Microsoft Ignite: Top 5 takeaways for manufacturers
Microsoft Ignite is where we showcase much of our technology innovation, but the technology intensity can be hard to navigate if you are a manufacturing executive trying to zero in on what will help you increase resilience and achieve sustainable growth, or build a hyperconnected business. Below are my top 5 takeaways from Ignite for manufacturers, and links to the most relevant blogs and sessions.
- Use Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing as your guide.
- Learn how manufacturers are accelerating digitalization efforts.
- Address manufacturing skills gaps by embracing the future of work.
- Increase resilience by modernizing your supply chain.
- Join Microsoft in manufacturing a resilient and sustainable future.
Use Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing as your guide
The Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing brings the best outcome-driven solutions and capabilities from Microsoft and our partners to accelerate time-to-value for our customers in an end-to-end, holistic, and scalable way. By connecting intelligent, integrated cloud and edge capabilities of the Microsoft stack to the highest value manufacturing scenarios, we are creating a flywheel of innovation that helps businesses increase asset and frontline worker productivity in safe and secure factories, enable remote selling and always-on service, and unlock cloud-based innovation—all with the utmost trust, security, compliance, privacy, and transparency.
We announced the availability of Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing preview at Microsoft Ignite, and it’s the best place for any manufacturing executive to start their Ignite journey.
To learn more, register for Microsoft Ignite, and start your journey with the keynote session, Manufacturing a Resilient Future, where you’ll hear more about how Johnson & Johnson are leveraging Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing capabilities in their next-generation factories.
Sign up to receive updates about Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing.
Learn how manufacturers are accelerating digitalization efforts
Johnson & Johnson isn’t alone in accelerating factory investments – we shared in the 5 manufacturing trends driving the need for an industry cloud, that 62 percent of manufacturers are forging ahead with their smart manufacturing investments, increasing by 20 percent this year alone.
Read more about how Johnson & Johnson is working with Microsoft on its digital manufacturing transformation with tools like Microsoft Azure, artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), edge computing, Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES), and Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing capabilities. The company aims to drive cloud and other digital capabilities to enable business innovation, improve agility, reduce cost of ownership and improve disaster recovery. With a solid digital core, findable and accessible data, and agile platforms, Johnson & Johnson seeks to shape the future of healthcare through technology.
And talking of MES, at Ignite we also shared how we are making it easier to integrate third-party manufacturing execution systems with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management.
Address manufacturing skills gaps by embracing the future of work
However its not all about automating factories. Our manufacturing customers have been telling us that accelerating digitalization needs to go hand in hand with empowering the workforce. Reading Jared Spataro’s Ignite blog on What’s new in Microsoft 365—How we’re empowering everyone for a new world of hybrid work is a great place to start, but to go a level deeper on some of the workforce transformation capabilities we announced for the Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing preview, read about how to stay in the flow of work with new collaborative apps for Microsoft Teams, and how Microsoft Viva is now generally available to help transform your hybrid work experience.
Manufacturers should be particularly excited about Context IQ, a set of capabilities for Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft 365 that integrate collaboration into the flow of work, surfacing the right information, people and insights in the moment, in context with the task at hand. Be sure to watch the Ignite session, “Accelerate cross-organization collaboration with Dynamics 365 and Microsoft 365” to see many of these capabilities in action and hear how Siemens Mobility is using Context IQ to empower collaboration across the organization.
Increase resilience by modernizing your supply chain
Just in time for Ignite we published our research findings and vision for creating resilience in volatility by modernizing the supply chain. Enhanced supply chain visibility is a high priority for most manufacturers, and one of the key capabilities of Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing Preview, and powered by Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Insights in preview. Watch the Ignite sessions “Enhance supply chain visibility, predict risks and improve decision making with Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Insights” and “Make better decisions with proactive risk mitigation to create a resilient supply chain” to learn how customers like Daimler Trucks North America can use Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Insights to predict supply chain issues before they happen.
Join Microsoft in manufacturing a resilient and sustainable future
Announced the week before Microsoft Ignite, the Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability Public Preview leverages the breadth of the Microsoft Cloud. It is a packaged Software as a Service (SaaS) solution that connects to data sources, accelerates data integration and reporting, provides accurate carbon accounting, measures performance against goals, and enables intelligent insights so organizations can take more effective action on sustainability. While the solution primarily supports emissions management today, there are plans to support water and waste in the future. Watch the Ignite session on how to drive to a global sustainable transformation with Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability.
We also invite you to follow Microsoft Manufacturing on Twitter and visit our Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing website to learn how Microsoft and our partners are helping manufacturers create a more resilient and sustainable future.
