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The Future of Mobility as Seen from the Perspective of the Manufacturing, Automotive, and Energy Industries

The Future of Mobility as Seen from the Perspective of the Manufacturing, Automotive, and Energy Industries

In this Industry 4.0 era, mobile technology is creating a greater impact for a number of industries including retail, logistics, education, healthcare, etc., thereby substituting the outdated practices prevalent in the business operations. Some of the industries which were hesitant to accept the idea of mobility and embraced it a bit late include the manufacturing industry, the automotive industry, and the energy industry. Here we shall discuss some of the innovative methodologies brought about by mobility and understand how they proved to be beneficial towards enhancing the operational efficiency of the businesses thriving in the three industry segments that entered the mobility stream late.

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How Mobility has influenced the Functioning of the Manufacturing, Automotive, and Energy Industries

With regard to the manufacturing industry, it has been well aware of the advantages brought about by mobility for several other industries. The technically-proficient employees, the accessibility of strong, unfailing networks, and robust applications prepared the manufacturing industry to adopt mobility in order to transform its overall operations ranging from warehouse, shop floor, supply chain, and management.

In fact, the manufacturing industry has well-recognized the strategic significance of mobility in catering to its needs including better operations for handling complex projects, meeting the rising demands of the consumer world, and implementing ideas according to data derived from a powerful system instead of traditional bookkeeping.

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Some of the Benefits of Mobility in Manufacturing

Enhanced Monitoring and Operations

  From dispersed order management to tracing the GPS whereabouts of workers to achieve enhanced accuracy in implementation, to exchanging knowledge updates with distant workers, the mobile technology has considerably helped to improve the manufacturing operations. The availability of enterprise-level apps on mobile devices has increased the operational efficiency manifold. Further, the synchronization of numerous mobile-based systems helps to improve the workflow, at the same time plummeting the operational costs. In fact, mobile technology helps to augment the different aspects of manufacturing like production, maintenance, quality, and field service operations

  Enriched Communication

  With the availability of the latest applications and business resources for the warehouse workers as well as those working remotely, there is a remarkable improvement in the efficiency of the employees. With the extensive use of mobile devices, communication and association has become quite easy, and the response time with the clients and customers have substantially improved

  Data-driven Systems and Processes

  The wide use of mobility offers the provision for better traceability as well as reporting and alleviates the dependence on manual systems that may be prone to errors

Real-time Response and Analysis

As per a recent study, when a certain sales team manages to deliver the first complete quote immediately after conducting detailed discussions with a prospective customer, they win around 70% of the time. Likewise, the use of mobile devices enables us to deliver prompt services, analyze performance in real-time, and deal with quick fixes.

There come many challenges as well along with the benefits of mobility in the manufacturing domain, which are stated below:

  • Obtainability of high-quality mobile devices
  • Fine-tuning the mobile devices to operate strictly for business purposes
  • Formulating custom-made solutions for safeguarding mobility 
  • Getting the staff ready to use mobile devices as well as applications
  • Offering scalability, security, and support for BYO (Bring Your Own) devices
  • Providing options for troubleshooting device problems remotely.

If these challenges are dealt with properly using an all-inclusive mobile device management solution, it can greatly help to generate the desired ROI.

As with the manufacturing industry, the automotive and energy segments are also preparing to touch new heights by welcoming mobility into their stream. Many new entrants are plying in the market and several innovative solutions are evolving from the present megatrends, thus making innovation the first priority for reputed corporates in order to be ahead of the competition.

Some of the Technological Megatrends that Control the Automotive and Energy Sectors

It is mind-boggling innovations and electric mobility in particular that offer great challenges and opportunities not only to the automotive industry but also to the energy segment as well.

In this scenario, the corporates will definitely require to reformulate their roles in the industry and identify this change as a golden opportunity for innovation. To take an example, it is highly expected from the energy suppliers to meet the increase in demand for power as a result of the evolution of these innovative technologies. However, they also need to think about if they should solely act as integrated services and solutions provider or be an energy supplier to third-party technologies. In the energy sector, a noteworthy innovation includes the implementation of drones as a smart, handy tool to manage wind turbines. There are many other examples in the automotive industry as well where ground-breaking solutions like battery test and emulation systems paved the way for the introduction of highly performing electric vehicles.

Some of the technological megatrends which have influenced the automotive and energy sectors in a big way include electrification, autonomous systems, Big Data, digitization, etc., which ultimately have caused a general divergence in the market.

In fact, the trend of autonomous systems themselves can be split into several individual technologies which include autonomous vehicles, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, etc. Further, the high prospects of this trend have been widely recognized especially by the hardware and sensor technology firms.

Another major technological trend, digitization, keenly focuses on offering digital experience for the users on one hand (with regard to products and services), and converting the enterprise as a whole into a digital company on the other (for example, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), the connected supply chain, etc.). 

The next trend, the Big Data technology helps to understand the behavior of the users in order to generate smart solutions for them like shared mobility, data connectivity services, the different concepts of smart city, etc. Many examples can be cited in this regard like the parking app where the users are grant access via an NFC chip or a smartphone, the WienMobil app which integrates different modes of transportation like city bikes, shared cars, public transport, etc., a community-based app called Waze which offers navigation and real-time traffic details.   

The next technological trend in this section, the electrified vehicles, has become more feasible and competitive owing to the persistent efforts on cutting emissions, lowering costs, and increasing the accessibility of charging infrastructure, particularly in cities.

In short, all these megatrends have become successful in bringing the future of mobility into our day-to-day lives already, and further, it demonstrates the close association between the automotive and energy industries.