Outlook of Operations and Supply Management 5.0

Manufacturers want flexible operations that allow them to use one production line to make multiple products. However, the benefits of flexibility are hard to capture because time-consuming changeovers are required to prepare machinery to manufacture different products. By implementing lean tools, such as single-minute exchange of dies, manufacturers can remove non-value-adding activities from the changeover, thus significantly accelerating the process. Companies, that implemented lean methods and Operations Management 4.0 will be able to benefit from these technologies (Kupper et al. 2017). New sensors and software make it possible for machines to automatically identify products and load the appropriate program and tools without manual intervention. Because the changeover is automated, operators can focus on performing value-adding activities.