U.S., Feb. 15 -- As automation plays an ever-greater role in the manufacturing industry, many people imagine teams of robots on an assembly line turning raw materials into useful products. While this image is not inaccurate, it offers only a partial view of what's happening in factories and industrial facilities worldwide.
To maximize efficiency, manufacturers are increasingly automating their business processes, using cloud-based applications for supply chain and demand planning, project management, customer relationship management, analytics and business intelligence, vendor management and a range of other functions.
These applications help manufacturing companies of all sizes streamline complex operations while reducing the number of h...