Benefits of an Enterprise Low-Code Platform for Manufacturers

Manufacturers are turning to technology as they navigate the impact of the pandemic. Mark Reisig,r director of product marketing at Aras, explains how an enterprise low-code platform enables manufacturers to digitally transform on a digital platform, improving agility and resilience. 

It’s no secret that manufacturing is on the brink of a talent crisis. According to the Bureau of Labor StatisticsOpens a new window , more than 76 million baby boomers are expected to retire in the coming years. Their current labor participation rate will fall from 80% to below 40% by 2022. 

Manufacturing is particularly reliant on these older workers for their years of experience and knowledge of legacy systems and processes. This talent gap is magnified by an over-reliance on outdated technology and processes. An average company has more than 900 applications, and the cost to maintain them can range anywhere from 50% to 90% of their IT budget, with less than 30% of the applications connected. 

Not only do companies find themselves drowning in technical debt with an aging workforce, but the current pandemic is compounding this problem. Many older workers with valuable skills and insight are forced to work remotely as they don’t feel comfortable being on-site due to health concerns. 

This leaves younger, often less experienced staff without an institutional knowledge of legacy IT systems to operate data centers. Some organizations are rotating staff who are working in-person, opting for a two to three in-person staff, down from 12 or even 15 people. 

Learn More: COVID-19 and Process Automation: Efficiency Guaranteed for Companies in Search of Digital Transformation 

Manufacturers Are Juggling Talent Shortage and Outdated Technology

The pandemic has meant that many manufacturers are short on resources and money—but they still have the same technology, data silos, and legacy processes that they need to transform to compete in a digital economy.  

According to GartnerOpens a new window , “Over 80% of CEOs responding to our annual CEO Survey said they have a digital transformation program underway to make their companies more digital.” Digital transformation initiatives are accelerating as organizations are looking to innovate quickly. 

According to a McKinseyOpens a new window study, historically, up to 70% of digital transformation efforts fail. “Through 2021, digital transformation initiatives will take large traditional enterprises, on average, twice as long and cost twice as much as anticipated (Gartner)Opens a new window .”  

The reason they fail—besides that amount of funding tied up in maintaining legacy infrastructure and resistance from upper-level managers that support those siloed legacy technologies—is that these technology stacks are not designed to share data across the enterprise. That’s because they are not open platforms.

Learn More: Benefits of Adopting No-Code Solutions During COVID-19

Why Are Companies Adopting the Low-Code Approach? 

Many organizations are turning to low-code platforms that provide rapid application development using low-code and no-code techniques, which allow applications to be developed in less time than with traditional hand-coded programs.  

In fact, according to a Market Research ReportOpens a new window from April 2020, the global low-code development platform market size is expected to grow from $13.2 billion in 2020 to $45.5 billion by 2025. While this democratized approach may allow non-programmers to quickly develop applications to fill gaps is valuable, not all “low-code” is created equally.

Low-codeOpens a new window is a solution that provides a non-technical user the ability to create an application through a graphical point and click user interface with a much lower amount of code when compared to traditional methods. Low-code solutions today are built to handle the rapid creation of small, simple applications. 

It reduces the need for users to dictate their requirements to a business analyst, who documents the request and routes it to a higher cost developer. The pitch is that with fewer resources, low-code allows an application or a connector to be developed at less cost.  But does low-code by itself actually lower costs?

Learn More: Mainframe Mayhem: Here’s Why Government Agencies Need to Pursue Modernization

Challenges of Low-Code Development

While low-code can be used to develop simple applications and connect legacy applications for less cost, it does nothing to simplify or make your legacy infrastructure more sustainable because the services are spread across multiple legacy application technology stacks.

Adopting a low-code approach can be a double-edged sword; if it’s not managed properly, an organization can be left with many smaller, disconnected applications that actually increase the complexity of your enterprise infrastructure. 

Low-code does nothing to enhance the sustainability of your enterprise IT infrastructure and can potentially create security risks. Low-code by itself can also make a bad situation worse by increasing the number of unsustainable apps with little documentation, oversight, or governance that your understaffed IT department would be responsible for. 

To avoid the downstream issues caused by an inconsistent low-code strategy, industrial manufacturers should take a more strategic approach—an enterprise low-code platform. Instead of focusing on a series of one-off applications, an enterprise low-code platform is based on a rich set of platform services, such as configuration management, product variability, manufacturing effectivity, complex data visualization, and multi-organizational access control. 

This, in turn, allows users to use applications that are automatically integrated.  This creates a digital thread with bi-directional traceability, collaboration across disciplines and the enterprise, and, most importantly, is sustainable.  

With a digital enterprise low-code platform, you get the same low-cost development, but it applies to all the applications, which use the common set of platform services, making the entire platform, including any of the customizations, easily upgradeable. 

This strategy enables organizations to digitally transform on a digital platform, reducing their dependence on outdated technology. The obsolete technology can be phased out, reducing their technical debt and freeing up budget and resources to continuously transform with speed, creating a more agile and resilient business. 

The looming skills gap, the buildup of technical debt due to the accumulation of unmanageable outdated technology, along with the pandemic, have created the perfect storm. While low-code has been around for years and is now creating some enthusiasm, enterprise low-code platforms enable companies to digitally transform their businesses to be more resilient, lower their IT cost,s and provide them the agility to pivot as their business requirements dictate. 

Learn More: Moulding AI To Shape the Future of Business

Bottom Line

To digitally transform away from a myriad of disconnected legacy applications, manufacturers should focus on an enterprise low-code platform approach that gives users a way to access the critical enterprise information most relevant for their jobs in an easy and collaborative manner. 

As a result, you will free up your time and resources to focus on what will really help them in the market: collaborating and creating the next innovative product your customers cannot live without.

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