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Manufacturing and Cloud Computing: Greater Flexibility and Better Collaboration are Key Benefits
22 percent of manufacturing and distribution software in 2012 was cloud based, based on a report by Mintjutras. By 2023 that number is expected to grow to 45 percent. The report also noted that the larger the company the more likely the company will be using cloud-based applications. By many accounts that estimate actually seems very low.
Louis Columbus, product marketing manager for Plex Systems, said that “Cloud-based strategies give companies the chance to bring their own innate intelligence and knowledge into sales situation. While on-premise systems could also do this, cloud-based systems are quicker to roll out, easier to customize and show potential to increase adoption rates across resellers.”
Columbus identified a few of the reasons why manufacturers find the cloud attractive:
- Supplier portals for collaboration can be piloted and launched quickly
- Tracking of indirect and direct channel sales becomes easier
- Marketing campaigns can be more easily planned and tracked
- Customer service and support can be automated and made self-service
The cloud enables a better communications tool between the manufacturer and its customers. Shane Preston, CEO of Solidtec Solutions said that the cloud provides a point of “collaboration in the design process or engineering process and that can be internal collaboration, with stakeholders in their business or supply chain.”
Karsten Hojberg, director of the manufacturing solutions division at Autodesk Australia, said that “once you have that level of computing [in the cloud] you also have this massive infrastructure for collaboration and sharing. So it all of a sudden doesn’t matter if your designer is living in Bundaberg, Queensland and your manufacturing plant is in Sydney, you want to be able to know that you have easy collaboration across all aspects of your design process, certainly, and then your manufacturing process.”
