Cloud anxiety is restricting manufacturers from transforming businesses

The manufacturing industry is changing as customer expectations change – changes in B2B to B2B2C are forcing manufacturers to become more customer-centric, claims Eclipse, a DXC technology firm.

“To do this [become more customer focused], manufacturers need to reduce the time it takes to get products to market without increasing costs,” stated Paul Timmins, Global Director Microsoft at Eclipse.

“Customers expect a fast turnaround, especially from local manufacturers. The increasing pace of change and competition, along with evolving customer expectations, means manufacturers need to react faster and with more confidence.”

“Continuous improvement has long been the watchword of manufacturing organisations, especially those in Australia who must compete with overseas manufacturers, which are subject to lower costs and can therefore compete more effectively on price.” 

The company urges manufacturers to invest in transformation, especially in the cloud.

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According to Timmins, manufacturers still need to be reliant on enterprise resource planning systems but need to adapt to the modern agility of the industry which the cloud allows.

 “What hasn’t changed is that enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are still essential for manufacturers.”

“ERP provides visibility, traceability, quality management, and planning capabilities that let manufacturers minimise costs.”

“Manufacturers looking to optimise capacity, respond to market demand, and manage supply chain dynamics tend to benefit from ERP solutions.” 

“Thanks to better data collection and cloud-enabled analytics platforms, manufacturers can get much greater visibility into their businesses and operations.”

The data sources available to manufacturers have become much more diverse and can range from RFID sensors and internet-enabled things to product data and customer/end-user data.”

“The possibility of accessing such a large volume of data can be daunting. Businesses need the right tools and systems to be able to extract, store, analyse, manage, and protect their data.”