Why do french fries from McDonald's taste different than those from Burger King? In his August 9, 2005, BusinessWeek article, "Giving Machines the Gift of Gab," Burt Helm explains that much of the taste difference has to do with the design of the deep fryer. Enodis, the company that supplies deep fryers to more than 100 restaurant chains (including McDonald's and Burger King), manufactures its Frymaster units with design specifications unique to each restaurant chain.

As raw materials for a new job enter the manufacturing process, production machines communicate with a central computer via an Ethernet cable to automatically download a set of specifications tailored specifically for the customer order being filled. When a job is finished, the computer downloads a new set of instructions for the next order in the queue.

The technology that enables companies like Enodis to efficiently and effectively change design specifications without delay is called machine-to-machine communications (M2M). As manufacturing companies look to reduce overhead costs, M2M is certain to play a growing role in many industries.

Instructions

Discuss how M2M can help a manufacturing company reduce manufacturing overhead and increase profitability.