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Industry 4.0 and smart manufacturing have reached up to the point where merely having intelligent tools or products is not enough. Digital transformation and smart manufacturing are at a tipping point and what is crucial now is how these digital tools are integrated within the infrastructure of manufacturing.

The ‘Smart’ in the Smart Factory for an Intelligent Manufacturing Business when  relying on a sophisticated ERP Solution like S/4HANA Cloud, is all about getting to a place where cutting-edge product performance to explore new avenues of revenue and service is taken for granted.

Currently, digital transformation and smart manufacturing are at a tipping point. The strategic  integration of these digital tools with the existing infrastructure of manufacturing is crucial.

This next phase of manufacturing is all about building an ecosystem of digital technologies for a ‘smart’ manufacturing business.

In fact,  most leading manufacturers say they have already adopted some form of ‘Industry 4.0’ technologies, capabilities or approaches within their production and operations.

SAP Industry 4.0 technologies focus on creating ‘intelligent products’ and processes through the transformation of conventional factories into intelligent factories.

The key to unlock the real underlying value of Industry 4.0 is the ability to completely reframe the traditional business and industry value chain by creating an unprecedented competitive advantage.

At VC ERP Consulting, we believe ‘intelligent products’ are about using smart technologies and models to create value — for your organization, the end users and the value chain by exploiting the maximum potential of an ERP Solution such as SAP S/4HANA Cloud.

We believe now is the time for manufacturers to start rethinking the relationship between products, processes and profits using Industry 4.0 as the lens.

In this article, we take you on the journey towards a ‘smart business’ with the help of the second component of Industry 4.0: Intelligent Products.

What are Intelligent Products?


Intelligent Products is one of the four pillars of SAP’s Industry 4.0 initiative, alongside Intelligent Factories, Intelligent Assets and Empowered People.

Intelligent products take many forms like a customized shirt in colors chosen by the consumer delivered at their door, cars using sensors to remind drivers to refuel and an industrial machining unit using sensors and IoT to collect data and inform operators of maintenance issues or how processes could be more efficient.

Improve everything from product quality and customer experience to supply chain & R&D with SAP Intelligent Products solution portfolio. Anticipate service needs, receive remote upgrades and open the door to new and service-based business models.

SAP Intelligent Products solution portfolio offered by VC ERP Consulting entails –
  • SAP Enterprise Product Development to digitize product development processes
  • SAP S/4HANA manufacturing solution to redefine production processes
  • SAP Internet of Things (SAP IoT) solution to address industrial IoT use cases
The distinguishing features of Intelligent Products solution portfolio are –
  • Ability to adapt to various business environments and use cases
  • Ability to optimize maintenance costs, primarily in vehicles, machinery and industrial application
  • Ability to deliver customized end-consumer products
Now that we are aware about the basics of Intelligent Products, let us see how it transforms your manufacturing business processes.

Reimagine your Business Processes with Intelligent Products


If you want to create value for your manufacturing business, just putting sensors in the plant machines or products is not enough. Your design teams need to translate the data into insights and focus on real product improvements.

It is high time employees use machine data to –
  • Increase plant utilization and improve changeover speeds
  • Capture product performance and maintenance data
  • Generate new revenue models
Implementing intelligent products into your manufacturing business will generate great opportunities to harness and new markets to grow.

Implementing intelligent products into manufacturing business

Standardize business processes and orchestrate it through a central cloud for improved information flow and advanced analytics.

Now that we are well-versed with how intelligent products are capable of transforming your business processes, let us move forward to understand VC ERP Intelligent Products Approach for your business.

VC ERP Intelligent Products Approach


For many manufacturing businesses, Intelligent Products is a manufacturing or distribution center-focused effort. Your business can truly achieve a plethora of benefits and realize the value of Intelligent Products by embracing the philosophy holistically across the entire organization.

Now and here is how it can help you and add value:

Intelligent Products Approach

Unify Your Entire Business

  • Move digitalization from factory-focused initiatives to a company-wide competitive business strategy
  • Combine manufacturing automation with enterprise business information and execution
  • Transform how you work by connecting your entire company and orchestrating –
    • Sales
    • Engineering
    • Maintenance & Service
    • Finance
    • Logistics
    • Manufacturing

Move towards a data-driven Enterprise

  • Collect, process and share (near) real-time information from machines, vehicles and people.with Industrial IoT devices and sensors
  • Turn raw data into improved business process automation and actionable insights
  • Improve productivity and agility in industrial environments with real-world situational awareness of the business
  • Combine enterprise business data with IoT data and automate processes increasing visibility and efficiency
  • Track the temperature of inbound raw materials and automatically post inventories for supply-to-production

Scale Your Business Operations

  • Run one standardized operational process spanning all available resources globally
  • Connect end-to-end business processes from enterprise to shop floor and shift production across facilities flexibly
  • Move production closer to demand and deliver customer expectations with optimized capacity
  • Establish consistent systems across all operations supported with digital technologies, flexible business processes and quick access to data
VC ERP has a broad solution portfolio to unlock the value of Intelligent Products and Industry 4.0 as a whole that combines the power of intelligent manufacturing in factories with end-to-end business process execution across the supply chain.

Pave the path towards an ‘intelligent’ business with VC ERP Today!


Simplify and accelerate the journey to Industry 4.0 across various industries and lines of businesses with VC ERP Consulting, one of the best SAP & Microsoft Gold Partner in India.

We offer a library of industry proven best practices, preconfigured SAP ERP Solutions and deployment options.

In order to make your Industry 4.0 experience seamless, we run Industry 4.0 maturity assessment and gap analysis to determine the opportunities for improvement.

This can help you to:
  • Evaluate new business scenarios and define a strategic business vision
  • Identify weaknesses and strengths to improve current business scenarios
  • Develop a digital transformation road map and enable innovative business processes
Ready to harness the power of ‘Intelligent Products’ and Industry 4.0? Get in touch with an award winning SAP Gold Partner, Certified Expert Consultants and Advisors at VC ERP Consulting for free consultation.

Call +91 7948998911 (India), Whatsapp +254 111229970 (Kenya)Call +1 469 915 6026 (North America) or drop an E-mail at sayhello@vc-erp.com

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