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As we discussed in part one of this post, due to the pandemic and everything rapidly moving online, companies experienced five years of digital growth in about eight weeks in 2020 with that growth continuing in 2021.
Not only has this historical moment sped up the adoption of digital technologies, the benefits of adopting these new technologies and processes are here to stay. In fact, executives at organizations that experimented with new digital technologies during the crisis are twice as likely to report outsized revenue growth.
Additionally, within the manufacturing space, employing automation technology is building more resilient supply chains while alleviating common supply chain challenges.
So, now that we know the perks of implementing new digital strategies, what comes next?
Getting Started with Digital Transformation
Here are a few steps you can take to start your digital transformation journey off on the right foot.
1. Think digital throughout the entire manufacturing life cycle, not just at certain points of the process.
Ensuring there’s a digital thread throughout your business’s ecosystem—from innovation and execution on the factory floor to the end of the product life cycle—will keep your organization agile and ready for any future changes to the manufacturing industry specifically, and to the economy at large.
2. Say goodbye to old tools and hello to digital ones.
Once you’ve outlined a plan for digital transformation at all levels, start your digital implementation process by replacing outdated tools with innovative ones. If you haven’t done so already, now is the time to say goodbye to spreadsheets, once and for all. The pandemic, and the digital response to it, has shone a spotlight on outdated supply chain management techniques and tools that lack adaptability, visibility, agility, and resilience.
While traditionally, manufacturers have led other sectors in the adoption of some types of digital technologies—like automation and 3D printing—they have lagged behind in the adoption of others, like e-commerce and artificial intelligence (AI). We can’t think of a better time to adopt innovative digital tools to manage your supply chain than right now.
New tools like supply chain and CPQ software help organizations manage everything from purchasing, supply chain and inventory, to configuration, pricing and quoting—making all processes more dynamic in real time. It’s time we embrace digital tools powered by artificial intelligence, robotics, automation, additive manufacturing, and more as building blocks for the future instead of continuing to shy away from Industry 4.0.
3. Seek out digitally-native partners with manufacturing expertise.
By seeking out partners that are digitally native and have expertise in your industry, you’ll have a digital ally who can enable the agility, choice, and resilience you need to become an organization that can weather this storm—and those of the future.
Not only can such a partner help you deploy digital tools, their own expertise in and implementation of a digital transformation strategy will provide you with invaluable insight into how to navigate the new digital manufacturing landscape.
A New Manufacturing Landscape
All of these elements are required to create an ecosystem that:
- Is digitally enabled,
- Has the visibility and agility to respond to disruption in real-time, and
- Has the resilience to not only handle, but thrive off of whatever the world throws at it.
With Selection and CPQ software and an SCPQ process, you’ll be better able to duck and dive when needed, responding to clients quickly and efficiently—no matter the state of the world.
