The modern industrial revolution and the pressure it imposes on American manufacturers have created new technological issues for domestic companies, necessitating a wholesale shift in the way factories function. Warehouse automation and investing in what Hitachi calls the Factory of the Future (or Smart Factory) is no longer a yes or no proposition. The answer now is yes – always yes – because to respond another way comes with the risk of getting left behind as the world completes a permanent digital transformation. Fusion for Industry shares manufacturing solutions to tackle your business needs.

Today’s Manufacturing Solutions for American Industries

U.S. manufacturers operating in what we now call the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) are challenged by foreign competitors to keep up in the new order. They are finding the landscape increasingly difficult to navigate, owing to a variety of factors. Rapid technological innovation has made the search for qualified employees to fill demanding, newly created positions more problematic than ever, causing a workforce shortage that has in turn led to supply chain disruptions. In fact, by percentage, disruptions and shortages (57 percent) and hiring and retaining qualified workers (54 percent) have been cited as the two biggest supply chain challenges in the wake of the pandemic.

The Future of American Manufacturing and Production

Hitachi, through our innovative Fusion for Industry concept, is at the forefront of a novel ideology: assisting manufacturers in overcoming obstacles that are presently and persistently preventing the expeditious delivery of goods. We mean to address this challenge not through our previous incarnation as a product-oriented company but through our own evolution into a solution-oriented provider that helps other companies perform to their optimum capability.

With the aid of Fusion for Industry companies, Hitachi is creating synergies across production lines, warehouses, and facilities as a means to provide a valuable, specialized service that will assist prospective businesses in transforming themselves in the 4IR economy.

Problem-Solving at Every Level of Manufacturing

Embracing the technology that comprises the Factory of the Future is essential if American manufacturers hope to compete in the modern industrial revolution. Hitachi, with more than 100 years of industry experience, has the know-how to help companies achieve their production goals through Fusion for Industry. It is composed of our four pillars of industry principles: Human, Generational, Technology, and Factory.

5G Smart Warehouse and Operations

A manufacturing company’s ability to compete in the current marketplace of products depends on its warehouse intelligence – specifically whether it’s smart or not. The 5G Smart Warehouse is the current latest and best technology that permits optimal connectivity between machines, objects, and devices while delivering higher data speeds, more reliability, increased network capacity, and much more. 5G technology has the capacity to dramatically affect every industry and to communicate across the entire supply chain.

How to Update Your Factory for the Future

Hitachi is known for its expertise in production and manufacturing. Many of its companies are equipped with technology and automation solutions to update your production line for the future and keep your supply chain running.

Warehouse Automation Through Lumada

A mash-up of the words “illuminate” and “data,” Lumada is a multifaceted technology that allows us to gain insight into our customers’ data, resolve their business issues, and contribute to their growth. We do this through maintenance, planning, building, and operating.

Remote Operation Strategy

The necessity of hitting production goals in a COVID world despite the presence of numerous challenges, including and especially a diminished or absent on-site workforce, means that manufacturers are obligated to have in place a sound remote operation strategy. Hitachi has its finger on the pulse of the latest technological advents in unmanned logistics that allow companies to continue meeting their objectives. A sound remote operation strategy, smartly implemented, can result in previously unforeseen benefits. These include:

• A reduction in operating costs
• A reduction in safety and health risks
• An expanding labor pool that can draw in workers from far outside a manufacturer’s geographic boundary

Precision and Efficiency
Ongoing factory modernization through robotics and automation is an essential investment not only for the purpose of helping you stay current but also for the inevitable anticipation of future needs. As the digital universe transforms itself seemingly overnight, it is the companies that stay abreast of evolving technology that can more easily meet the demands of an insatiable marketplace.

Valuable Data
Customer and internal corporate data are the gold standard in our digital universe and – like actual gold – need to be mined in order to avoid and address supply chain disruptions. For a supply chain organization to enjoy the benefits, however, data must be visible across its ecosystem. This is possible only by identifying the stakeholders in the ecosystem and seeing what information they are generating to learn more about supply chain processes, such as sales and operations planning.

In light of this, Hitachi stresses to manufacturers the importance of implementing these data into their processes and systems.

Through our cutting-edge Fusion for Industry, Hitachi and our three subsidiary companies are making it easier than ever for you to succeed in the modern industrial revolution.

 

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