Why Windows 10: Five benefits for manufacturers
The manufacturing industry is in a time of significant change. Change from today’s connectivity. Change in demographics and globalization. Change from consumers and what they want and expect in their products. And as we enter a new digital era of business enabled by emerging capabilities like the Internet of Things (IoT), there’s significant change in both how we work and how businesses operate.
In the midst of all this change, one thing has been made clear. Manufacturers are embracing it. They are ready to harness the power of today’s technological advancements to drive innovation throughout their organization. And the new Windows 10 platform provides many opportunities to do that.
Here are five Windows 10 features that can empower the manufacturing industry to be more productive, transform product design and accelerate innovation.
The most advanced platform for 3D printing
Microsoft has been focused on unlocking the tremendous potential of 3D printing, and Windows 10 represents a significant leap forward in making 3D design innovation more powerful, accessible, and easier for manufacturers to use in the design process.
Windows 10 has built-in features specifically for 3D printing: model repair service, interactive print previews, native 3MF read/write and 3D model previews for file folders. Also via the Windows store, 3D Builder, an app for 3D printing is available for free and includes many features for simplifying the 3D printing process and also controlling it.
Underneath the hood, Windows 10 makes it possible for any 3D application, whether it’s CAD or a game, to generate 3D printable output irrespective of printer make or its materials. This benefits both the developer and the user because it means that software running on Windows will have the best 3D printing experience. And it has the ability to further transform product design by optimizing for 3D printing in a production setting. I talk more about that in a recent webinar, and I’ll share more in a future post.
Enhanced usability for significant productivity gains
One of Microsoft’s core ambitions is to reinvent productivity in today’s mobile-first, cloud-first world, and Windows 10 is designed with that in mind. One of my favorite features is the task view button. It’s right on the taskbar, and with one click you can see everything running. It also includes the addition of multiple desktops, and combined with the task view button, the productivity value for design engineers is huge.
You can open up different applications on your desktop—things you’re working on, things you’re monitoring and things you want to have easy access to—arrange however you like, and then save that layout as a task view. And then you could do the same for another set of apps designed around another task. This is a great feature for engineers who work through different workflows, from searching for information to creating specifications, and with these capabilities they can essentially create different spaces to do their work and streamline their workflow in a way that makes sense to them.
One converged platform & universal apps on a range of innovative devices
With Windows 10, we’ve brought our entire family of experiences together from headless IoT devices to the phone, to tablets, PCs, up to the amazing new Surface Hub and beyond into the world of holograms with Microsoft HoloLens.
With one converged platform, manufacturing employees get a familiar experience with universal line-of-business apps running across a range of devices. Whether used by managers in corporate offices or field service operations staff at a work site, the same app can be tailored and delivered through multiple form factors, helping them to achieve more with seamless solutions designed for their business.
Think of an engineer’s workflow that typically involves a traditional desktop, a laptop or a tablet, and a mobile phone, and now being able to move across those devices, have your work move along with you, and have each device recognize that work and arrange it for its specific format.
The value of this new, adaptive Continuum user experience for ease of use and productivity is incredible. You can see a great example of this experience in the Siemens JT2Go app.
New graphics engine for professional graphics
The manufacturing world will be able to push their design capabilities forward with the new DirectX 12 graphics engine in Windows 10. It enables a new way to structure graphics workloads, and these new techniques can lead to a tremendous increase in expressiveness and optimization opportunities.
While DirectX 12 is more commonly discussed in the gaming world, I see it as an incredible tool for the professional graphics world. With DirectX12 in the design workflow, the high-end visualization no longer has to wait until the final rendering step. With the performance and image quality in DirectX 12, the level of realism goes through the roof. Design engineers can now have a hyper-real environment in any type of design application that takes advantage of it, enabling high-end visualization that more closely mimics the real work and bringing that into the process must sooner.
Protection against modern security threats
Modern security threats require a new platform. Windows 10 introduces a number of advancements in security and identity protection features that are easy to deploy and manage, and that don’t compromise the user experience.
It includes built-in, enterprise-grade security, so customers can replace passwords with more secure options like Windows Hello face-recognition, iris and fingerprint login; protect corporate data and corporate identities; and run only the software they trust. New management and deployment tools simplify device management, help lower costs, and enable manufacturers to power their business with the enterprise strength of the Microsoft Azure cloud. And because Windows 10 is delivered as a service, it can be kept automatically up-to-date with ongoing innovations and security updates.
New possibilities
These are just a few of the great Windows 10 features that can create new possibilities and help accelerate innovation for manufacturers. To learn more, check out Windows solutions for manufacturing. We are also focused on lighting up these innovations on an unprecedented portfolio of device form factors designed for Windows 10, unmatched in the industry. Our new high-performance laptop, Surface Book, truly redefines an engineer’s workstation, improving productivity and accelerating product engineering when combined with solutions such as Siemens PLM NX 10 software.
In my next blog, I will share my thoughts on the newly released line-up of Windows 10 devices for manufacturing. In the meantime, you can read more here.
LinkedIn: Simon Floyd
Twitter: @FloydInnovation
