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If you're like a lot of manufacturers, you probably struggle with visibility into your operations. Likely, there's a lot of manual work that goes into collecting data, sharing information across your plant (or plants), and giving the right people access to the timely data they need to make decisions.
Paper documented processes and reports shuffle around to different people or you may track things in Excel, but real-time information is rarely housed digitally in one place at any given time. That's probably because you're using different systems for different purposes. Maybe you're using a finance or accounting system (often ERP) that has no connectivity or connection to shop floor production systems (SCADA, MES).
The problem grows exponentially with each additional location. People are forced to be "collectors" rather than strategic problem solvers, and manufacturing infrastructure support becomes a bottleneck to...