Manufacturers say mobility is key to gaining productivity

That's chief among findings of a survey of IT decision-makers in industry by Motorola, and it also reveals that manufacturers with mobility applications save a daily average of 42 minutes per employee. The so-called Motorola Enterprise Mobility Manufacturing Barometer surveyed IT professionals in 14 countries and found consensus that mobile and wireless are now top ways to transform downtime into productive time. Over one-quarter of those surveyed identified inventory and materials management and sales force applications as their top drivers for mobility investment. The Barometer also provides insights into future mobility trends – such as the suggestion that manufacturers plan to increase use of voice over WLAN (VoWLAN), fixed mobile convergence (FMC) and mobile asset management and plant maintenance solutions over the next 12 to 24 months. The study also finds strong interest in rich media and video conferencing applications, and shows wireless LAN and wireless sensing technologies gaining interest – both in process and discrete manufacturing. "With more than 60% … stating that their organisation currently has a mobility strategy, it is clear that mobility is no longer viewed by manufacturing IT executives as the vision of the future but strategically important today," comments Jim Hilton, senior director for global manufacturing solutions at Motorola Enterprise Mobility Solutions. "In fact, more than one-half of those surveyed cited a competitive advantage through the use of mobile and wireless technologies to empower their shop-floor and field-mobility workforce to take advantage of opportunities in the marketplace," he adds.