INTELLIGENT MANUFACTURING quintessential for business growth— especially given their digital savviness that can give businesses a big leg up in the new age of Smart Manufacturing. Manufacturers must re-think their relationship with these digitally-literate workers and retool their organisations to leverage technology to motivate and empower this next-generation workforce. Sitting at the intersection of workers and systems to unite information and execution, technology plays a vital role in reducing complexity, improving the quality of work life, and enhancing productivity. Business systems that are intuitive and accessible can assist Millennials wanting to have an immediate impact in the workplace.
Millennials want to invest their time and energy in innovative organisations, and in positions where they can make a difference; they have little patience for waiting on month-end reporting to see if their contributions have moved the mark. They want real-time feedback which can be delivered via wearables / mobile, cloud, analytics and other enabling technologies.
Stepping up to“ Servitisation” In the past few years, we’ ve seen the emergence of new disruptive business models, and this trend will continue in 2017. For example, the emergence of the“ distribu-facturer” where distributors— under pressure to provide more customer value— are now adding services such as light manufacturing or kitting, and manufacturers are doing the same to extend their value by offering field service and maintenance options.
As organisations align their offerings to meet a wider array of needs and requirements throughout the customer journey, this creates opportunities to capture greater revenues and competitive differentiation. But as they branch out to serve a broader range of customer needs, and get closer to the end consumer, customer experience becomes more critical.
With globalisation and disintermediation, supply chains have gotten more complex and business
HESHAM EL KOMY Senior Director, International Channels, Epicor Software
more competitive. Supply chain visibility and responsiveness is key to know when there are deviations to plan and move quickly to ensure customer obligations can be met. Over the years manufacturers have leaned out manufacturing processes and cut costs as much as possible; in 2017, the supply chain will be“ the new frontier” for opportunities to lower costs, improve responsiveness and reduce risk.
The customer experience imperative mandates widespread collaboration and visibility across the entire manufacturing value chain; shop floor operations and top floor operations must be connected. Siloed systems that stand in the way of a clear“ line of sight” from the manufacturing floor to the finance office will impede organisations.
Manufacturers must be able to make sense of business data quickly to understand the greatest business opportunities and threats that must be addressed to support growth and profitability— and be able to answer key questions about their business such as:
• How are we doing sales-wise, up / down, month-over-month, and by territory?
• What are the inventory levels, how much is in stock versus demand?
• What is the status of our outstanding accounts payable( AP), accounts receivable( AR), and cash flow?
• How are we tracking regarding on time shipment performance, supplier / procurement scorecard, waste / cost on the manufacturing floor, etc.?
This enables course corrections and fine tuning of go-to-market strategies, customer management, planning and inventory management, and financial health( better AP / AR management).
Seizing the day with strategic technology investments This year is shaping up to be the best start for manufacturers in the past decade; it’ s time for smart strategic moves to make the most of it. Focused investments in the Cloud, the IoT and analytics will enable manufacturers in the UAE to seize opportunities today, and also be prepared to embrace change and whatever the future brings. www. intelligentcio. com INTELLIGENTCIO
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