Manufacturing has been a traditional, rigid industry that aims to improve efficiency. However, the recent pandemic has shown that this cannot continue.
These businesses need to make use of the data and digital platforms available to them to ensure that their revenue streams can keep up with the fluctuations in the highly variable demand cycle. Technology is the support structure.
Recent pandemics have already led to a refocus on local production. PPE equipment, medicines, and medical devices are leading the way. There are ongoing digital transformation projects that aim to improve flexibility.
As market conditions change, a new level of agility is needed across the business. Manufacturers are required to adapt to changing market conditions. Many have adopted new business models to generate new revenue streams.
New business models that create new revenue streams are a way to reduce risk and increase growth. Manufacturers must be able to adapt to these’strong economic headwinds’ and to accommodate any disruption. This is the new normal.
Manufacturers must look beyond the product they produce and focus on how they sell to customers and prospects based on their preferences.
COVID-19 showed that many companies’ operational models are not flexible enough to deal with huge fluctuations under pressure. It is clear that digital selling channels will be a priority over traditional customer engagement activities.
B2B2C eCommerce is here
Many manufacturers are now realising they need to be geared up to offer a self-sufficient eCommerce channel embracing a business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C) model better serving customer demands.
They cannot assume that selling and marketing is the responsibility of their distributors and dealers. Instead, they must strive to understand and respond faster to consumer behaviours and business trends to improve the customer’s buying experience.
It is not an option to talk about changing their sales structure.
Consumers expect transparency more than ever and value the’social scoringcard’ of a brand’s entire supply chain including manufacturers and their competitors when making purchasing decision.
They expect personalisation, speed, and consistency when engaging across multiple channels and possibly across multiple geographies.
Companies are investing more in emerging technologies like machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI). These technologies support digital transformation and allow them be more responsive, proactive, and predictive to customer requirements, to be agile to changing market conditions, and to stay ahead.
The “new” manufacturing
As manufacturers move through the rest of the year, and beyond, they will seek to spread risk across multiple sources as they go.
Sales and customer data are crucial to enable manufacturers to understand the impact disruptions have across all channels and to better predict future trends in demand.
We’ve seen many industries in manufacturing pivot to improve profitability when confronted with disruption.
The supply chain disruption has been a major problem for the chemicals industry. Over the past several years, mass chemical manufacturers have been moving to China.
A single source of supply is seen as a risk in the current climate of pandemics. Companies are now looking at multiple sources to offset this risk. This has implications for raw materials costs in a constantly changing environment.
