Are Manufacturing and Technology Communicating in the Same Language?

As the manufacturing industry evolves to meet new challenges, there is a significant increase in innovation for the products and services delivered and supported. Many industry insiders are emphasizing the importance of focusing on driving long-term (profitable) business growth. According to Deloitte, the key pillars are digital investment and supply chain resilience.

“Partnerships are also becoming increasingly important in achieving sustainable business growth, whether upstream or downstream within the supply chain or enabling partners such as application and technology providers,” says Phil Lewis, Infor’s VP of Solution Consulting EMEA.

To ensure that everyone is speaking the same language in all of those partnering scenarios, it’s critical to have a shared understanding of the desired outcomes. This significantly reduces the time to value. Manufacturing is shifting toward industry-specific applications, which are now almost always delivered in the cloud to maximize adoption, flexibility, availability, and security while lowering total cost of ownership. In fact, Gartner predicts that end-user public cloud spending will increase by 18 percent through 2021.

If the organization is a well-contained, low-risk, low-complexity business with customers who are content with the status quo and there is no real threat of disruption, a horizontal, one-size-fits-all approach to enterprise resource planning (ERP) may still be adequate. “However,” Lewis believes, “most companies need to simplify the management of their complex business and are looking to differentiate through the application of technology.”

Horizontal applications typically manage a single business function, such as finance and procurement, with everything else bolted on. Nonetheless, many of today’s organizations are realizing that industry-specific capabilities and new technology are required. Old methods are no longer effective. “Industry-specific cloud ERP provides capabilities that correspond to how business should be done.” This increases efficiencies, allowing businesses to operate in real time and realize their full potential. It is also easier to implement, resulting in faster success.”

An industry-centric, single view of the business, or digital twin, assists decision makers in identifying variations in expected operational performance early on. With this information, variations can be analyzed and managed long before finance teams are aware of them. The finance role can then shift to a focus on strategic operational and financial improvement, fostering a culture of continuous improvement.

“As Jim Collins mentions in his discussion of the ‘flywheel effect,’ good-to-great transformations are unlikely to occur in a single step.” “A clearly articulated and communicated strategy that results in measurable, incremental improvements is critical to long-term transformation success,” Lewis advises.

Unsurprisingly, when it comes to causing organizational change, the business drivers are frequently a complex mix of customer expectations and demands for a better experience, a focus on operational effectiveness, and the need to meet stricter industry regulations and operating conditions. That is why it is critical that vendors of applications software technology speak the same language as the business. “As an example, optimizing the order-to-delivery process in an engineer-to-order or configure-to-order environment necessitates a unified view of the product from concept to quote to build, delivery, and finally life support.” Anything less increases the risk of the entire process,” he adds.

‘The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago,’ as the old adage goes. Now is the second-best time.’ Organizations that have been slow to adapt in the past still have time to catch up. Creating internal momentum – the first push on the flywheel – is frequently the most difficult task. When everyone speaks the same language in a true partnership, multiple stakeholders come together to create a more powerful outcome.

“Don’t wait too long,” Lewis warns at the end. “Early adopters are now more agile, flexible, and efficient – and they may already be eroding their competitors’ market share.” The right partner, with the right industry experience and knowledge, will recognize the value in overcoming obstacles, defining a true roadmap to success.”