DECEMBER 20218 MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY INSIGHTSOn the Path Towards Operational Excellence in the 21st Century ­ Shaping the Future of ManufacturingBy Christian Haupt, Director Global Business Development Technology, STAEDTLER Since published in 1990, "The Machine that Changed the World" has set the standards for how to organize processes according to Lean philosophies. Later onwards and still today, countless companies have adapted their business systems to organize processes more flexible and more efficient according to Lean criteria.Already in the mid-seventies started, with a higher impact throughout the first decade of the 21st century, enhancements in the Information Communication Technologies (ICT) contribute to reaching another level of efficiency and flexibility.Those advances in connectivity, additional to big data and the expansion of the (industrial) internet of things have led to new use cases of Intelligent Manufacturing Technology. By now data is ubiquitous across the organization and the convergence of Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT) enables opportunities that have not been possible before.Already a higher number of companies (e.g. McKinsey Lighthouse Manufacturers) moved beyond their pilot areas for the deployment of Industry 4.0, Smart or Virtual Factories initiatives. However, the majority is still in the beginner phase. Since the variety of key words regarding smart factories is enormous, on which technologies should you focus on to do not stay beyond the productivity frontier? IN MY OPINIONChristian Haupt
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