The Industrial Machinery and Equipment (IM&E) manufacturing industry faces some unique challenges, many of which have been around for some time. While generic ERP systems may be adequate for simpler manufacturing situations, IM&E requires a solution with strong capabilities for complex equipment specification and production, comprehensive quoting and estimating, integrated quality management, and meticulous traceability.

Since the ‘90s, businesses have used Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) to get a better view of what is happening across their organization. It originally evolved as a system of record with the primary driver of tying-in, and producing, a single view of an integrated transaction.

Taking the food supply chain for granted these days is risky. Different rules apply when bacteria is found in your product as opposed to, for example, the odd squirt of petroleum grease that may affect the automotive industry. And, to add to the horror, it may still be growing, ripening or fermenting in its packaging. Completely unlike the problems experienced with automotive components or fabricated metal sheets that arrive from your supplier. Even sparkling drinks can osmose through their plastic bottles if they sit on the shelf too long.

We live, and work in a world, where Big Data management tools, affordable cloud computing and storage, and AI machine-learning algorithms, have converged to provide us with a constant stream of analytical information. The challenge we face is decoding the data’s messages, and finding effective ways to put the learnings to good use.

The thing that makes innovation so compelling, and exciting is the possibilities that come with it. Sure, it can be scary to take a leap of faith and try something new, but the simple possibility, even the smallest outside chance that it might work, is what drives many of us to ask, “What if?”