Mass customization entails complexity that requires leveraging technology tools of the 4IR. But more is needed. Product development practices that enable communication and collaboration across the entire value chain—including customers—are essential for success. Companies adopting new technologies, such as 3D printing or advanced simulation, and new practices, such as unified collaboration, must keep ahead of the competition while at the same time turn a profit.
Collaborative Customization
To increase manufacturing agility and speed, it is critical to intimately involve customers, vendors, and partners in your product development process in a unified way, so each stakeholder has a voice—a connected operation is essential to producing tailor-made products.
Automation and Specialization
Maximizing automation can reduce costs, optimize material usage, shorten design cycles, and improve quality. Manufacturers need the agility and flexibility to make frequent, often last-minute design changes while simultaneously accelerating development. Such goals require a fully integrated, highly collaborative development environment.
Learn more by reviewing the how companies are embracing 4IR in the Aberdeen checklist, then read how industrial equipment manufacturers are leveraging advanced technologies in the below Automating Industrial Equipment eBook.
Customer as Development Partner
The digital transformation of product development enables manufacturers to efficiently design and produce customized products that customers demand. To successfully meet such demands, manufacturers need to enlist input from individual customers to identify their needs and the exact offerings required from manufacturers to meet those needs.
A New Industrial Experience
Consumers today do not want a boilerplate product solution. To mass customize on a large scale, industrial equipment manufacturers need to consider vital 4IR technologies and practices to achieve flexible, agile, and more efficient manufacturing operations.
Preparing for the Fourth Industrial Revolution
This Aberdeen webinar and companion report describe how top companies are rapidly developing and delivering customized products that meet or exceed customer expectations in the current industrial equipment manufacturing landscape.