3 Tech Trends in Plastics Manufacturing for 2018
Implementing and successfully using new technology is crucial to sustained success. While none of the technologies listed below are necessarily “new”, they have made huge strides in the past few years and adoption by the plastics manufacturing industry is beginning to accelerate.
Cloud Technologies
It may be a scary thought to many businesses – migrating to the mysterious cloud – but reliability and security are at the forefront of most offerings today (especially Azure).
The massive reduction of costs for this type of technology – combined with the fact that you need fewer in-house resources to manage it – make it a no-brainer for the competitive plastics manufacturing industry. Not to mention the fact that you can scale up and scale down as needed (consider “busy seasons”), making costs predictable and flexible.
Check out our Azure Cloud Services page to see some of the cloud technologies available.
Internet of Things (IoT)
You may be surprised, but you are already more than likely embracing the “Internet of Things”. Smart phones, smart watches, smart cars etc. are everywhere. However, in Plastics Manufacturing, IoT will be playing an ever increasing role as the capabilities of systems become more intelligent. Real-time tracking of machinery usage, maintenance, and even performance will become a normal (and critical) part of day-to-day operations.
It may have seemed like a fad that would fade away at first, but IoT is no doubt here for the long haul. There are many creative ways to use this new technology to get an edge on your competition. So, get out your thinking cap – you may be surprised at how IoT can be leveraged in your organization.
Want to see the Internet of Things in action? Check out “Dynamics 365 & Azure Iot Suite – Temperature Sensor Demo”.
Azure Machine Learning
Machine Learning is another technology that can be applied in a multitude of ways. New tools and technology have opened the door to new use cases and applications in the plastics manufacturing industry.
In one specific case, Ellipse Solutions helped a plastics manufacturer utilize Azure Machine Learning to build a sales forecast for the upcoming year by analyzing historical data and trends. Check out “A Taste of Sales Forecasting Using Azure Machine Learning” for a more detailed run-down.