The remote working triggered by COVID-19 is leading to a series of interesting and positive business outcomes. An area where we are witnessing considerable impact is the practice of DevOps or the art of accelerating and improving technology delivery and operations processes. At the heart of DevOps, it is all about culture, people and technologies coming together.[i] The practice seeks to drive collaboration between development and operations teams, bringing them closer right from conceptualization, planning, design, deployment to operations. With COVID-19 imposing remote working, DevOps is witnessing a significant increase in adoption. Cloud has become critical for decentralized DevOps teams, providing a new set of challenges that need to be addressed.
The challenges are significant. For organizations that do not (yet) have a complete cloud-native DevOps program, Freddy Mahhumane, the Head of DevOps for South Africa’s financial services leader, the Absa Group, has some advice: “Don’t just pick AWS or Azure or Google Cloud and migrate. If an organization is in early stage of cloud adoption, come up with a hybrid strategy that keeps some processes running in house and on premises while you learn in the cloud environment.” This gives the required confidence to Development and Operation teams. But that is increasingly turning into a luxury with COVID-19 around. Working remotely in cloud environment has become necessary—and will soon become the default mode.
Fortunately, the DevOps culture talks about working remotely from anywhere, anytime -hardcore practitioners should be able to walk into an Internet café anywhere in the world and work. And now, after a few months of distributed working enforced by the pandemic, DevOps leaders are finding ways to solve the challenges of collaboration, processes management, delivery and more. However, cloud adoption for systems lowers the risk by several magnitudes. It allows them to access the required infrastructure when compared to accessing it over an enterprise VPN or via secure end points that need expensive licenses. This, naturally, raises questions around security.
Part of the answer lies in the practice of DevSecOps that seeks to maintain compliance and security requirements. But the focus of security, as called out by Mahhumane, has traditionally been on hardware and application security. He too feels distributed/remote working requires organizations to also focus on the social aspects of security. For example, an employee working from home social engineering may share data or innovation ideas with friends or family. So, it is very essential to understand the social side of the security as well. There could be many more challenges. DevSecOps was born to secure our systems, processes and the places where we are producing information with enterprise infrastructure. Physical security of data is assured. Now, DevSecOps has to deal with remote and isolated team members in environments that may be difficult to monitor. What is required is DevSecOps with an additional layer of controls.
This, in the long-term, is a welcome trend. It shifts attention to security right to the front of the SDLC and will cause more robust security practices. For banks and financial services this is a healthy development. They need to deliver digital products quickly to stay ahead of competition and drive innovation. Better security practices will ease their anxieties over potential breaches of compliance and regulatory requirements while enabling product development at pace.
Leaders who prioritize security strategy will find that they can drive their large distributed ecosystems of IT vendors to deliver better. To enable this, Mahhumane advises organizations to develop a security team along with strong strategy within the organization to support vendors. The team’s goals would be to help vendors meet organizational goals. He also suggests that DevOps leaders should understand their infrastructure thoroughly. For example, a data center plays the role of hosting, and understanding the processes of a data center can help create better delivery.
Over the last several years, DevOps has shown that it is an evolutionary process, not a big-bang event. However, currently it is being forced to evolve more rapidly than it has done. Processes used for years for versioning, testing, monitoring and securing, must undergo rapid change. DevOps leaders need to question their existing practices so new ones may quickly evolve for an era of remote working.
With stagnating consumption and restrictions on individual and merchandise flow, the footwear and apparel industry is quickly overhauling its strategy for the “new normal”. COVID-19 is forcing the industry to be more focused, sustainable and efficient in its processes. In doing so, it is also forcing the industry to become more digital savvy. The challenge before industry leaders is to be more “connected” across the value chain, while being “physically disconnected”. How will the industry operations look a few months from now as it is re-shaped by the crisis?
If anything is certain, it is this: the industry will adopt additional digital assets to drive product development, adopt technology solutions that connect processes and move business towards more sustainable and resilient processes.
The PLM solutions that the footwear and apparel industry uses were not designed for an eventuality like COVID-19. As an example, there is over reliance on physical samples, which right now are difficult to make and ship. This has presented a major challenge in the development process. Add to that the problem of getting multiple iterations through the sampling process. For an industry where “physical review” and “in-use” evaluation of the performance characteristics of materials are of immense importance, this can be very problematic. The challenge is to ensure that the stakeholders are connected and are able to meaningfully perform their activities (in case of samples) in a collaborative environment, while being able to work around the lockdown and lack of co-location imposed by COVID-19.
Brooks Running, the brand behind high-performance running shoes, clothing, and accessories headquartered in Seattle, USA, is finding ways to address the challenges. “We are now dipping our toes in 3D design and modelling,” says Cheryl Buck, Senior Manager, IT Business Systems, Brooks Running, who is responsible for the FlexPLM implementation in her organization. “We are examining visual ways to create new products and ensuring extremely tight communication (between functions).”
The goal is to improve collaboration, build end-to-end visibility coupled with accurate product development information (schedules, plans, resources, designs, testing, approvals, etc.) that reduces re-work and delivers faster decisions. The key to enabling this is to make real-time data and intuitive platforms with a modern UI available to all stakeholders. The result is improved productivity and efficiency, despite the barriers placed by COVID-19 for business as we had known earlier. Smart manufacturers like Brooks Running are going one step further. They are using role-based applications to extend the ability of their PLM (see figure below). These apps cater to the needs of individual users.
Brooks Running has found that the app ecosystem meets several process expectations. “It is difficult to configure PLM to individual needs,” observes Buck, “So providing special functional apps is a great way to address the gaps.” A readily available API framework allows Brooks Running to exchange information between systems and applications. The framework is flexible to support scale and is also cloud compatible.
For Brooks Running, COVID-19 has become a trigger for being creative and smoothening its processes. The organization has installed high resolution cameras to better view products and materials being shared in video conferences, and is incorporating 3D modelling into its processes. This makes it easier for stakeholders to assess designs as they can see more detail (testing has been moved to locations that are less affected by COVID-19 and when that is impossible, Brooks Running uses virtual fitting applications). The end result is that teams can easily share product development, acquire feedback and move ahead. The system keeps information on plans and schedules updated, shares status and decisions, and keeps things transparent.
Brooks Running finds that a bespoke Style Tracker application designed for the organization is proving to be extremely helpful in that it provides a reference point for styles in their development path within the season, tracks due dates for stakeholders, signals what needs to be done to get to the next check point and provides a simple way for leadership to track progress. “The style tracking app is a big win for us,” says Buck.
The experience of Brooks Running provides footwear and apparel retailers with a new perspective on the possibility to improve PLM outcomes and ROI:
Provide user group/process specific and UI rich tools
Enable actionable insights
Leverage single or multiple source of data
Enable option for access across mobile platforms
Make future upgrades easy and economical
Provide an easy way for incorporating latest technology platforms like 3D, Artificial Intelligence, RPA, Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality
FlexPLM is a market leader in the retail PLM space and combining it with ITC Infotech’s layer of apps provides FlexPLM partners with an easy, efficient and scalable mechanism to align the solution to the needs and expectations of the individual business in a way that has minimum impact on future upgrades, which is a significant plus. In addition, the app framework makes alignment across different configuration easy, which is an added advantage. Organizations that don’t want to modify their Flex implementation will find immense appeal in the app ecosystem to extend the capabilities of their PLM—especially as COVID-19 makes it necessary to bring innovation and ingenuity to the forefront.
We trust that these laid out benefits have assisted you with tracking down a more financially savvy and dependable choice to your capacity stresses. At Ware Safety we offer a scope of mezzanine floors and distribution center security answers for guarantee your business can keep on flourishing both coming up and in the background. To find out additional, visit our site or reach one of our cordial staff today!
The most widely recognized picture which strikes a chord when requested to envision a fireman is one wearing all out putting out fires gear and conveying a fire hose and foam discharge equipment. Albeit current putting out fires gadgets have been acquainted with stop the spread of flames, the fire hose stays as quite possibly the best instrument in presence inferable from its capacity to permit a fireman simple admittance to a fire’s area and to all the more likely control the course of the water or other putting out fires substance, like foam.
For proficient firemen and for organizations and foundations that require their own nearby putting out fires group, it is fundamental that every part is educated about the equipment the individual will utilize. Here are a few realities about the high-pressure hoses that are being utilized by the present proficient fire detachments.
The normal fire hose is made out of at least one external layers of woven texture with an internal elastic layer and is ordinarily fabricated in lengths of 50 ft. A novel component of most hoses is that they are intended to be put away level. This limits the space needed to store them, either in a hose reel, which is mainstream in the UK, or in a hanging rack, wherein the hose is collapsed accordion-like, which is the standard practice in different nations.
A few kinds of hoses are planned extraordinarily for the putting out fires. The ones intended for use under sure tension are named ‘discharge hoses’. Remembered for this class are the assault hose, hand-off hose, ranger service hose, supply hose, and sponsor hose. In the interim, the hoses intended for use under adverse tension are named ‘pull hoses’. Assault hoses are utilized to deliver water from an assault motor and onto the fire. Supply hoses, then again, are hoses used to convey water to an assault motor.
More established sorts of hoses require that after use, they be hung to dry since water left in the hose for a significant time frame can bargain the uprightness of the hose material and cause it to be untrustworthy. This was the reason fire stations assembled years prior for the most part include a high design to dry the hose. Nonetheless, fire hoses today are made out of different normal and engineered textures and elastomers. Hoses produced using such materials would thus be able to be put away wet without stress over any spoiling. The destructive impacts of daylight and synthetic substances can be withstood by these cutting edge hoses too. More lightweight than prior hoses, they have additionally decreased the actual strain on firemen who are wearing weighty defensive stuff as of now.
As innovation improves, new information and materials are being consolidated into existing hoses to build their effectiveness. In the course of recent many years, for instance, lighter and lower support hoses have been created. The advantages of such advancements incorporate the way that the width of lightweight fire hoses can reach up to 12 in (30.5 cm) and have pressure appraisals up to 150 psi (1,035 kPa). Expected utilizations of such hoses incorporate enormous scope modern putting out fires and debacle aid ventures.
A Cold chain companies in Mangalore ought to give distinct cycles to guarantee the item reaching your client is the thing that you anticipate. For one, the security of the area you use ought to be arrangement in a manner that limits admittance to the individuals who may be working with the item on a touchy premise. Since we are dealing with food handling, have an office outfitted with security gear, so your item remains protected and trusted within a cold stockpiling conveyance stockroom. Inquire as to whether the office utilizes a security framework that fulfills current industry guidelines. You would prefer not to choose a cold stockpiling organization that utilizes obsolete security gear, or more terrible yet none by any means. All things considered, you need your item to leave the distribution center in a similar condition and amount it showed up in. Solid security monitoring ought to include the cold stockpiling organization using IP based camera observation, combined with severe guidelines. A safe office ought to likewise be secure from different factors like theft, temperature vacillation, alkali breaks and fire. On the off chance that a cold stockpiling organization doesn’t screen these things you can be profoundly certain that destruction will result.
In particular, the office ought to work with high-effectiveness. Their speedy freezing and tempering administrations ought to bear the cost of you an opportunity to keep your timetable and customers glad. In the event that the office utilizes an exceptional interaction, which winds up saving you time then it would be a decent organization to work with. Keep in mind, dissemination to your customers and meeting your objectives are on the whole up to the cycles within the cold storage space, so guarantee that the capacity organization works with the best innovation. In the event that your item can be frozen, defrosted and sent in an opportune way, your item will actually want and you will actually want to fulfill your time constraints. While most open refrigerated distribution centers are trustworthy and work using state-of-the-art innovation, some actually exist that give modest pricing, which is regularly trailed by modest assistance.
Energy and labor efficiency are key concerns for warehouse operators, and they remain at the forefront of their costs. Many are saving by turning to more cross-dock functionality. Larger refrigerated docks and facilities are designed for cross docking, complete with reverse pick location zones and systems. Energy, labor and transportation demands affect the design of the warehouse, which are reflected in non-traditional structures. Warehouses are increasing in height since material-handling equipment can handle products at higher levels.
While many cold storage warehouses are designed differently, they all have the same key function and purpose-to provide cold supply chain management for their clients from start to finish. Newer design techniques and equipment are being quickly introduced into the industry to keep up with the high demands a cold chain requires.