In this Article
From Starbucks’ cup, lid, and flavored syrup shortages to dwindling car inventories, most industries are experiencing shortages or disruptions because of the pandemic. Though some industries have been hit harder than others, many that operate complex supply chains, like manufacturing, have been hit especially hard. This is due to manufacturing production being more vulnerable to disruption from shortages of supporting materials and supplies from other businesses.
We are all living in a disrupted world, and to get through it, we need to help each other. In this blog (and in the following Navigating Disruptions Series), learn how to navigate disruptions with agility, resiliency, and with a dash of technology.
Get Visibility & Adapt: No Matter What
Whether you are experiencing rising demand, a slowdown in demand or you’re in-between, gaining visibility is key to adapt to these challenges. Read below to see how visibility and digital technologies can help your company – no matter what situation you’re experiencing.
Rising Demand
This current environment is difficult to forecast and see what is going to happen next, but it is not impossible. Taking your present experiences can help you increase your visibility with help from digital technologies. For example, a company that is experiencing an increase in demand can use digital technologies to gain visibility across their whole supply chain network as they begin to ramp up their production. This visibility into their whole supply chain can provide important information like a lack in inventory for a specific part. So, by knowing about the lack of the part, a manufacturer has a chance to consider multi-sourcing the part before going to production (and possibly delaying the assembly-line due to missing parts).
Slowdown in Demand
Another example can be seen with a company that is experiencing a slowdown in demand. This company would benefit from increasing visibility into their operations. Using digital technologies to gain better information control into manufacturing processes, the company can focus on cost-cutting opportunities and can quickly adjust costs to weather the lower demand.
Those In-Between
The Rise of Digital Fluency
Using digital technologies to help manufacturers become disruption-proof is no secret. In Deloitte’s postelection poll, 76% of manufacturing executives said that they intend to increase their investments in digital initiatives. So, whether you are trying to gain visibility into your supply chain or gain more understanding into your operations, digital technologies are a critical tool.
Become Disruption Proof with Digital Production
Learn more about how digital production can help you become disruption proof in our ebook: The Digital Factory.
Download the ebook to learn about …
- How to take the production process to digital
- The 5 benefits to a digital manufacturing solution
- How to increase capacity with a mobile solution
- And more!