HOW CLOUD TECHNOLOGIES HELP MANUFACTURERS DRIVE SUSTAINABLE PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

CLOUD PLM AS A LONG-TERM GREEN BUSINESS STRATEGY

As new products continue to grow in complexity, and green compliance and international regulations become more stringent, there is too much at stake for manufacturers to rely on manual processes or legacy systems. Manufacturers are discovering the benefits of using cloud PLM, and quality management system (QMS) solutions, to streamline processes when it comes to executing sustainability efforts.

Sustainable product development involves designing and manufacturing a product to minimize its environmental impact during its entire lifecycle. This is achieved by (but is not limited to) reducing the carbon footprint of manufacturing processes or using recyclable materials.

To meet sustainability requirements, PLM software streamlines design, development, product record management, and information sharing. It can promote advancement while lowering production expenses. Using PLM, companies can create a long-term sustainability strategy in addition to adhering to environmental standards.

Engineers can easily evaluate and optimize product content from a variety of sources, including bills of materials (BOMs), design specifications, and parts lists as well as enabling internal and external teams to provide product development updates, submit ideas, and receive feedback in real time. This information can then be compared to the overall green requirements for the product as well as early development criteria for any applicable regulations.

Cloud Solutions Are Greener

A green cloud is an approach to cloud computing that aims to reduce energy consumption and environmental impact when deploying digital devices and systems. Data centers around the world have racked up enormous energy consumption numbers. Operating a data center requires a significant amount of water and energy.

In addition to powering the IT hardware, energy is utilized to cool the buildings and prevent data systems from overheating. With that, scrutiny over the environmental cost of data centers and the digital technologies that these infrastructures power has understandably increased.

Most data centers use a closed-loop system for cooling which consumes both water and energy to maintain the pumps and infrastructure. The need for a more sustainable approach is one of the reasons cloud service providers (CSPs) are moving to a cloud-native approach.

With cloud services being more environmentally friendly than on-site IT infrastructure, public cloud data centers can aggregate energy demand from several enterprises, which improves resource management. They also offer stable pricing structures and consume energy more effectively.

Cloud computing can help boost energy efficiency:

• Less hardware: Organizations don’t need their own hardware to power software and applications if they move their on-premises IT systems to the Cloud. A cloud hosting company can handle equipment management on behalf of enterprises, hosting and deploying IT infrastructure more effectively and at a larger scale.
• High-density storage: High-carbon equipment is required to power servers 24/7, resulting in enormous energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Cloud computing is a more effective way to run software and applications since it requires less physical infrastructure to execute heavy workloads and store vast amounts of data.
• Consolidated demand: Organizations can run numerous applications on the same server and even safely share server space with other organizations to save energy consumption by working with a cloud hosting provider to manage their IT infrastructure. As a result, deploying software and applications requires fewer physical servers overall, and resources may be shared via the network.