Technology has evolved in all industries. Most industries have already adopted new technology and trends to increase their business efficiency.
What about the manufacturing industries? Are they capable of moving themselves into a new technology platform?
Now the answer is probably a big YES!
Today’s top manufacturers have a proud history, from the Industrial Age to Industry 4.0. While some of their legacy is important in their success, others need to be reinvented while striving for a better future.
Although legacy supplier relationships can provide decades of value to manufacturers, traditional supply chain management processes cannot keep up with the pace of modern business. Consumers worldwide can feel the ripple effects of a disrupted supply chain when Covid is added.
In this crisis, manufacturing companies increasingly realize the importance of digital tools to keep inventories up and satisfy customers. Let’s elaborate in detail, How manufacturing industries overcome their challenges through the digitalization:
Connect Supply Chain
Manufacturing is built on the supply chain. For the necessary inputs, manufacturers rely on suppliers. Hence this bonding between the manufacturers and suppliers has supported the manufacturing model for many years.
These relationships and dynamics have been severely disrupted in recent years. Due to geopolitical and economic conditions, global pandemics, and other natural disasters, the supply chain is now at greater risk.
Manufacturers cannot rely on point-in-time, manual views of their supplier relationships. They require full visibility into their supplier portfolio with real-time insight into performance and risks. They must then be able to quickly react to changes without relying on manual processes that could cause delays or introduce mistakes.
ServiceNow allows manufacturers to see potential threats and react faster to changes with new technologies. ServiceNow for Manufacturing industry can help manufacturers to increase their visibility, agility and resilience in their supply chains.
Transparency Between Manufacturers and Suppliers
Modern supply chains solve the fundamental problem of reconciling customer demand. There are manufacturers, distributors and suppliers. However, many companies don’t know what is happening at other supply chain nodes. They make guesses.
Visibility makes it much easier to ensure that inventory is going where it is needed. This is the biggest benefit of technology resilience. Technology-enabled visibility allows you to see inventory in real-time and make decisions if you have too much.
Meet Customer Demand
Supply chain leaders must meet customer demands without increasing their supply chain costs. This is the classic problem supply chain leaders face.
This trade-off can be reduced by using the digital supply as a business strategy. An organization can understand customer demand better and design a supply system that exceeds or surpasses their expectations. This will allow them to be more efficient in delivering goods on time. This starts with understanding the customer’s needs and then moves on to fulfilling their demand through delivery. Digital is more about a customer-driven business strategy than fulfilling orders from sales.
Doubling Down on supply chain digitization
High-tech companies have been able to navigate the past year’s difficulties due to the years-old multitier visibility and coordinated workflow. One company in high-tech has four levels of its extended supply chain, all working together on a single platform. It’s possible to have a common view of data, information, and what is considered an exception or problem. Additional tools allow the company to assess the impact of an issue and provide robust analytics.
Unfortunately, traditional manufacturing companies and some consumer accounts are not as lucky right now. They put human energy into the problem and manually track down information on the demand and supply side.
Combine Innovation and Precision
The production environment is another area that has seen a significant transformation. Some products and processes have been around for a long time. However, automation and other technologies have revolutionized the way that work is done on the shop floor.
Particularly, operational technology (OT), has seen rapid advancements. Even though manufacturers’ products have not changed, the technology used to produce them has probably advanced significantly. These advances can increase quality, safety, and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE).
These advancements have led to increased connectivity to the network. It is still difficult to manage all of the OT assets. The OT space is still developing the systems necessary for IT asset management. OT assets can be as complex as IT assets but lack the security controls required for an IT environment. Learn more
