Smart Manufacturing Blog

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High Tech & Electronics

Plex Manufacturing Blog

Manufacturers: Unlock the Value of Industry Analysts

Susie Foran October 3, 2019

At a time when technology buyers are bombarded with software options from all angles, it can be difficult to determine which ones are legit and which ones you should avoid when you’re trying to select an ERP, MES, or Industrial IoT solution vendor....

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How to Optimize your Manufacturing Workforce

Stu Johnson October 1, 2019

It is increasingly challenging to stand up a workforce of skilled operators, but by automating error-prone tasks and operationalizing your procedures, you can mitigate the risk to production and the business. Easy-to-use tools with built-in error-proofing make it easy for your workforce to do the right thing—because it’s the easy thing to do....

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3 Key Steps to Buying the Right ERP for Your Manufacturing Business

Dave Morfas September 18, 2019

We’re not going to dance around it: buying a new ERP solution for your manufacturing business is a big deal. It’s a long, involved process. It requires buy-in from a diverse group of stakeholders. It involves a major investment (both in time and money). And you’ll have to live with the results for perhaps a decade or more....

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Quality 4.0 and the Industrial IoT

Stu Johnson September 5, 2019

Quality is one of the top concerns of most manufacturers. End customers demand quality products so OEMs demand quality performance all the way down their supply chains. There’s no tolerance for delivering anything but a quality product....

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Demystifying IIoT: Terms Every Manufacturer Should Know

Anurag Garg August 27, 2019

By now, you’ve heard a lot about the industrial Internet of things (IIoT). It’s a network of always-connected things and systems that produce a steady stream of data, which can generate compelling synergistic analytics that could be used to increase the overall efficiency of a manufacturing operation among other things. ...

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Making Sense of MES and MOM

Stu Johnson August 20, 2019

If you’re serious about improving your manufacturing operations and have shopped around for systems to help you achieve your goals, you’ve probably run into two commonly used terms: manufacturing execution system (MES), and manufacturing operations management (MOM). Just when you learned what MES meant, you probably discovered that MOM means basically the same thing....

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Industrial IoT and the Pragmatic Manufacturer: Lessons Learned from Prime Day 2019

Anurag Garg July 25, 2019

There is quite a lot of hype surrounding the Industrial Internet of Things (IoT) within the manufacturing industry. Large-scale Industrial IoT pilots driven by enterprise-focused technology companies paint pictures of fully-connected and automated plants, complete with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) that promise ROI but require large early investments of time and capital…

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Cloud Manufacturing Software: Understanding SaaS Solution Availability

Todd Weeks July 18, 2019

Cloud-based software is all around us. From the social networks you use to connect with family, to the app that you use to pay your friend back for lunch, the cloud enables the technology that we rely upon to process incredible amounts of data....

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Canada APMA 2019: Survival of the Fastest—and Most Adaptive

Mike Hart July 9, 2019

I recently had the privilege of speaking at Canada’s Automotive Parts Manufacturer’s Association (APMA) Annual Conference and Exhibition in Windsor, Ontario and what struck me was the amount of change happening within this industry. One example of this is for the first, time conference organizers added an entire day to the schedule dedicated to technology....

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3 Things About ERP Implementations Most Manufacturers Don’t Know

Dave Morfas June 28, 2019

A recent survey conducted by Mint Jutras and commissioned by Ultra Consultants looked at ERP implementations—whether they are doomed to fail or whether ROI expectations are high enough. For small- to mid-sized manufacturers, ERP is an endeavor that becomes necessary as the business grows since managing a complex operation with spreadsheets is unsustainable....

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