The U.S. is finally seeing its way out of the recession and manufacturing is picking up. In the years since the recession first hit, the workplace has become more mobile, which means keeping track of everyone and everything is a challenge many companies face if they hope to successfully compete.

Manufacturers are looking for mobility technologies that give them access to information for a more knowledgeable outlook on their operations and how to make those operations more efficient. According to this Manufacturing Digital report, utilizing IP phone maker solutions is connecting manufacturer’s access to the most updated work practices.

Many are using unified communications devices, including video, that allow a better sense of collaboration between all aspects of an operation, from the floor workers to the executives in the top offices.

Mobility and collaboration combine when employees’ personal devices can be integrated into the IP phone system, which can help employees locate each other, start up meetings using the device’s camera and speaker/microphone, and employees can share various data, including pictures and video, which gives companies the real-time abilities they’ve been looking for.

The IP phone maker industry is helping to bring products to market faster, especially as protyping is a more common practice today as 3D printers help bring ideas to life. IP phone maker vendors are using a variety of collaboration tools, which includes IP-enabled white-boards and videos that can help share the prototypes with anyone around the globe.

Teams can collaborate over their IP phone systems to work together on solutions, even if their offices are an ocean away, which helps bring the products to market at a much faster rate.

IP phone maker vendors are giving manufacturers the insight that tells them where the items are at any given moment, from parts that make their products to the finished product. If a problem arises, the IP phone maker solutions can send out an alert. This is achieved through integrating radio frequency identification with the IP phones.

Manufacturers are also relying on something called converged plant wide Ethernet (cpwE). This concept provides manufacturers more flexibility and efficiency in their control of the industrial process across the network.

But achieving this sort of industrial intelligence, from IP phones to cpwE, can come with its own set of challenges. The process often involves multiple partners who have to work together and be compatible. As the manufacturing industry becomes more mobile and efficiency expectations increase, plant managers are looking for the type of real-time visibility that can be provided through IP phone maker vendors.