Here are three important areas that all manufacturers should be prioritizing and acting on to ensure high levels of supply chain visibility, optimization and efficiency this year.
Whether they’re building vehicles on an assembly line, making discrete parts for individual customers or developing small batches of specialized components, manufacturers need real-time data and insights into their end-to-end operations. Throttled by legacy systems, spreadsheets and manual processes, many manufacturers wind up “flying blind” and making decisions based on old, irrelevant and sometimes inaccurate data points, while planning and procurement maintain different views of what the priorities are and what actions need to be taken.
To gain real-time actionable insights into their orders, materials, suppliers and customers, manufacturers need a novel approach with advanced analytics and improved collaboration that supports accurate inventory optimization, better supply chain execution, improved operational performance, better decision-making and fewer errors.
Cloud-based predictive analytics, total visibility, and purpose-built workflows help manufacturers:
- Respond to volatile demand. Manufacturers that run their operations in silos have been hit particularly hard by the current supply chain, logistics, labor and transportation realities. For example, any company whose demand planning and S&OP is spread across material planners, production departments, procurement and suppliers can’t respond fast enough to counter this volatility, because ultimately they are not aligned on the highest critical path parts and highest priority production orders. By standardizing workflows and optimizing the daily work of manufacturing teams, LeanDNA automatically prioritizes urgent inventory actions aligned to common priorities and outcomes. This allows teams to quickly resolve issues, respond to volatile demand signals, reduce excess inventory and improve delivery performance.
- Remain competitive during disruption. To remain competitive in the current business environment, manufacturers have to align production with procurement and suppliers—something that just cannot be effectively accomplished using siloed, on-premises technology solutions and spreadsheets. Smart organizations are breaking down their data silos and preparing everyone to work from the same playbook. With LeanDNA in their corner, manufacturers and supplier both get the shared visibility, forecasting and demand sensing tools they need to effectively manage and collaborate across multiple sites, operations and stakeholders.
- Successfully orchestrate remote-first and hybrid work. The global COVID-19 pandemic is forcing manufacturers to rethink how they manage their back-office operations and the tools necessary to support a remote-first or hybrid work environment. The most successful of them are factoring people, processes and technology into their approaches and ensuring that all three are aligned in a way that supports the overall operation as well as the individual contributor. For example, the management team must be able to leverage the workflows, understand team performance across multiple sites and then use that intelligence to make good decisions. LeanDNA helps manufacturers do all of this and more.
As they navigate today’s unpredictable business environment and deal with the seemingly never-ending impacts of the global pandemic, smart manufacturers are implementing technology platforms that help them respond to volatile demand signals, improve their competitive positions, and run both remote and hybrid workforces. With LeanDNA on their side, these firms can effectively overcome their current challenges and work toward long-term success.
Want to learn more about staying competitive and successful in today's manufacturing landscape? Check out our whitepaper, "Top 5 Priorities for Manufacturers in 2022."
