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Manufacturing IT Agility
Three Industrial Revolutions have now passed in the manufacturing world: water and steam to power, mass production and assembly lines; and lastly, the adoption of computers and automation. The world is rapidly changing, and to keep up with demand, boost efficiencies, and to become more agile for innovation and quality improvements, manufacturing operations need to evolve too.
Known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Industry 4.0 was born. Manufacturing organisations are looking towards digital transformation to improve, enhance and adapt the way that they work in the future. Industry 4.0 represents the bringing together of technological trends – machine automation and processes driven by real-time data – and technology-enabled workforces; underpinned by security, cloud, connectivity and big data.
As Industry 4.0 becomes a reality, applications on connected devices can communicate with one another to make decisions without human involvement. A combination of cyber-physical systems, the Internet of Things and the Internet of Systems make Industry 4.0 possible, and the smart factory a reality. As a result of the support of smart machines that keep getting smarter due to large volumes of data analysis, factories and the manufacturing landscape will become more efficient and productive, and less wasteful. It is these digitally connected machines that are able to create and share information that results in the true power of Industry 4.0.
To enable such a transformation though, secure connectivity, big data and cloud are essential.
Manufacturers are looking at ways to reduce cost, transform and consolidate technology services whilst meeting that demand. The key drivers for such initiatives are contractual flexibility, cost reduction and enhanced security.
Timico have had great success in supporting several global manufacturing companies with Industry 4.0 aligned IT transformation and cloud consolidation projects. Customer requirements including the scalability needed to increase their resource capacity has never been an issue for Managed Service Providers, however long-term fixed contracts are no longer suitable for enabling innovation and agility. For these reasons, hyperscalers are often given first consideration. However, Timico have proved to several manufacturers that Hybrid Cloud can be a great option for delivering the outcomes that drive transformation and meet their requirements.
Timico has the network, security and cloud infrastructure capability to build, migrate, and support hybrid cloud environments – all through a single provider; removing a significant pain point for many manufacturers. We have successfully proven the ability to support manufacturing businesses with the big data and storage requirements that they need, whilst minimising the cost and ownership of such assets.
Timico’s most recent wins delivered a minimum of 15% term saving for the customer, inclusive of migration costs, demonstrating our ability to deliver against our customer’s needs.
We understand change is happening, and we are here to fully support the move to Industry 4.0 for manufacturing organisations. We are a single provider offering secure connected cloud capabilities, underpinned by flexible contractual terms.