As we look to the future of manufacturing, I am reminded of this phrase that you’ve probably heard before, especially if you have kids: “To Infinity and Beyond!”
Now, it’s not really infinity, but looking at the future of manufacturing, product lifecycle management (PLM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) integration is expected to increase. We all have an eye to the future, but I found something that might offer further proof of why we need to continuously evolve ourselves to stay competitive, today and tomorrow.
The Future with PLM and ERP
Imagine manually entering data into your manufacturing system and planning to shell out more funds and allocate more time for manual data entry. Sounds crazy? For some manufacturers, it’s still a very real scenario.
It’s now 2012 and with a New Year comes evolving trends for us in the world of manufacturing. I believe workflow management will play an important role this year for businesses that want to gain an edge with better ways to automate and manage resources.
[Full Disclosure: Part of To-Increase’s business is based on the sale of Microsoft Dynamics software, of which one of its most useful features is audit trail capability. This post explains what an audit trail is and how this Microsoft product can streamline manufacturing practices.]
Globalization of the marketplace has had an immense impact on the industrial equipment manufacturing business. Now manufacturers have more to worry about than domestic competition; we’re up against an entire world of ideas. Keeping on top of your game and being adaptable are vital to staying competitive and growing your company.
Integration can help optimize business systems to work more efficiently. Integration can help simplify processes in the manufacturing supply chain. Integration can help meet business objectives.
The integration buzz recently has been over 
As we move into the fourth quarter, American Industrial Equipment Manufacturing (IEM) companies have reason to feel hope. This is not opinion or hyperbole. Rather, this is a statement backed up by the results of the eighth annual Prime Advantage Group Outlook (GO) Survey, which you can read more about in 
At the most fundamental level, the funding of a job is dependent on one thing: the funding being available. As such, for a manufacturing company to be able to fund new – or bring back recently eliminated – positions, the funding must be in place to support such an initiative.
