​​As we emerge from the climate conference in Glasgow, all manufacturers are facing the challenge of the journey to net-zero, and many are utilising digitalisation to reach these goals. The manufacturing industry is one of the largest contributors to greenhouse emissions globally. Manufacturing in the US accounts for 23% of the total direct carbon emissions, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Most of the direct emissions produced are generated during the production process. 
 
The manufacturing industry must accept their heavy responsibility for contributing to greenhouse emissions, as they edge closer to the 2050 net-zero target. Drastic reductions in emissions need to be seen throughout the next several decades and the industry must adopt new and clean approaches by planning and investing in a comprehensive roadmap to commit to action.  
 
A New Identity 
 
When the manufacturing industry embraced digital technologies, it paved the way to a new identity of smart manufacturing. The adoption of artificial intelligence, the internet of things and 3D printing are among the technologies that are linking systems and processes, across areas of production, design, and services, to reduce costs and stay ahead of competitors. The innovation of digital technology is now vital to enable the transition to net-zero and can help reduce global emissions by 15%. The transition to digital enhances processes and redefines decision making and monitoring performance, whilst preventing the likelihood of defects, downtime and rework. Digitalisation has the potential to provide manufacturers with the architecture, technology, and concept to enable a circular economy and transition to a sustainable production system.  
 
Reducing the Footprint with Efficiency  
 
The manufacturing industry carbon footprint is largely due to its intensive energy processes. Although the industry cannot completely eradicate their carbon emissions, processes can be put into place to balance and reduce their output to reach carbon neutrality, whilst saving money. There are a number of ways manufacturers can achieve this, whether its integrating IoT sensors to reduce energy consumption, embracing automation for efficiency or digitising operations to spot efficiencies and areas of excess waste. 
 
Preventative Waste 
 
Waste is not only lost productivity but a wasted resource and therefore an unnecessary contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Industry 4.0 is allowing manufacturers to tackle this huge problem, by giving manufacturers an overview of historic wastage data to change their processes in the future. Every time a component fails its inspection, the materials are either melted down to go back into production or scrapped and taken to landfill. Not only is this a financial burden, but the duplication of production results in an even higher emissions output.  
 
Visibility  
 
Leveraging digital technology, manufacturers can gain in-depth visibility over their facilities, to drive sustainability through waste management and energy efficiency. Pulling in data from the supply chain, production process and inspections means insightful analytics of failed inspections and wastage data can be gained to identify trends that can help to limit wastage going forward. Gaining overall visibility of production output provides insightful knowledge on where manufacturers can drive efficiency or even carbon offset the emissions they can't afford. 
 
The Next Generation of Inspection Technology 
 
JetSoft has the ability to redefine manufacturing with tools that provide traceability and visibility. JetSoft’s solutions aggregate inspection and production data into a central system that utilises AI to pinpoint the direct cause of the defect along the manufacturing process.  
 
Overseer enables users to gain complete control and clear insights into their inspection and manufacturing data. Overseer integrates a range of different data types from both inspections and production. Overseer supplies user-friendly dashboards, curating analytics in a visual manner in real-time and without the need for unsustainable paper documentation. Manufacturers cannot create a circular economy without in-depth data into their processes. 
 
If your scrap rate is not zero then you should be working on reducing it, not only to increase productivity, but to increase output quality, and our solutions have the capability to extensively reduce this figure. JetSoft’s unique solutions aid the manufacturing process, to understand the root cause of defects and help manufacturing managers to make better-informed decisions and reduce potential waste and energy consumption.  
 
If a component created from a material, that is being produced from a particular supplier has a higher inspection failure rate, this would demonstrate a critical problem within the supply chain that urgently needs to be rectified. JetSoft’s tools allow manufacturers to have complete traceability to identify production-related issues early before they become critical, not only increasing quality control but implementing circular economy principles. 
 
JetSoft can help manufacturers stay ahead of the competitor curve and increase profits, whilst reaping the rewards to cut cost, carbon, and reduce environmental impact. Our solutions accelerate the manufacturing industry towards a circular economy by driving sustainability, contact us to find out more. 

The manufacturing sector is in the midst of a digital revolution, embracing the likes of IoT, robotics and AI, so why is it that so many paper-based processes remain? According to a recent study, roughly 62% of manufacturers still utilise some form of paper-based system, yet those same respondents were aware that is where the greatest productivity improvement could be derived. Enter digitisation.
 
 
Shifting to digitised processes
 
Whilst many manufacturers haven’t dropped their pen and paper just yet, more and more manufacturers are considering digitising their processes to transition to the digital age effectively.
 
The past couple of years have only amplified this, with proportions of the workforce working remotely, there was a greater need for employees to be able to access relevant information remotely and with paper records, this just isn’t possible. Digitising paper processes is the first step on the digital road, there is no point in having a manufacturing facility with IoT sensors connected to assets to conduct predictive maintenance if that same maintenance procedure is being documented on paper. You have to digitise before you digitalise.
 

The potential of digitising
 
The manufacturing sector is evolving and paper-based processes are holding manufacturers back from their true productivity potential. So, what exactly can be gained from digitising these processes?
 
1. Time 
If we take inspections as an example, a record of every inspection has to be collected, however filling in paper-based forms is an arduous task and often leads to a lot of unnecessary repeats and the information sometimes has to be manually inputted into a central system. Digitising this process means inspections can be logged digitally and automatically stored in a central location. Also, pre-generated forms can be developed with certain aspects automatically filled-in to reduce unnecessary repetitions. IDC research states the manufacturers could gain a 50% increase in productivity by going paperless.
 
 
2. Minimising Errors 
Everybody makes mistakes, we’re human at the end of the day. However, paper-based systems only increase the probability of mistakes appearing in records. It gives way to incorrect entries or inconsistent records, leading to a lack of data integrity. The ability to replicate forms means less data entry is required, and less chance of an incorrect data entry.  
 
3. Actioning Data 
As paper-based systems are more time intensive, the route to action is longer. For example, when workers are registering deviations or maintenance issues these are done so on paper, which then must be manually inputted and flagged with relevant members via email or in-person, which could be days later. Whereas a digital platform can instantly highlight any recorded deviations on a shared interactive dashboard, so issues are resolved faster.
 
4. Sourcing Data 
Due to the compliance nature of the manufacturing industry, records are constantly being kept throughout the production processes but once they are done, they are simply stored away and never seen again until an audit, where there’s often a scramble to source critical information. Digitising these documents will mean each record, in various formats can be stored in one location, where it will be accessible for other applicable colleagues. Utilising software means the required information is easier to source through filters and refined searches, reaching records in a few simple clicks. Valuable data is now made accessible.
 
5. Conduct Analysis 
Not only is filling in paper documentation time-consuming, it also loses any opportunity to derive value from the results and data is the new oil! Documents are being filled in purely from a compliance perspective, whereas digitising could allow the stored data to be analysed to give greater insight into operational performance. Data becomes more centralised when the processes are digitised, meaning production, inspection and financial data could be stored in one central location. And when utilising a digital platform that incorporates business intelligence the data can be analysed to detect trends and patterns that can drive more valuable decisions and continuous improvement. For example, the analysis may show that one particular component is failing inspections at a higher rate, which could indicate a design flaw or a problem on the production line.
 
6. Sustainability  
Many manufacturers have set sustainability agendas for their businesses to reduce their environmental impact and printing thousands of sheets of paper won’t help achieve a carbon neutral goal. In addition, the potential for analysis means failed inspections and wastage figures can be analysed and detect areas for concern, so that production waste can be limited in the future.
 
Digitisation is the next step for manufacturers, the move can deliver end-to-end data visibility for continuous improvement and elevated quality control.
 
 
Introducing DigiOps
 
As much as the benefits of digitising processes are clear to see, transitioning to an electronic format is no small feat. Our DigiOps solution is designed to replicate and replace paper and spreadsheet systems, with smooth integration in mind and tailored to your specific needs.
 
Built on our OverSeer framework, DigiOps has the capacity to create digital replicas of your paper forms and the ability to create and revise form templates to be distributed to shop floor team members. These forms from then can be completed digitally from several devices and be shareable with other colleagues. DigiOps comes with business intelligence built in, so data is easily viewable via interactive visualisations and simple filtering systems, and data analysis to develop key insight, delivering actionable information.
 
 
Futureproof your data management with DigiOps. Speak to our experts to find out more.