Six Common Data Management Mistakes That Manufacturers Make

“All too often, companies execute a data management strategy without understanding how it fits into the overall business strategy.”

Data alone has the power to make or break a company, depending on how it’s used. The manufacturing industry is changing with evolving technology and businesses are relying on their data to stay competitive. With increasing demands to simultaneously reduce time-to-market and keep up with suppliers, distributors, and end users, manufacturers often find that their mismanaged data is working against them. Most, if not all, of these challenges stem from leveraging the wrong system, or one that is unable to access, interpret, combine and present data so it can be used effectively to drive positive business outcomes.

Read More at Manufacturing.Net >

The Path to Manufacturing Innovation is Paved With Exponential Technologies

“The velocity of technology advancement, especially for the manufacturing industry, is exponential.”

Exponential technologies provide the scalability that modern businesses often lack with their legacy technologies and outdated practices. Industrial manufacturers are focusing on these technologies as a foundational approach to innovation across both products and processes. In this era of rapidly accelerating transformation, organizations of all types must develop the ability to innovate rapidly, or get left behind by the competition. Today’s manufacturing is focused on technology-driven innovation that enables businesses to build new capabilities and develop new products and services. Exponential technologies have the capability to optimize processes and controls across production and operations, providing manufacturers with a major advantage.

Read More from Deloitte Insights >

The Art of War: How Successful Manufacturers Arm Their Business with Analytics

Similar to martial arts, business success is all about perspective. Instead of focusing on the capabilities their organization lacks, business leaders should understand what they can do with what they have. First, they must find the tools that best-fit their business. Smart leaders arm their company with analytics and machine learning that provide critical insights that protect their margins and business. Martial arts and an analytics platform share the common thread of awareness. This allows business leaders to not only report on what is happening, but also predict what is likely to happen and plan accordingly. This prevents rash decisions that will negatively impact the business. Modern analytics platforms enable businesses to respond rather than react to anything that comes their way.

Read More at Industry Week >

Gaining Actionable Business Insights Through Continuous KPI Reporting

As organizations continue to put greater emphasis on facts-based decision making, ensuring relevant measures and timely access to data becomes increasingly important. Often organizations will pinpoint a handful of key performance indicators (KPIs) to gauge the organization’s operational performance. The reporting structure for these KPIs is critical in allowing decision makers to the pulse of their business by identifying performance issues and drill-down to identify opportunities for improvement. Best-practice manufacturing organizations understand that consistently tracking operational and financial KPIs directly related to profitability and productivity are key in gaining actionable and accurate insights into their business.

Read More at Industry Week >

Manufacturing Finance of the Future: The Digital CFO

 “The CFO function within manufacturing organizations needs to make significant changes to enable companies to meet the challenges of the shift to digital manufacturing, Industry 4.0, smart manufacturing, or any one of the other associated names.”

Efforts to adapt finance functions to digital manufacturing has become a priority for modern CFOs in the industry. Manufacturers of all sizes are connecting finance directly to digital manufacturing’s data-rich environment with cutting-edge data analytics, revising strategic plans and accounting practices to incorporate new approaches to the market, and building new partnerships and finance arrangements with technology and equipment suppliers. The key to accomplishing this is developing the data analytics and systems capability to achieve real-time managerial costing and other business analytics and finding the flexibility and means to adapt the manufacturing business model and management capability to a digital Industry 4.0 world.

Read More at Strategic Finance Magazine >