OpenText: How Manufacturers Must Move on AI & Supply Chain
With operations spanning 180 countries, 22,900 employees and more than 100,000 customers, OpenText is one of the most influential global software leaders.
Reporting revenues of US$5.8bn for 2024, the company's ability to remain 'on the pulse' of emerging technologies has been critical to its success.
Being successful in the manufacturing sector today depends on the same thing, making the company expertly placed to offer its insights.
Mark Wilkinson, Senior Vice President, Global Business Unit at OpenText shared an overview of how manufacturing is evolving right now, expanding on the influence of AI and the importance of supply chain sustainability.
The disruption & opportunity of AI
AI is disrupting industries at a rapid pace and Mark begins with an overview of its impact on manufacturing.
"From improving efficiency to reducing employee workloads, corporations are increasingly recognising the positive impacts of integrating AI solutions," Mark says.
"This is especially true for heavy duty industries like manufacturing, where automation, flexibility and scalability are capable of setting companies apart from the rest."
Mark goes on to highlight a critical benefit of AI that is often overlooked in the focus on predictive maintenance and autonomous operations: its capacity to improve manufacturing collaboration.
"The technology helps organisations avoid disputes and enhance responsiveness by providing full process clarity when supply chains are integrated with partners," he explains.
"AI also enhances operational efficiency through reducing both manual and admin work, preventing costly errors and improving productivity."
As AI's value in manufacturing grows, Mark notes that we're seeing an unprecedented evolution of its capabilities.
"The emergence of new AI-powered analysis platforms is supporting corporations through improving their ability to make data-led strategy decisions," he explains.
"Modern AI is also adapting to work in different routes, which means that the technology can work with data that continually delivers better results over time, becoming more intuitive than before.
"In 2024, we’ve seen agentic AI make inroads into a vast range of industries, including manufacturing.
"The technology is trained on LLMs to autonomously accomplish tasks without human intervention and poses a number of benefits to the manufacturing industry – including continuously monitoring equipment, optimising production lines and reducing downtime."
With the pace and breadth of this evolution, manufacturers must ensure their AI strategies are robust, tailored and future-proofed to ensure they are unlocking true value.
This will enable them to confidently and competitively embrace the future of software-defined manufacturing, where workers manage and oversee complex, autonomous, AI-led operations.
The growing importance of supply chain sustainability
Creating sustainable supply chains and procurement strategies is an environmental, regulatory and business operation for todays manufacturers.
Mark reflects on the pressure and complexity involved in this transition, which requires a new level of insight, scrutiny and transparency.
"There is an increasing pressure on the manufacturing industry to make ethical and responsible sourcing decisions and for business to be conducted sustainably," he says.
"How can a traditionally high-emission, heavy duty industry do this?"
"It’s important that manufacturing companies are conducting sustainability reporting consistently across departments, including ensuring audits are performed on any new supplies."
He goes on to emphasise how deeply consumer attitudes towards companies like manufacturers will be determined in the coming years by their response now to growing environmental challenges.
"In 2025, company reputation will be dependent on the ability to be proactive in the face of climate change and supply chain analytics are an impactful way for companies to improve access to data and derive more insights on how the sustainability of their supply chain is affecting the business as a whole," Mark concludes.
"One organisation’s sustainability is also impactful to the planet as a whole – if more organisations effectively focus on and improve the sustainability of their supply chains, the world will be one step closer to beating climate change."
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