4 Things That a Future-Ready Manufacturing Business Can Do – Effortlessly

COVID-19 has been one the most difficult challenges that modern business has faced, but it’s given us a unique opportunity. A pivotal reason to stop and rethink what manufacturing should look like, so we can come back stronger and more efficient.

2021 is a year for recovery, growth and forward planning. A year to make sure your manufacturing organization is future-ready.

But what does that actually mean?

To understand how the global pandemic is reshaping the manufacturing industry, and to help manufacturers prepare for inevitable (and unpredictable) change, Aptean has released a whitepaper on The 4 Pillars of a Future-Ready Manufacturing Business.

And we’re going to share with you some insights into what these four pillars enable your business to do, effortlessly—in order to seize future manufacturing opportunities.

1.    Make Smart, Strategic Choices, Underpinned by Data

After a year of disruption, the good news is that manufacturing is showing green shoots of recovery. And the companies that return to growth quickest will be those who make smart decisions—driven by up-to-the-minute business data.

The aim for manufacturers is not to predict what’s coming next, but to react quickly to whatever lies ahead. To do this, you need to have complete visibility of your operation, and be able to draw real-time information from anywhere.

Many manufacturing organizations don’t yet have the tools in place to do this—which makes investing in the right manufacturing software a 2021 imperative. Manufacturing enterprise resource planning (ERP) software is the most effective way to integrate and extract 360-degree knowledge.

Even those manufacturers that do have ERP software in place need to put that technology to work. And that means moving from a reactive approach towards predictive analytics. A truly future-ready business is one where manufacturers will be able to anticipate demand, streamline processes, reduce maintenance issues and increase factory uptime.

2.     Reorganize, Reskill and Reinforce People Power 

Data is powerful for making smart decisions, but information alone isn’t enough to prepare for the future. It needs to be put into the hands of the right people.

COVID-19 reminded us how important people are, and increased their value within manufacturing organizations. To become future-ready, your company needs to reorganize and reskill them for post-pandemic demands, to reinforce key roles.

The strongest employee experiences are driven by ERP technology streamlining and automating monotonous, repetitive but essential processes, so your people can focus on more productive tasks. Whatever they do, and wherever they’re based.

It’s also worth noting that we’ve seen a significant surge in remote working as a result of the pandemic. And manufacturers need a strong cloud software strategy in place to support the disparate workforce.

As we discussed in our recent blog post – Connecting Your Manufacturing Business in a Virtual World – your team needs to access critical data from anywhere, in order to collaborate with colleagues, suppliers, OEMs and customers. Leading COOs are now prioritizing cloud migration in order to become future-ready.

3.    Rapidly Respond to an Unreliable Market

COVID-19 highlighted the unpredictability of modern manufacturing. Almost overnight, we saw dependable revenue streams dry up, and reliable supply chains fail to deliver.

If you set one operational goal for 2021, it should be integrating your business systems to create the foundations for a connected, smart factory.

The best way to respond to unreliability is to build a lean, efficient operation, which can quickly respond to change. Manufacturing ERP technology centralizes software to help you structure decisions better, prioritize change and dynamically manage production.

The more cohesive your infrastructure becomes, the more you can automate and manage holistically, to run smarter, reduce downtime and remain agile.

4.    Think Outside the Box

If you were hoping for a year of recuperation in 2021, think again. To become a future-ready manufacturing business, you need to fight back stronger than ever. And that means putting more strategic resources into innovation.

Thinking and acting outside the box using manufacturing ERP software will increase your speed and agility, and get the most out of the people who keep your business moving. So you can react to unpredictable market changes quickly and effectively.

Change and uncertainty are not things manufacturers should fear; as we said at the start, they are an opportunity to rethink and improve the way you work. The right technology maximizes your flexibility, so you can drive continual, scalable growth well beyond 2021.

Perceive. Perform. Profit. Progress: The 4 Pillars of a Future-Ready Manufacturing Business is available now. Download your free whitepaper.