I live and work in a manufacturing town. I've worked for medium to largish manufacturers (500 people), to small ones (~15 people), and a couple in between. There are a lot of opportunities for technology, especially software, to improve these companies. At the moment all of the software that I have seen implemented is focussed on accounting and production management. Office stuff. Very little makes it to the production floor - this is where I think the largest gains have yet to be made.
Specifically: AR safety glasses providing real data to production staff, Google Glass style. At some point, I want to be part of making that happen.
Yea, there's a ton of room for better software in manufacturing, but the hard part is getting them to adopt it. It has all the hard sales problems of serving restaurants, but without the ease of understanding their problems. This generally filters the people with experience in manufacturing who are already set in their ways.
With the rise of hardware startups though, we're seeing entrepreneurs get into the dirty parts of the system - maybe some will then go on to solve some of these problems that they personally run into.
Last millennium, I wrote software for print manufacturing, eg newspapers, magazines, books, flyers... Tasks like image positioning, color trapping, bindery, etc. Super fun work.
Even then, only the biggest clients spent money. Since then -- post dotcom bust, 9/11, Bush looting of economy, rise of online, decline of advertising, switch from offset CMYK press to digital composite printing (eg color laserjet), rise of ebooks -- there's even less money for capital improvements.
With the benefit of hindsight, I can't imagine printers staying ahead of the phenomenal rate of technical change AND the constantly shifting marketplace.
So I think the print manufacturers have had a pretty good strategy: huge initial investment and then ride that sled all the way to the bottom.
Anticipating the disruptive near term technologies for all manufacturing (eg 3D printing, mass customization), I just don't see a sizable market for 3rd party software coming back.
I've half-concluded that smart software/IT investment money would be for in house development. To out run one's competitors.
That's true of most things that are new, though. It's a sales issue, and one that can be overcome.
but without the ease of understanding their problems.
I'd have to strongly disagree here. You can easily understand their problems like any other industry and company, dive in, talk to them, and/or get involved in the industry.
This generally filters the people with experience in manufacturing who are already set in their ways.
That is painting with broad strokes, I think.
With the rise of hardware startups though, we're seeing entrepreneurs get into the dirty parts of the system - maybe some will then go on to solve some of these problems that they personally run into.
This isn't a new phenomenon, though. Apple, IBM, Pitney Bowes, Ford, etc. etc. were all hardware startups at one time. Many manufacturing problems have been solved and hammered through for many decades. Many of those are transferring over into newer industries. Many Lean Software principles seem to be oddly similar to JIT, and Lean Manufacturing principles established decades earlier.
The opportunities that I think exist in manufacturing aren't for automation as mentioned in the OP, that has also been around for decades. I think the real opportunities are in truly empowering the workforce with technology that bridges the gap between the guy on the plant floor, the CFO, and the customer. It's simply massive, and it doesn't have to be.
I live and work in a manufacturing town. I've worked for medium to largish manufacturers (500 people), to small ones (~15 people), and a couple in between. There are a lot of opportunities for technology, especially software, to improve these companies. At the moment all of the software that I have seen implemented is focussed on accounting and production management. Office stuff. Very little makes it to the production floor - this is where I think the largest gains have yet to be made.
Specifically: AR safety glasses providing real data to production staff, Google Glass style. At some point, I want to be part of making that happen.