Colin Elkins

Colin is Vice President of manufacturing industries and has over 25 years’ experience in ERP software solutions for the sector. Colin has been a professional consultant and senior pre-sales consultant for much of this time and has extensive knowledge of the business issues and requirements faced by manufacturers. This covers many industry sectors, from process manufacturing - Food and Beverage, Chemicals, Life Sciences and Mills and Metals, to discrete manufacturing, industrial and high tech. He is a key member of IFS Product Development and plays an instrumental role in the decisions regarding IFS product strategy. Colin completed a Mechanical Engineering apprentice and holds a BSC degree in Production Technology and Management with a further endorsement in Metallurgy. He has held senior positions within a large engineering company of Works Manager, Production Director and Global Group Systems Manager.

| | Estimated reading time: 5 minutes | Manufacturing, Service
Industrial machines – a move to servitization and circularity
Servitization

The servitization megatrend is upon us. Industrial machine manufacturing companies are adding service revenue streams and changing their business models,…

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| | Estimated reading time: 7 minutes | IFS Cloud, Manufacturing
The great reinvention: A business case for the circular economy
Circular Economy

With a raging pandemic, disrupted supply chains, climate change, political instabilities, and a growing scarcity of raw materials, 2021 will…

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| | Estimated reading time: 3 minutes | Digital Transformation, Manufacturing
The Circular Economy: Step Beyond Sustainability
Circular Economy

Colin Elkins chats to Tom Harper, managing director of Unusual, about the Circular Economy and how it applies to more…

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| | Estimated reading time: 4 minutes | Manufacturing
Artificial intelligence will spot our organic dumbness
Manufacturing Artificial Intelligence (AI)

With artificial intelligence (AI) so sophisticated it can pass the Turing Test, loaded with 175 billion language parameters, middle managers…

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| | Estimated reading time: 2 minutes | Manufacturing
A Green Solution to Smarter Infrastructure

Colin Elkins chats to Dennis Grech, CEO & Managing Director of Geofabrics, Australasia’s largest supplier of geosynthetic products for infrastructure,…

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| | Estimated reading time: 5 minutes | Business Agility, Manufacturing
The Circular Economy is here are you ready to embrace it?

Use the manufacturing slowdown to prepare for the circular economy with a sustainable approach to manufacturing and reverse logistics The…

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| | Estimated reading time: 6 minutes | Manufacturing
Reports from the manufacturing front lines in a post-pandemic world

Manufacturers today are still recovering from the initial economic shocks that came as businesses shut down to prevent further spread…

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| | Estimated reading time: 5 minutes | Manufacturing
A View from the Bridge: Post Covid-19
2020 manufacturing predictions updated

An update on my 2020 manufacturing predictions. Earlier this year I made my three process industry predictions, one of which…

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| | Estimated reading time: 5 minutes | Manufacturing
How to identify the weak links in your manufacturing supply chains
warehouse supply chains

When a cardiologist puts a patient through a stress test, they can see how the heart functions under load, and…

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| | Estimated reading time: 6 minutes | Business Agility, Manufacturing, Process Manufacturing
Use Project Thinking and Your ERP for Business Resilience and Market Recovery
ERP and Market Recovery

Regardless of the reason for an economic shock, we need to view these unpleasant situations as cyclical events that will…

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| | Estimated reading time: 5 minutes | Creativity & Innovation, IFS Applications, Manufacturing
My fridge just told me that my pizza was on recall! Really?

Is blockchain the answer to total traceability and transparency? Traceability, recall, and risk Hardly a day goes by without another…

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| | Estimated reading time: 10 minutes | Process Manufacturing
2020, the year sustainability goes from buzzword to necessity for process manufacturers
2020 Process Manufacturing Predictions

Everybody wants sustainable products, and retailers are putting pressure on manufacturers to deliver goods that satisfy consumers’ new preference for…

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