Project 3

TO: The Head of Department, Dalton's manufacturing company

FROM: Kelly Nhu Tran, the strategic planning department

DATE: January 14th, 2020

SUBJECT: Identification of the Three Top Trends in the Industry

In consideration of the industry in which the company operates (Machine Shops Industry), I have identified several trends in this industry that I think it is important to consider as this will help support the strategic planning of the company for growth in the Machine Shops Industry. The three identified trends in this industry include:

With the emergence of the Industrial Internet of Things, the Sensors have become significantly cheaper in their deployment either separately or when incorporated into the existing equipment. In this regard, therefore, for the manufacturers and the machine shops, the emergence of this Industrial Internet of Things is becoming beneficial as it is facilitating the merging of the hardware and software with the Industrial Internet of Things. This has empowered even the small machine shops to utilize the sensing and data sharing capabilities of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) (Serpanos & Wolf,2017). These capabilities may include the aggregation of the historical data regarding the machine in addition to the part performance and energy demand that help in uncovering the trends as well as bottlenecks then identify the appropriate moment to upgrade as well as replace machines. Secondly, the utilization of intelligent machine monitoring to identify the ideal moment of delivering preventive maintenance between production runs. Thirdly, incorporating the smart material handling equipment that finds process bottlenecks and uncovers opportunities adds parallel production lines, et cetera.

In this regard, therefore, Machines with integrated intelligence and internet connections represent the future of manufacturing. Therefore, the adoption of the Industrial Internet of Things will enable Dalton's manufacturing company to boost uptime and machine life/ensuring the longest life of the machines (Serpanos & Wolf,2017).

E-Commerce- This is another top trend in the industry- The adoption of the E-commerce platform is important because it will help Dalton's manufacturing company to be able to improve its business continuity. This will ease and shorten the process of procuring appropriate mills, drills, among other materials. Moreover, Online marketplaces such as Xometry Supplies will simplify the job shops as well as manufacturers to finding as well as purchasing the manufacturer-direct parts, tools as well as raw materials at considerable prices. Other companies in the industry have already adopted e-commerce; for instance, DigiFabster uses e-commerce to connect the machine shops with potential clients; this is increasing their competitive advantage (Whitmore, 2020).

Machines-as-a-Platform- This is another top trend that is driving most companies in the industry. This is enabling machines to execute complicated designs in a shorter time and at once. This, in turn, helps in reducing the risk of collisions as well as machine damage (He & Luo, 2017).Therefore, Machine-as-a-platform is significantly growing due to its importance and significance. This implies that Machine shops should not strictly depend on what is commonly known as the "tribal" knowledge sets. Instead, the operators may download the machine tool setups, specifications as well as pathfinding instructions, for instance, speed and design that will facilitate execution of the CAD designs.

Thank you.

Your Faithfully,