While many companies focus on having the most advanced equipment and achieving IoT connectivity for their industrial machinery, the real challenge lies in taking advantage of the new types of information being generated, developing new business relationships, and finding new ways for companies to grow and scale. In this article, we present some of the digital trends that are currently transforming the manufacturing industry landscape, as well as a brief overview of the potential behind them.
1. In production, the customer must come first
In the previous model of the manufacturing industry, companies produced standardized products for a defined market that was willing to pay for this good. However, today the opposite is true: thanks to the Internet, there are diverse audiences that actively demand and finance the pakistan b2b leads products and services they aspire to. Crowdfunding services such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo have shown that consumers are willing to buy new products and services created on a smaller scale; and Etsy and Amazon Handmade, to support the market for handcrafted and personalized products.
Standardized products are still necessary to achieve manufacturing efficiency through high production volumes, but it is a reality that the challenges they must focus on are to become consumer-centric companies. Levi's Tailor Shop online store is a clear example of diversification because this company offers exclusive products and, at the same time, shows its ability to understand and, therefore, customize what they produce to fit (literally) its market.
2. It's no longer a straight line: business has become a digital environment
Any company that is engaged in producing consumer goods understands the "in's and out's" of dealing with different companies that may be suppliers, distributors, buyers, or maintenance businesses. This is usually represented as a straight line of production that goes, for example, from the farm that houses the animals to the food market or from the catch of fish at sea to the kitchen of a restaurant: each company or business involved in the process is involved in some specific stage of production.
Digital technology has changed the way we think about this linear production. Instead of imagining this as a straight line, let’s think of it as a network or a web – this is particularly best seen in global companies. This means that there needs to be good and effective communication with suppliers , distributors, buyers and franchises, and at the same time, customized tools and resources need to be provided that promote collaboration and coordination. These tools could be dynamic B2B catalogs, supplier and distributor portals, order management systems and other similar digital initiatives.
3. On-demand production is the new goal of manufacturing
There is a strong association between having a high volume of products in stock and global manufacturing companies. Warehouses, distribution centers, regional sites, and high-level logistics to deliver products around the world were needed to make this possible. However, there are major business risks that are always involved such as: overproduction of goods which then requires a sales force to place the products with consumers; high investment prior to product allocation; worldwide recalls of products with factory defects; and generally slowness of companies to change and respond to audiences with ever-changing needs.
Drop shipping has been one of the methods that has helped retail businesses reduce stock (or rely on someone else's stock), but it doesn't really solve the issues that arise from overproduction. Today, the industry's aspiration is to have a value chain that reacts to the demand of the moment. It is to have a business ecosystem that is agile and intelligent, driven by digital technologies, that responds to the demands of end users or customers and that is able to optimize its processes with the information collected from the IoT in daily operations. If we consider its design, it responds to the essential principles for digital transformation that we have previously analyzed in this blog: connectivity, relevance, ad hoc information , real-time communication and scalability, as well as improved visibility and management. It is also important to consider the following: achieving an ideal implementation reduces the need for warehouses, logistics and other "waste", as has always been promoted in the principles of the lean manufacturing methodology.
4. Turning manufacturing into a remote process
Industrial equipment has evolved to the point where remote manufacturing is now possible: machinery can now be operated from the other side of the world, using control panels with real-time monitoring, connectivity and cloud-based systems. This clearly gives us a glimpse into the future where companies will have decentralized operations. While this implies that there will be new levels of connectivity and security, the advantages it provides are greater: from being able to avoid equipment downtime (by allowing external programming) to making expertise available to serve different sites (by allowing access to knowledge of a particular equipment and machinery for specific projects). Remote manufacturing is naturally becoming an ally for product innovation and R&D teams, as the IoT continues to evolve. It is important to consider that it operates through company portals and dashboards and, like any technology business, requires a properly structured and mature digital environment to thrive.
