As I read the February 18th, Forbes article “Coronavirus Shows That Supply Chains are Outdated and Unfit For Modern Manufacturing” I found myself thinking about the many unforeseeable situations I needed to react to as an IT owner through the years. The article discusses the impact unpredictable external events like trade wars, tariffs, or a health crisis like the recent Coronavirus, have on traditional supply chains. One of the three main points Mr. Evans made about future proofing supply chains is that companies must build a self-driving supply chain.
“Technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain, digital supply chain, and manufacturing platforms are all allowing companies to embrace automated supply chains that can move on-demand to prevent cost overruns, delays, and catastrophic supply shortages.”
He went on to say, “Future manufacturing ecosystems and supply chains need to be robust, transparent, agile, and sustainable – but above all, they must be digitally enabled.”
Being the IT minded person that I am, these comments immediately brought me to the systems’ side of the discussion. Traditionally, application developers have focused on fixing a defined problem, or fulfilling a new requirement within a system, as quickly as possible so they can move on to the next challenge. Since there is no way to predict future change requests for the new functionality, they generally do not spend a lot of time thinking about the next steps. While application architects try to think strategically, they have often been constrained by the inflexible environments their applications have been built on, limiting their options to prepare for the unknown.
In 2020, we realize, that for technology solutions to succeed in our volatile world, we must dig deeper than the individual applications and examine the technical ecosystems. If the environment chokes on the thought of unpredictability, you are truly left defenseless in dealing with your currently unknown needs when they happen. In order to face the unknown fully armed, technology professionals now realize that the first step is to utilize an innovative, development platform that doesn’t understand limits. Aras provides an open, innovative platform with a transparent data model all controlled by an industrial low-code modeling engine that reduces the amount of code necessary to build applications.
While Aras is known for its resilient platform by supporting PLM functionality through its robust platform services and applications, many subscribers identified an opportunity to use the Aras Innovator platform to build new applications―within the PLM space as well as outside traditional PLM functionality. They have created progressive innovation environments to quickly prototype and build new applications and fill critical functionality gaps within their application architecture. This is done with the knowledge that the resulting applications are sustainable, upgradable, and are built using a transparent data model that easily connects to other systems through an open environment.
The platform has proven to be so robust that software companies like Ansys and Minerva have built their commercial applications on top of the same Aras Innovator platform available to all customers. You can get started today by downloading Aras Innovator at no cost.
To learn more about the Aras Platform, read the Aras Resilient Platform White Paper or The Resilient Platform: Three Essential Characteristics eBook.