in trees from helicopters. This killing goes against everything in our culture.

Now the government has announced it will clear a huge swath of our land to make way for what it claims will be a wildlife corridor, but many suspect it’s just a ruse to give a foreign hunting corporation and the rich tourists it caters to easier access to shoot at majestic animals. The government claims this new arrangement is some sort of accommodation, but its effect on our people’s way of life will be disastrous. There are thousands of us who could have our lives uprooted, losing our homes, the land on which our animals graze, or both.

President Kikwete knows this deal would be controversial with Tanzania’s tourists - a critical source of national income - and does not want a big PR disaster. If we can urgently generate even more global outrage than we did before, and get the media writing about it, we know it can make him think twice. Stand with us now to call on Kikwete to stop the sell off:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/stand_with_the_maasai_loc/?bFVWDbb&v=23847
This land grab could spell the end for the Maasai in this part of Tanzania and many of our community have said they would rather die than be forced from their homes. On behalf of our people and the animals who graze in these lands, please stand with us to change the mind of our President.

With hope and determination,
The Maasai elders of Ngorongoro District

SOURCES
The Guardian: Maasai fury as plan to lure Arabian Gulf tourists threatens their ancestral land
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/30/maasai-game-hunting-tanzania
allAfrica: Land Grab Could Spell 'The End of the Maasai'
http://allafrica.com/stories/201303290873.html
IPP Media: Maasai villagers frustrate efforts to vacate for Ortelo
http://www.ippmedia.com/frontend/?l=52669
The Guardian: Tanzania denies plan to evict Maasai for royal hunting ground
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/15/tanzania-evict-maasai-uae-royals
The Guardian: “Tourism is a curse to us”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/06/masai-tribesman-tanzania-tourism
New Internationalist Magazine: “Hunted down”
http://www.newint.org/columns/currents/2009/12/01/tanzania/
Society for Threatened People: Briefing on the eviction of the Loliondo Maasai
http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/session12/TZ/STP-SocietyThreatenedPeople-eng.pdf
FEMACT: Report by 16 human rights investigators & media on violence in Loliondo
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/58956/print

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There are some stories worth telling….and this is one of them

I came across this story and not sure if this is true or not. But even if its 1% true then I would be honored to share this with my readers. This is what defies the word struggle.

If you visit Connaught Place at New Delhi, then please spend Rs, 40 ( $0.73) and purchase pride for yourself by witnessing the marvel person and respect for this courage.

An experienced shared by an anonymous source -

Last Saturday I met a Salesman With Puppet...

I saw him last Saturday around 6.30 pm in F-block, Inner Circle, Connaught Place, New Delhi . He was well-dressed, wearing ironed full-sleeved shirt which is tucked into trouser that has a black leather belt and a stick to support his steps.

His hand was covered with a puppet glove which made a "PPPPPIIIIPPPP" sound that enabled him to attract passerby.

I was curious to know about his life. So I talked to him, and this is what I got:
Let's meet Mr Sahay. He is a living example for the people who are scared from struggle. He is 75. At this age, he comes daily from Rohtak with a bag full of puppets and a water bottle which is heavy & makes him uneasy to put each step.

He has a railway pass which enables him to commute daily from Rohtak. He earns for his wife, married daughter and her children.

He is retired bank manager. He had a son who was a Chartered Accountant. He spent all his savings for his career. Then his son moved to Bahrain without informing him, and after some time a news came to him that his son died in an accident.

Now he is the only bread earner for his family.

Please buy a pair of puppet which cost only Rs 40 to support Mr. Sahay! Not for Sympathy but to salute Mr Sahay and his efforts..

Hats off to you Mr Sahay!!!!!

{Infographic} Can be Bad as well….