This is the first article in a two-part series. Look for Part 2 next month.
It’s 11:00 pm, and the Yankees just won the World Series. As the City rejoices, a block in the Bronx where four businesses house their manufacturing operations loses power. While three business owners and their employees continue to celebrate, one owner gets an alert on his iPhone that automated production has stopped. He gets on his iPad, and through a mobile app, he switches on his backup generator, resets his machines, messages a report to his foreman, and has his operation up and running again a half hour later. When morning comes, his employees are filling orders, while the other companies struggle to catch up.
The competitive edge in manufacturing today is the implementation and execution of Business intelligence (BI). Devices that support BI software can fast-track companies to higher levels of productivity by streamlining data, facilitating communication, and coordinating staff. By adding BI to mobile devices, through the development of an application, the sky is the limit – literally – to the how these benefits can be utilized.
Individualized apps for IOS and Android platforms unchain the user from a computer or other stationary device. The advent of tablets, such as Apple’s iPad, accelerated the value of BI apps with the increase in screen size, battery life, and intuitive design. Mobile apps can help manufacturing companies reduce waste, run more efficiently, and increase output through many components.
Measurement and Analytics: An application can generate reports of performance metrics, mine data, as well as provide Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) to get swift answers to multi-dimensional queries. While on-the-go, business managers can make informed decisions about production. Likewise, the technology can be used by business leaders to forecast progress and make operational changes to reduce costs and waste while increasing product output and quality.
Reporting: Mobile apps can run reports to monitor efficiency, output, and accountability with the touch of a finger, and the company can use such data reports for promotion — testimony to the firm’s success.
Collaboration: Smaller businesses rely on teamwork and networking to produce more and reduce costs. With smart devices equipped with a mobile BI application, employees and managers can collaborate virtually anywhere, anytime. Likewise, companies can interface with their customers and client base in an efficient, meaningful way.
Connectivity and Remote Functionality: Through BluetoothTM technology, hardware, computers, and other machinery can be controlled and utilized through the mobile space.
Communication and Alerts: Instant information exchange and notification is crucial to making immediate decisions. In an age where time is money, mobile apps enable companies to reduce the time it takes to act on a situation.
Mobile Application Development: Essential Tools For Success
Today, companies who do not implement mobile technology are setting themselves up to be left behind by their forward thinking competitors. The day is quickly approaching when BI software and devices will be an expectation in the manufacturing world rather than a luxury.
For small to mid-sized manufacturing businesses, there are three types of applications: Enterprise, Business-To-Business (B2B), and Consumer. Each has a specific function and targets a different set of users.
Enterprise Apps function within the hierarchy of the company and provide strategic support for employees and management. Enterprise Apps are designed to fill individual needs within the day-to-day operations of the company as well as the tracking and implementation of information and analytics. For example, a manufacturing company could track its production, deliveries, bookkeeping, and machine function through a tablet or smart phone.
B2B Apps serve as an interface between companies who provide products or services and the companies who consume them. Potential components of a B2B app might include ordering and shipping, troubleshooting, scheduling, and promotion. Design advances such as Augmented Reality — whereby customers can visualize a product through a feature that creates a composite image out of two photographs — aid in the decision making process.
Consumer Apps are the most common form of mobile technology. Used for promotion, advertising, and brand recognition, manufacturers can use this type of application to increase sales and inform new and existing consumers about their product.
Each kind of application involves different software code and, in some circumstances, hardware such as bar code scanners, readers, GPS locators, and BluetoothTM technology.
Source: http://www.itac.org/Publications/News_Letter/2012/May2012/Mobile_Apps.aspx