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Industry X

Cloud-enabled manufacturing operations

June 7, 2023 5-MINUTE READ

RESEARCH REPORT

In brief

  • Cloud manufacturing solutions enable you to seize the benefits around cost reduction, flexibility, and new, digital capabilities. 
  • Companies seeking to make the most of all of these will likely have to reimagine their manufacturing operations management strategies. 
  • This Accenture guide aims to equip you with cloud manufacturing benefits and the key pointers for making your journey to cloud a success.

What is cloud manufacturing

The three keys to your cloud manufacturing success. 

Cloud manufacturing enables software components that can help you increase business efficiency and optimize IT operations if they are planned, implemented, and run correctly.

So, how can manufacturers orchestrate their cloud migration in such a way?  

Our guide outlines three key steps: 

1. Define your business objectives.

Create clarity around how, exactly, you expect cloud solutions to maximize business efficiency. The idea here is that cloud should not simply provide a new way of provisioning IT resources – but enable better ways to operate.

2. Clarify your IT expectations.

Next, clearly define which kinds of IT benefits to optimize for. Your list might include things like reduced IT infrastructure footprints at manufacturing sites, better price-to-performance ratios due to the scaling flexibility of cloud solutions, better disaster-recovery capabilities, and automation.

3. Prioritize cloud security.

Finally, shape your cloud security strategy, governance, and infrastructure. Given how your cloud solutions will connect to business-critical IT and operational technology infrastructure, having these in place is a must.

 

How to execute your cloud-MOM strategy

Once you have outlined your cloud manufacturing objectives and high-level strategy, it's time to start planning the execution. This is best done by thoroughly reviewing your enterprise’s existing portfolio of manufacturing apps, an excellent opportunity to eliminate "technical debt".

Often, there will be some systems that should not be moved to the cloud, like solutions reaching the end of their lifecycle, legacy systems no longer relevant for the business, or mission-critical plant-specific systems that run in remote locations without strong networks.

But reviewers will also find apps that are very suitable for cloud hosting (be it private or public), and likely identify entirely new organizational and business opportunities.

Benefits of Digital Twins in Manufacturing Systems | Accenture

Cloud is far more than a virtual data center: It enables software components that can help companies to increase business efficiency and optimize IT operations if they are planned, implemented, and run the right way.

The results from this review will help you map out the cloud-enabled infrastructure which is the best fit for your business, security, and reliability needs, and enable you to both, plan and execute the next key steps in your journey to the cloud:  

  1. Defining the migration scope  
  2. Optimizing for "drop-and-shop" vs. "lift-and-shift"  
  3. Steering clear of the "PoC petting zoo" (and prioritize scale)  
  4. Defining your sourcing model  
  5. Considering portability needs, and  
  6. Creating your operating model

Go green with cloud manufacturing

According to Accenture research, cloud migration can achieve significant carbon reduction by 5.9% decrease in total IT emissions or nearly 60 million tons of CO2 globally per year. It’s the equivalent of taking 22 million cars off the road.

Go green with cloud manufacturing

Companies are facing more pressure to solve large socioeconomic challenges and shift toward practices boosting profitability. The Accenture-UNGC study shows that two-thirds of CEOs view technologies like cloud as critical factors for accelerating change and making their environmental commitments a reality.

So, when to get started?

The time is now.

Whether your company is adapting to external forces and challenging business conditions, such as the pace of technological change; talent shortages; brownfield upgrades or greenfield expansions; or you're pursuing continuous improvement programs (e.g., lean, six-sigma, etc.), the cloud will help improve your outcomes. 

The same is true for manufacturers embarking on a larger-scale digital transformation. They, too, should take advantage of cloud as a gateway to access the technology required for implementing new ways of working.

If you're interested in following this recommendation, please read our guide to cloud-enabled manufacturing, or reach out to our experts directly (see right sidebar).

Thiago Martins

Managing Director – Industry X, Manufacturing Execution Systems Lead, North America

Pascal Brosset

Managing Director – Industry X, Digital Production & Operations Global Lead

Robert Pinkham

MANAGING DIRECTOR – INDUSTRY X, CLOUD LEAD, NORTH AMERICA

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