Leveraging Apps in Manufacturing. A Framework for App Technology in the Enterprise

Apps on mobile devices like smartphones have become the core of the digital life of consumers. Apps are used, e.g., for shopping or communicating in social networks. Recently, apps are gaining more and more attention in enterprises as enabler for agile process optimization. In this article, we discuss the potentials and challenges of exploiting this technology with a focus on the manufacturing industry. We come up with a framework for apps in manufacturing companies and identify major areas that need further investigations to fully leverage apps. Moreover, we present existing and novel apps across the product life cycle.