Nowadays, Industry 4.0 changes the manufacturing dramatically. A smart factory is the key example of how intelligently connected people, machines, products, and resources exchange information in real-time, thus achieving an unimagined efficiency.
New offerings from Microsoft, such as Azure Big Compute, Mixed Reality, Dynamics 365, and Azure Digital Twins, allow organizations to design and develop customer-centric products. Moreover, it ensures gaining a rewarding user experience across the product life cycle. Therefore, quickly converting intellectual ideas into new product innovation using digital technology becomes a strong beat in the games of competitiveness.
Unfortunately, traditional product innovation processes will not work anymore. The future demands connected, flexible, collaborative, co-creative, and secure digital solutions. Now, only these drive a symbiotic relationship between new product development and product life cycle optimization.
Microsoft solutions for connected product innovation
Microsoft is focusing on becoming a leader in connected product innovation, leveraging Industry 4.0 principles with the following digital solutions:
Azure Internet of Things (IoT). This is a flexible, cloud-based IoT platform that comprehensively covers business requirements from device operating systems, cloud-based connectivity, security, advanced analytics, and responsive decision making.
Azure Digital Twin. A process digital twin gives manufacturers a greater understanding of sequential functionality. More to that, it empowers them to simulate variation outcomes before implementing a change in the real world.
Azure Big Compute: On-demand, cloud computing power offers true HPC capabilities based on need. Additionally, Azure Batch can also be leveraged to run scheduled jobs on nodes. Literally, it’s a great escape from the on-premise compute infrastructures which are strapped with poor elasticity, crushing overheads and poor performance scalability.
Dynamics 365 – Scalable Intelligent Business Application Platform. An intelligent business application platform that unifies data from various sources across CRM, ERP, PLM. The platform enables organizations to develop business applications (PowerApps), automate processes/tasks (Flow), share information, combine disparate systems (Common Data Services), and increase transparency (Power BI) throughout the organization and across existing software solutions.
Microsoft 365: Comprised of cloud-based productivity software solutions (Office 365, Windows 10, Enterprise Mobility + Security), this suite is often regarded as the foundation to most of small, medium, and large enterprises. The suite nurtures secure and creative collaboration.
Microsoft AI Platform. The AI services that include pre-built APIs such as cognitive services, conversational bots, and Azure customizable machine learning tools. Even more, Microsoft leverages the latest frameworks such as Tensorflow, MXNet, Chainer, CNTK, and others to provide an open and flexible platform.
Microsoft Mixed Reality Solutions. A full portfolio of offerings that span from Hololens (self-contained, holographic computer) to partner-based augmented/virtual reality applications (AR/VR) tools, it provides fully immersive, high-definition, and interactive experiences. These tools, fully supported by best-in-class D365 mixed reality applications (D365 Remote Assist, D365 Layout, D365 Guides), have been widely adopted for model interaction and visualization by various PLM solution providers.
Key Microsoft Differentiators
The biggest advantage of Microsoft solutions is the breadth and depth of digital productivity solutions. The core differentiators are:
Enabling organizations to simplify businesses: The Open Data Initiative is an empowering software feature that facilitates seamless information exchange between all solutions across the value chain.
An innovative approach to digital twin: Microsoft’s integrated common platform brings together partners, products, and process expertise with people, things, and spatial intelligence.
Augment and leverage existing investments: Manufacturers can augment their existing PLM investments with Microsoft’s industry-leading collaboration tools (Microsoft 365) and cloud business application platforms (Microsoft Flow, PowerApps, Power BI, common data services, Logic App Connectors).
Commitment to excellence: Microsoft has committed to investing $5 billion in IoT, AI, and quantum computing, and have proven the edge and cloud IoT infrastructure. Its market-leading mixed reality solutions are cutting-edge in helping organizations overcome traditional challenges in a digital world.
Conclusion
When it comes to digital transformation, there is no excuse for doing nothing. You can either invest in enhancing your internal capabilities to become a disruptor. Or you will be disrupted. Microsoft’s technology portfolio presented above provides a comprehensive package of modern tools helping organizations create a truly connected product innovation process. Well-known manufacturing companies like Airbus, Rolls-Royce, and Honeywell, have already converted their operations to a more innovative model. Don‘t waste your time and transform your factory into a smarter and more profitable version of itself.
Feel ready for a digital transformation? Contact us. GO-ERP specialists will be happy to help you estimate the time, budget and guide you through the whole process.
