With the end of the year fast approaching, it is not uncommon for manufacturing plants to experience a slow down for a few weeks in December and January. This lull in productivity provides the perfect opportunity for you to begin your digital transformation.

Why Start Early?

Regardless of when you transition to industry 4.0 – you will still experience a variety of benefits. However, there are some advantages to starting earlier in the year. First, it allows you to avoid and mitigate unnecessary disruptions to productivity, before your workload becomes too overwhelming.

In addition, you can start capturing data with a fresh start in January – making it easier to compare true year over year improvement.Visualizations of your improvements will be more straight-forward, and you will be able to see the stark contrast between your 2019 performance, and ongoing 2020 performance.

Digital Transformations Are More Attainable Than Ever

By beginning your digital transformation now, you also set yourself up for massive productivity boosts in the new year! When you monitor machines through a central platform, you can predict slowdowns, bottlenecks, and machine failure. These benefits often result in more uptime and lowered operating and maintenance costs.

Starting your transition in December also provides an added benefit; Director of Marketing for CADENAS PARTsolutions recommends finding opportunities to spend now, for work that can be delivered later:

“The end of year is crunch time. You’re focused on closing deals, strategic planning and getting your house in order so you can try to enjoy the holidays. The last thing you have the time or energy for is a new project. So, look for opportunities to spend your extra budget on products or services that you can utilize when things free up. Think about it as a sort of layaway for the future.”

Final Thoughts

This more proactive approach sets you up for success early in the new year, and provides an opportunity to give back to your employees! Machine monitoring will not only empower your operators on the shop floor, but it will make their voices heard to management – and feel more valued overall.

At FreePoint Technologies, we can get your factory fully connected, often within 24 hours. If you are ready to take your first steps towards machine monitoring, don’t hesitate to reach out to us today!