4 Mobility Trends Transforming The Manufacturing Industry

By Bhanu Morampudi, President, Kutir Mobility

From business decision-making to process workflows, user interfaces, and proactive maintenance, new utilizations of mobile devices and apps are drastically changing the way manufacturing gets done. These are the top four trends we’re observing as businesses seek to implement mobility solutions to improve outcomes in their manufacturing functions:

1. Manufacturers Are Utilizing Solutions That Are Future-Ready. For any manufacturer, a major issue that its decision-makers grapple with is how to select and invest in tools that will serve them into the future. Technology changes rapidly — just as the practices and needs of manufacturers do — and betting on the wrong horse can result in a severe waste of resources. When it comes to creating mobility apps for this industry, the sheer number of mobile devices and platforms available add peril to the selection process. An executive does not want to tie their fate to the next Betamax or LaserDisc and saddle their company with a storehouse full of obsolete equipment and software.

This is why we’re seeing a big trend toward more versatile mobile app development platforms, which significantly mitigate these risks. App development platforms like RhoMobile, for example, can inoculate a company against future changes by allowing for simultaneous development on all popular mobile platforms (Android/iOS/Windows Mobile, etc.), and adapting as these platforms undergo upgrades. In this way, a business is not tethered to any one mobile device or operating system. RhoMobile-esque platforms allow developers to write an app one time using web languages like HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript, and then create and deploy native versions of the app for all supported mobile platforms. This makes development simpler and more cost-effective as well; rather than enlisting separate development teams for iOS, Android, and others, a team can develop once and take the time to focus more tightly on details, such as getting an app’s user experience just right. At the same time, these future-ready development platforms are able to fully leverage the underlying features of any specific device: bar code scanning, GPS, you name it. With the risks of choosing the wrong device or platform nullified, it’s becoming much easier for companies to realize the richness of what mobility solutions can accomplish.

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