Critical Review of 'Essentials of the Modern Manufacturing Operation Part 2: Mobile Workstation'

This critical review analyzes the article 'Essentials of the Modern Manufacturing Operation Part 2: Mobile Workstation' by Govin Naidu, discussing the impact of wireless technology on remote working in the manufacturing sector. The review highlights the author's failure to cover other essential features of modern manufacturing, such as automation and customization, and the negative impacts of wireless technology on communication and data security.

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I. Introduction
The article “Essentials of the modern manufacturing operation part 2- mobile
workstation” by Govin Naidu, talks about how wireless technology has developed over the last
five years and how it has facilitated remote working in the manufacturing sector. The author has
the subtitle being “wireless technology has developed over the past five years, changing the way
we communicate and do business.” Wireless technology has revolutionized the manufacturing
sector, and people no longer have to use fixed assets in their manufacturing. It has provided the
remote working opportunity which consequentially has enhanced employees’ morale, and
generally promoted productivity gain. Among the ways of facilitating remote working in the
companies, as mentioned by the author are remote meetings, remote office access, security
management, and due to date management (Naldu 2019). Therefore, manufacturing firms can
offer their workers remote working platforms that will have a positive impact on both parties.
II. Body of Critical Review
Less convincing is the broad topic of the article. The theme of the article intends to cover
an extensive area. “Essentials of the modern manufacturing” implies that the author should have
dealt with indicating a variety of necessities in manufacturing. The author fails to do so as he
commits himself to remote working, which is just but a bit of the multiple essentials in
manufacturing operations. The author ought to have indicated the other necessary features
required in modern manufacturing. For instance, automation is a vital feature that needs to be
incorporated in the modern-day manufacturing. Together with wireless technology, automation
of the manufacturing subsystems will be a great deal in a plant. Integrating these two features
will boost not only employee performance but also morale. Increase in their performance index
will be characteristic, and the manufacturing plants will experience productivity gains. The

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author, however, fails to mention the critical attributes of the essentials in modern
manufacturing. Indeed, wireless technology is playing an increasingly important role in
industrial environments, helping administrators collect data, monitor equipment, and perform
remote maintenance. It is true that with low-cost and advanced technology advantages developed
for enterprise and consumer products, Wi-Fi has become the dominant technology. The
deployment of wireless links is also expanding to meet the communication needs of tablets and
smartphones that are increasingly used in industrial facilities (Martinez, Cano & Vilajosana,
2019). Some wireless technologies allow operators to remotely collect large amounts of
information from a tablet; this greatly saves operating costs compared to the costly laying of
cables and the high data collection system (Ostasevicius, et al 2016). The use of tablets and
smartphones does not require changes to the concept of wireless devices, but it can significantly
reduce costs and increase system reliability; the most important development of these devices
may be that their coverage will allow you to deploy anytime, anywhere. And the extent to which
the data is accessed. According to DonMannon, automation network consultant of Siemens
Industry Sector, Wi-Fi technology is generally used in traditional industrial products such as
automatic navigation vehicles, automatic storage/retrieval systems, suspension monorails, cranes,
etc., but its application in the near-end industrial market is increasing (Libtor.com. 2019).
Expansion, including wind turbines, entertainment (step control and cycling control) and
restoration projects. In many cases, wireless technology can eliminate the cost of laying cables to
remote locations, and Wi-Fi makes it easy to integrate wireless technology into existing Ethernet
solutions. Both use TCP/IP technology, so data can be easily transferred regardless of device
type. Communication between multiple types of devices has now extended beyond traditional
industrial equipment. The ability to allow access to the network at any time allows users to

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quickly perform related operations, which in the past may take hours or even days. Another
aspect left out is the idea of customization. The key to the transformation of the factory is to
customize the applicable solution according to the requirements (Gladysz & Buczacki, 2018).
The automatic upgrade is the basic premise, and the situation of manpower is relieved by
machine substitution. The first is the Industrial IoT, where all machines and production elements
are networked before the underlying data of the plant can be used for predictive maintenance,
analysis of machine performance and optimization of production processes. In such a broad
topic, the idea of industry 4.0 model should have been mentioned. The Industry 4.0 model is a
model that connects the virtual world with physical reality (Sachs, et al. 2019). The virtual
equipment is used to simulate the plant equipment, and then the entire plant is fully controlled,
from raw material supply to design, production and application. The realization of information
interaction makes suppliers, producers and users closely connected to form a highly harmonious
manufacturing method (Solomon, 2018). The Internet of Things is an important part of the
development of smart factories. The networking and monitoring of equipment is of great
significance to manufacturing companies. At the same time, these new demands have brought
new opportunities to the automation industry (Xu,Yang & Wang, 2015).
Although the author is fairly comprehensive with the subtopic on how wireless
technology has revolutionized the manufacturing sector, he misses out on the fact that wireless
technology has also imposed negative impacts on how we communicate and how we do
businesses. For instance, when the author talks about security management, he mentions how
high-level anti-malware are in existences and how they can improve the security situation in the
current era. Despite there being the development of sophisticated forms of anti-malware, there
has also been an emergence of powerful and tricky kinds of spyware and hackers who pose a

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significant threat to data and information security. On matters communication, though remote
working has continued to thrive in the modern workplaces, workplace relations have been dealt a
blow. The basics of communication have gradually deteriorated courtesy of remote working, yet
the author mentions how it has enhanced communication.
III. Conclusion
In summary, the article somewhat offers theoretical insights as far as matters on how to
facilitate remote working are concerned. Despite its broader topic, the author has reasonably
articulated his points concerning the remote operation in manufacturing. The author ought to
have dwelt on the general subject he chose, rather than selecting the tiny but significant piece of
it. The article is highly informative when one considers how they would want to facilitate remote
working. The author is apt in his writing as he establishes the connection between his topic and
the thesis statement. This aids those reading to understand the piece well. Despite being in detail
on the subtitle, it must be noted that he fails to articulate both sides of the coin, the positive and
the negative points.

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List of References
Naldu G, 2019, ‘Essentials of the Modern Manufacturing Operation Part 2: Mobile Workstation’,
Australian Manufacturing. [online] Available at:
https://www.australianmanufacturing.com.au/76167/essentials-of-the-modern-manufacturing-operation-
part-2 [Accessed 12 Sep. 2019].
Libtor.com (2019). The Wireless Revolution: Transforming Industrial Networking. [online] Available at:
http://www.libtor.com/news/582.html [Accessed 12 Sep. 2019].
Sachs, J, Wallstedt, K, Alriksson, F and Eneroth, G 2019 Boosting smart manufacturing with 5G wireless
connectivity - Ericsson Technology Review. [online] Ericsson.com. Available at:
https://www.ericsson.com/en/ericsson-technology-review/archive/2019/boosting-smart-manufacturing-
with-5g-wireless-connectivity [Accessed 12 Sep. 2019].
Martinez, B, Cano, C & Vilajosana, X 2019, ‘A Square Peg in a Round Hole: The Complex Path
for Wireless in the Manufacturing Industry’, IEEE Communications Magazine, vol. 57, no. 4, pp.
109–115
Gladysz, B & Buczacki, A 2018, ‘Wireless Technologies for Lean Manufacturing - a Literature
Review’, Management & Production Engineering Review (MPER), vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 20–34
Solomon, B 2018, ‘High-frequency 5G wireless infrastructure requires a new approach to PCB
manufacturing’, EE: Evaluation Engineering, vol. 57, no. 7, pp. 18–19
Ostasevicius, V, Jurenas, V, Markevicius, V, Gaidys, R, Zilys, M, Cepenas, M & Kizauskiene, L
2016, ‘Self-powering wireless devices for cloud manufacturing applications’, International
Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, vol. 83, no. 9–12, pp. 1937–1950

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Xu, W, Yang, Z & Wang, X 2015, ‘A Technical and Business Perspective on Wireless Sensor
Network for Manufacturing Execution System’, Mathematical Problems in Engineering, vol.
2015, pp. 1–15