Report: Manufacturers struggle with tech

NEWTON, Mass. – “[Last year] was a volatile year for manufacturing. While the industry began a slow recovery from the economic devastation of the recession, many manufacturers with tight IT budgets struggled to keep up with technology,” said SearchManufacturingERP.com.
The manufacturing enterprise resource planning website took a look at the year gone by and highlighted eight of the top information technology trends that affected the industry.
The most prevalent trend was that “continued economic woes put software innovation on hold,” the website said. Major ERP projects were pushed aside in favor of more affordable, niche applications.
Additionally, “few companies have moved toward such […] advances as blogs, wikis, instant messaging and user-centric interfaces on the shop floor,” the site said.
Other trends noted by SearchManufacturingERP were: software-as-a-service’s growth, warehouse-mobility technology proliferation, the use of third-party logistics providers for transportation, and carbon-management software.
Although SaaS solutions and other cloud-computing options were the preference for those on a tight budget, many remained wary of the security and reliability risks, it said.