Manufacturers must embrace industry trends in order to stay ahead of the competition. With 2017 coming to a close, it is time to start focusing on the top manufacturing trends that will impact the industry and your organization in the upcoming year. You will learn: - What the top manufacturing trends are for 2018 - How these trends will impact manufacturing - How Rootstock Cloud ERP fits into these trends

1. “Discover Rootstock ERP” Session 6
Top Manufacturing Trends to Watch in 2018
David Bush
Senior Manufacturing Consultant, Rootstock Software

2. Go to Webinar® Attendee Control Panel

3. Meet Our Speaker
David Bush
Senior Manufacturing Consultant,
Rootstock Software
• 30+ years of manufacturing and MRP/ERP
systems experience
• Previously at General Microcircuits,
Consona Corporation, Relevant Business
Systems, Inc.

4. Today’s Agenda
• What are some of the top manufacturing trends to
watch for in 2018?
• How does Rootstock Cloud ERP, built on the
Salesforce Platform, take advantage of these trends?
• Q&A
Let’s dive right into the top 2018 manufacturing trends…

5. Cloud Computing
• Cloud computing will continue to grow it’s impact on manufacturers, particularly when
companies select the right enterprise cloud platform.
• Manufacturers deploying cloud models can scale their IT services up or down on demand.
• With cloud services, manufacturing organizations don't need to have the IT services running
on local premises equipment. Cloud services are leased and therefore manufacturing
organizations do not incur capital costs of IT resources and equipment.
• Cloud computing takes less square footage in office space, less power consumption, less
cooling and less IT staff, leading to significant cost reduction.
• With full utilization of cloud computing and mobile technologies—manufacturing processes
can be available anytime from anywhere using any type of device.
• All indications are, Cloud Computing will continue to drive further development and
innovation in the manufacturing sector in 2018 and beyond!
Let’s take a look at another trend….

6. 3D Printing
• 3D printing or additive manufacturing is the process of making three dimensional solid
objects from a digital file.
• Multiple layers from CAD drawings are laid down on top of each other to create various
shapes. Applications today include engineering, architecture, medical, industrial design,
construction and many others.
• Many manufacturers rely on 3D printing to go from design sketch to first model.
• 3D printing saves time and provides an early fix to possible design issues.
• Rapid prototyping use 3D printers in the design process to create prototypes.
• Rapid manufacturing uses 3D printers for short run / small batch custom manufacturing.
• In this case, the printed objects are not prototypes but end user products.
3D printing is no longer seen as a gimmick or fad, and it may just well be the future of
manufacturing, revolutionizing end-use production!
Let’s take a look at another trend….

7. Predictive Analytics
• Definition: Predictive Analytics is ‘a form of advanced analytics using both new and historical data to forecast future activity,
behavior or trends’. The sum of all this information is referred to as ‘Big Data’.
– According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, Big Data is an accumulation of data that is too large and complex to be analyzed
using traditional database management tools.
– By applying predictive analysis to their Big Data, manufacturers can provide strategic advantages. In layman’s terms, there is so
much information available in the cloud, special methods are required to gather, analyze, prioritize and use that data in practical
ways.
• According to a recent report by Pierfrancesco Manenti, “The Digital Factory: Game-Changing Technologies That Will
Transform Manufacturing Industry”:
– 47% of manufacturers expect Big Data analytics to have a major impact on their company performance.
– 49% of manufacturers expect advanced analytics to reduce costs and utilize assets efficiently.
• Manufacturers will increase their use of Predictive Analytics in 2018 for:
– Quality improvement
– Determining demand for products
– Analyzing machine utilization
– Increasing production equipment uptime
Let’s take a look at another trend….

8. Artificial Intelligence (AI)
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the development of computer systems able to perform tasks that
normally require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-
making and translation between languages.
• AI is in many applications and enterprise technologies today, and ERP solutions are gearing
up to take advantage of this revolution. F/E, MEPS, Multilanguage Electronic Publishing
System, is being used by many publishers who sell their books, magazines, etc to multi-
language customers around the world.
• There are three AI technologies in particular that are anticipated to have a significant impact
on the future of ERP systems, according to Inside-ERP:
– Cognitive Automation: Technologies that focus on knowledge-based jobs, such as answering customer
support requests and questions. (Please give me the status of ticket 17645)
– Intelligent Automation: One of the most popular implementations is natural language processing. You don’t
need to structure your requests and queries with this type of automation, instead, you talk to it as though it
were another person. (place an order for 50 of part 12345)
– Computer Vision: Applies machine learning and other functionality to images and videos. Pattern
recognition, image sorting and visual analysis are just a few ways of working with this type of data. It offers
significant potential for ERP systems because you can track trends via graphs and charts, plus automatically
tag employees in company photos and automatic video alerts.
Let’s take a look at another trend….

9. The Internet of Things (IoT)
• The Internet of Things (IoT) is the concept of connecting basically anything that has an on-off
switch to each other through the internet. This not only includes computing devices, but
adds your PCB functions, screw machines, plastic extruder and almost anything else you
might think of.
• According to a Gartner Research report published in February 2017:
– “8.4 billion connected things will be in use worldwide in 2017, up 31 percent from 2016, and will reach 20.4
billion by 2020. Total spending on endpoints and services will reach almost $2 trillion in 2017.”
• Current thinking says that, no matter what you manufacture, IoT is certainly going to
change how you make it.
– For manufacturers, IoT technology is becoming part of the production value chain. F/e, it knows when a
machine is overloaded or down for repair and can automatically switch jobs to other resources.
• IoT makes it easier to track, monitor and manage assets.
– Commodities can be traced across the supply chain, from point of origin to point of sale.
• Other processes are also seeing real gains in efficiency with IoT
Let’s take a look at another trend….

10. Cybersecurity
• The manufacturing industry is now one of the most frequently hacked industries, coming
second only to healthcare, according to IBM’s 2016 Cyber Security Intelligence Index.
• Manufacturers must work towards a system-wide ERP solution that has a successful
reliable recovery at hand, should the one data system be compromised.
• Even mobile devices the company uses can be affected.
• Any organization concerned with data security should invest in a solid ERP solution from
a reputable vendor who will integrate security into all software and equipment so that
the data is protected.
• Salesforce is the one platform provider that makes security and customer trust its
number one value.
• Remember, even if ransomware doesn’t happen, corporate espionage and sabotage is
another reality, and one that can cost far more.
Let’s look at one final trend….

11. Personalization
• ‘The ability to dynamically customize or suggest content to a format that is relevant to the
individual user, based on the user’s behavior, preferences or provided details’.
• Personalization first took hold in marketing and retail, but has caught on in manufacturing
with the arrival of technologies such as 3D Printing and the Internet of Things (IoT)
• In a highly personalized world, manufacturers find themselves under intense competitive
pressure to provide not only customized products, but also improve on the entire customer
experience to differentiate, win and retain customers.
• What should you look for in an ERP system if you are trying to implement a more
personalized strategy to support customization, operational speed and customer service:
– Ordering Flexibility
– Multi-Mode and Project Mode
– Connecting People, Data and Things
How does Rootstock take advantage of these top trends?

12. Let’s see some more of Rootstock Cloud ERP…

13. Let’s see Rootstock and Salesforce working together…

14. Salesforce enterprise cloud platform has Industry-leading security!

15. The Power of the Salesforce Platform
• Rootstock ERP is built on the Salesforce platform, providing key advantages:
– Security and Reliability:
• The Salesforce enterprise cloud platform has Industry-leading security and offers
robust, out-of-the-box security controls
• Upgrades are easy, reliable and don’t disrupt business processes
– Scalability
• One of the great advantages of cloud-based ERP solutions is the capacity to scale
to the largest of teams. The architecture behind Salesforce is designed to handle
millions of users and scales as quickly as users require.
• Easily grows with your company – adding additional users and modules takes
hours…not weeks or months!
Where have we been, and Where do we go from here?

16. Where have we been, and Where Do We Go From Here?
• We have covered the following in our six Discover Rootstock ERP webinars:
1. How Rootstock’s customer, Pro-Tech, went from unlinked spreadsheets
and outdated software to an integrated enterprise system
2. Top 5 inventory mistakes and how to avoid them
3. How to Survive in High Growth Mode with the power of Rootstock Cloud ERP and the Salesforce
Platform
4. How to deal with the top challenges custom manufacturers face
5. Practical Tips to Manage Manufacturing Quality Across Global Supply Chains
6. Top Manufacturing Trends to Watch in 2018
Our next webinar will discuss “ERP Gets Personal”, building on the ‘Personal’ trend we
discussed today. Watch for the date towards the end of January!
• View all of these webinars on demand at Rootstock.com
Now let’s go back to our moderator, David Cosgrove…

17. Q&A
www.rootstock.com
888.524.0123
marketing@rootstock.com