Business security

The Manufacturing Industry: On the Verge of Digital Revolution

The digital age has created new business models in the fields of production industry. The Internet of Things, mobile cloud, computing cloud, and analytics which births real-time insights – all create demand for new integrated services, software tools, and infrastructure solutions. IBM, which accompanies the world of production for many years, is also preparing for this new age, and the growth potential it offers.

Many production decisions made since 1990 were based on the assumption that Asia, and especially China, eastern Europe, and Latin America enjoy lower costs – while areas such as the US, western Europe and Japan are characterized by significantly higher production costs.

Only this view is now becoming old-fashioned. A report by the IBM business value institute states that changes in wages, costs of transportation and distribution, differences in productivity, energy availability and especially availability of digital technologies, all come together to undermine the traditional equation which states geographic principles for sourcing production processes. The main target, of course, stays the same: The main challenge remains a cheaper, more efficient, and more flexible production.