Chemical manufacturers are no strangers to disruption and the quest for innovation. In the heart of today's manufacturing renaissance is the Fourth Industrial Revolution, also known as Industry 4.0 – a new age marked by the seamless integration of digital technologies with physical processes. While every industry stands to benefit, chemical industrial manufacturers in particular can leverage the innovations of this era to unlock unparalleled operational efficiencies and customer experiences. Central to realizing these innovations in your operation is the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, a powerhouse that amalgamates the benefits of this digital age. Industry 4.0: A New Era [...]

Take-it-or-leave-it is a business model that has been actively used in the manufacturing industry for some time now. Henry Ford used to famously say – you can have any color for a car model as long as it was black. The strategy proved to be profitable for discrete manufacturing since they enjoyed the process of amassing a make-to-stock inventory with minimal production differences. However this static model has given way to more personalized, made-to-measure manufacturing that relies on modern ERPS with automation for increasingly complex tasks and processes. Increasing Demand for Personalization Technology has had a huge role in changing this [...]

While scouting for ways to increase revenue and identify high-margin opportunities, manufacturers often tend to zero in on the service aspect of their undertakings. We see this pattern more prevalent in the engineer-to-order segment for space and capital equipment. Infor CloudSuite Industrial is special in that it is a purpose-built ERP application that comes with support functionality for manufacturers who produce on an engineer-to-order basis. In addition to this it also comes fitted with an entire Service Management system as a component of the main application. Now that manufacturers have the ability to oversee installations as part of the operation, they [...]