Mendix for Manufacturing Industries指南

The supply chain tension caused by the six-day blockage of the Suez Canal earlier this year and the drastic market changes caused by the global epidemic in the past two years have made people realize the transformative nature and uncertainty of the manufacturing industry.

A closer look at the manufacturing industry reveals that most IT, OT systems and processes are not set up to help companies respond quickly to unexpected market changes. Whether it is consumer packaged goods (CPG), pharmaceuticals, automotive or logistics, most companies in the industry still rely on manual data collection, use primitive legacy systems and use isolated data between different systems.

A recent PwC survey on manufacturing operations systems found:

• 33% of respondents still use traditional paper records

• 33% of respondents rely on standalone systems

• 36% of respondents rely on email

Perhaps the lesson that 2020 has taught us is that manufacturers in all fields urgently need to respond to and adapt to urgent market demands with agility and flexibility.

Agility and flexibility seem out of reach for companies that are still using unstable technology stacks and outdated operating processes. But as Deloitte points out in its Manufacturing Outlook report: Enterprise resilience depends on a commitment to greater operational flexibility. "Manufacturers can respond to the disruption caused by the pandemic and build a resilience that enables them to evolve quickly by continuing to invest in digital transformation across their entire production processes and supply chains."

Introducing: Mendix for Industries

During his Mendix World 2021 keynote, former CEO Derek Roos proposed a solution: “By combining custom development with new tools and capabilities, every business can make their products and services unique.”

For a long time, the Mendix low-code platform has provided enterprises with the tools, services and support they need to quickly develop customized, high-quality applications. Our customers and partners usually come for solutions in a specific industry, so we compile all the technologies, community content and services related to specific industry fields and arrange them in a unified location that is easy to access.

"Imagine a destination for common data models, templates, connectors to commonly used systems, application services, out-of-the-box workflows, and other components where users can compose, customize, and extend adaptive solutions. That's the Mendix platform, customizable for different industries," Roos said.

We call these new industry-focused digital ecosystems Mendix for Industries.

Mendix for Manufacturing Industries

“Mendix for Manufacturing Industries is an ecosystem that verticalizes our platform,” said Raffaello Lepratti, vice president of Mendix for Manufacturing Industries. “The idea is to make our technology more accessible to specific manufacturing industries.”

Mendix for Manufacturing Industries, developed specifically for manufacturers, includes customized tool components to better support manufacturers' entire application development lifecycle. The Mendix Marketplace offers the following tools:

Application services: Share functionality between Mendix applications. Application services for manufacturers include 3D Viewer, MindSphere IIoT for Makers, etc.

Templates: Use the template library to build apps, including blank mobile and web apps, smart warehouses for inventory management, and augmented reality starter apps.

Widgets: Customize Mendix applications with configurable individual user interface elements, such as an advanced text editor.

The solution: A set of pre-built apps, including a workplace manager to facilitate crowd control during the COVID-19 pandemic and a maritime issue manager to track issues on board ships.

Modules: Manufacturing modules can be added to applications to create new functionality with accompanying domain models and security options. Examples include Mendix Application Performance Diagnostics and Bizzomate Progress Monitor.

Connectors: Integrate Mendix applications with other systems. Connectors include database connectors, Salesforce connectors, IBM Watson connector suite, etc.

Users can also join a large and growing user community of professional partners, global integrators, and more than 250,000 makers.

Mendix for Manufacturing Industries Use Cases

Like many other manufacturers, global capital goods company CNH Industrial relies on multiple independent IT and OT systems. Data collection is a time-consuming and complex process, which negatively impacts engineering, procurement and supply chain operations. CNH Industrial’s biggest challenge is connecting their multi-site Teamcenter product lifecycle management (PLM) system, enterprise engineering bill of materials (BoM) system and traditional drawing document management system.

CNH used Mendix’s manufacturing solutions to build a digital product data (DPD) web application and connect data from these systems. The team used Mendix’s manufacturing components, including Teamcenter connectors, custom integration with MatrixOne Engineering Central, and iView and 3D Browser for viewing 2D and 3D data.

DPD has become an integral part of CNH’s operations. The unified data source has not only brought a lot of positive feedback from end users, but also reduced the workload of using multiple systems by 50% and reduced the number of system clicks by 85%.

To build modern digital-first applications quickly and at scale, companies need to evolve from one-off solutions to reusable components such as adaptive solutions, widgets, connectors, and domain-specific APIs. Mendix for Manufacturing Industries brings together all the important components for quickly building industry-specific solutions, enabling teams across industries to solve more problems faster.

Create a Mendix account or visit the Mendix Marketplace to explore the collection of manufacturing resources.