Zebra Technologies Outlines Digital Journey Towards Manufacturing 4.0

Written By: Divya Bishi

Zebra Technologies’  #PerformanceEdge! The Digital Journey To Industry 4.0 focused on better communication  needed in the automotive supply chain, including between suppliers, logistics providers and IT experts providing digital supply chain services.

The event highlighted the  digital technology that has a lot of answers for an industry that is making strides in addressing the needs of modern manufacturing and the changing face of mobility, but there are still gaps to fill in terms of supply chain visibility, faster asset deployment and empty backhauls.

The keynote, panel discussions revolved around the digital journey to industry 4.Owith people attending from different manufacturing and logistics industries.

The session  provided the most significant opportunity for logistics  operators, courier and express companies, to discuss the current issues in manufacturing and logistics services on a global scale.

Smart factories are the core of industry 4.O where real time communication between the supply and chain and the production line enable a high level of automation and digitization. A need for IT solutions is not only changing the strategic and organizational culture at manufacturers but transforming society as a whole, mobility choices is having an impact on logistics service providers.

Improving the supply of more critical parts will require giving better information to  suppliers, a process that could be supported by new technologies related to industry 4.0 and blockchain, added James Hilton, Global principal – manufacturing, Transportation and Logistics, Zebra Technologies.

Today manufactures want real time asset management and quality control of goods as they move through the production process while experiments in Indian environment to provide bottom -of -the -pyramid solutions and efficiencies in the supply chain around. Automobile industry insiders are looking toward AI to disrupt the sector further with the primary manufacturing companies taking pride in pioneering technology and process innovations in the manufacturing and logistics industry.

The panel discussion centered around today’s critical tools for an organization’s digital transformation and the biggest challenges and bottlenecks in undertaking a digital transformation journey

“The automotive industry needs to be able to respond faster to disruption in the supply chain and we need a player who can carter all the needs. Other struggles include the recruitment of sufficient talent, managers, warehouse workers, artificial intelligence specialists or delivery drivers”, said Mohammed Irshad Saifi, AVP-IT, Havells.

For the logistics service providers, critical orders are more important than they ever were. Extra hours of downtime could cost more , and over a fleet volume, and traceability   that could create issues for the aftermarket sector was emphasized by Swastika Johorey, Senior Manager, Reckitt Benckiser.

The evening was a highly successful and delegates from other  logistics and manufactures sectors shared their valuable knowledge and experiences with the panels regarding the further explorations and technology adoption in manufacturing and logistics industries that will lay the foundation for deployments in the next three to four years boosting the supply- chain innovation.