From the steam engines of the 1800s, to the assembly lines of the 20th century, to the bits and bytes of the ‘information age', the manufacturing industry is no stranger to radical process changes driven by technology.

As the quest to do things better and the industry looks for new ways to improve processes, savvy manufacturers have found that tech-driven innovation doesn't have to stop at the factory floor.

In line with IDC's prediction that information and consumer technology would converge to reshape manufacturing approaches to technology, businesses like EMCO, Voltas, Nilkamal, Whirlpool and Shaw Industries have been supercharging their internal process with the consumer tools like Google Drive.

Google Drive is a cloud based file storage and collaboration service, used by 190 million people around the world to safely store and access files from their phones, tablets and computers.

In addition to being the home to productivity apps like Docs, Sheets, Sites and Slides, Drive is also connected with Gmail and Hangouts making it a central hub for communication and collaboration. The business premium service, Drive for Work comes with unlimited storage as well the security features and controls that enterprises need.

On the face of it, cloud storage and a centralized place to communicate and collaborate may not seem like a groundbreaking innovation, but the manufacturing industry understands how much value small changes in process can add more than any other.

Consider how much time your employees creating work that requires team inputs, looking for information, or connecting with colleagues across time zones and continents. If your business is still using legacy technology here are four processes that your employees may be wasting time on, when they no longer need to.

Sending attachments via email: Instead of emailing your colleagues files — or worse forgetting to attach the file and having to email the again — you can spare people's inboxes and share files with them with cloud based tools like Google Drive.

Waiting for colleagues to update and send files: How many times have you been stuck back late at the office waiting for someone to send through a file you had to make the next series of edits? With Google Drive you can invite multiple people to edit the same file with you at the same time from any device.

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The author is Country Manager - Google for Work India.