Manufacturing industries have been taking advantage of cloud and cloud based applications a lot lately to improve their operations. The focus is on ERP or enterprise resource planning tools that can help them. ERP increases efficiencies and reduce costs. In addition to this, here are some other ways by which manufacturing can grow using ERP:

·         Gain Control of Your Inventory

·         Access Real-Time Information

·         Multilocation Management

·         Access to Big Data

Read the complete article here: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/inside-erp/4-ways-cloud-erp-enables-manufacturing-growth-73260

Amalgamation of data, technology and marketing helps the manufacturing industry acquire new opportunities for earning profits. Data obtained from the customers are stored in various different systems like inventory, billing etc. And normally the manufacturers have to gather information from a common source thus having no competitive advantage in the market.
Industrial manufacturers are now gradually shifting from traditional marketing methods to data-driven ones so as to gain more prospects. Solutions such as Data-as-a-Service (DaaS) are influencing the Big Data ecosystem increasingly. It mines the appropriate data required from the Big Data sets. Patented Web Mining is also an effective and efficient way to find new prospects. Social media also actively helps in promoting the manufacturers.  Thus industrial manufacturers can increase their market share to a great extent by shifting to data-driven strategies.
Read more at: http://www.smartdatacollective.com/lbedgood/327457/how-manufacturers-can-use-big-data-acquire-new-customers

Big Data Analytics has started to make significant strides in less explored areas like improving manufacturing performance. No wonder the theme of ARC European Forum, 2015 was intended to help develop some clarity over emerging related concepts such as Industrie 4.0 and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). Several use cases about how "applying these concepts can deliver tangible benefits in real-world industrial production across a broad cross-section of industrial sectors" were presented. Read More at: http://www.automationworld.com/industrial-internet-things/big-data-analytics-improve-manufacturing-performance

Rolls Royce, a company that is a leader in the manufacture of engines that generate large amount of power in a high-tech industry has begun to look for Big Data solutions to increase profits and reliability. Its engines and machine parts are fit with scores of sensors that monitor their operation and detect change in real time. Royce now employs Big Data in design, manufacture and after-sales crunching of data. With over 3TB data generated per manufacturing component a year, there is no doubt that there is a need for integration of Big Data. Read more at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2015/06/01/how-big-data-drives-success-at-rolls-royce/

According to Bill Baker (President/Owner, Speed to Excellence), manufacturing companies need to be innovative.  They need to keep on finding new ways to do a task. Companies and individuals need to be agile and flexible in gaining new skills. In manufacturing industry only three things matter. They are:

• People: Employees are the most valuable assets of the organizations. They can find innovative ways to make processes more efficient.
• Technology: It keeps on changing. To be competitive you need to adapt new technologies.
• Process: Process can be improved by reducing waste time and by improving quality and to improve process you can use lean six sigma.
Read more at: http://www.industryweek.com/leadership/what-does-future-hold-manufacturing

There is a continuous fall in number of manufacturing industries due to lower profit margin or problem in operation. Here are some problems faced by manufacturing companies with their solutions:

 •    Organizations won’t able to find skilled labor:

·         They need to train them for building required skills, and train employees to solve daily problems.

·         Can’t keep track of all the regulations: Companies need to have Quality legal counsel.

·         Problem with suppliers: Apply lean, six sigma or analytics to reduce waste cost and lead time.

·         Competitive Advantage: Continuous Innovation and lean product development are the need of manufacturing industry.

To know more about these problems and their solution read an article link “Manufacturing: It’s Where and How, Not If” by Becky Morgan (President, Fulcrum ConsultingWorks Inc.): http://www.industryweek.com/strategic-planning-execution/manufacturing-it-s-where-and-how-not-if

The Journeyman is a person with multiple skills. They are "highly skilled" labor in any field of manufacturing. Apprenticeship training is used to train journeyman which combines on-the-job training with academic instruction for those entering the workforce.  It is also known as dual-training program.

The advantage to this type of training is that the manufacturer will make an investment in a program that pays the workers while they are in job training. Some ways to eliminate the shortage of skilled labor are:

• Make a contract with workers who want training.
• Offer job security and long term employment.
• Provide apprentice training with job security.

To know more about apprenticeship training and ways to eliminate the shortage of skilled labor follow:  http://www.industryweek.com/recruiting-retention/kind-training-we-need-manufacturing