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NEW RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS PANDEMIC'S DESTABILIZING EFFECT ON MANUFACTURING AND WHAT COMES NEXT
11 | BIZPRENEUR MIDDLE EAST April 2021
Salesforce has published its first Trends in Manufacturing report, providing insight into some of the issues that global manufacturing leaders currently face and how they plan to adapt to a post-COVID era. It also spotlights the technological innovations that certain manufacturers have embraced in order to feel prepared for the future of their industry.
“As manufacturers recover from the pandemic, it’s clear that there is a digital divide that has left some manufacturers prepared for the future of the industry and others struggling to meet evolving employee, partner and customer expectations,” said Cindy Bolt, SVP, Salesforce Industries.
“Manufacturers need to adopt the mindset of a technology company—moving operations to the cloud, leveraging automation, and creating digital experiences for the customer—to help position their companies for success over the next decade.”
The report details six key findings on the future of manufacturing:
Manufacturers who were impacted by COVID-19 believe customer-facing changes to their business to be permanent.
Manufacturers felt the impact of the pandemic across all lines of business. Many view these changes as permanent — with sales (57%) and customer service capabilities (56%) considered to be the most permanently altered by the surveyed manufacturers.
Lack of data transparency and siloed teams are significant barriers to accurate forecasting.
Manufacturing leaders cite digital transformation as a key priority over next 24 months.
When asked to list top priorities, manufacturers responded that increasing process efficiencies and improving demand planning (both 88%) were among the most urgent changes needed for a business, and they see digital transformation as a way to help. More than half (57%) of manufacturers say that moving their planning processes to the cloud is a critical or high priority.
Manufacturers who feel “very prepared” for the next decade are already mostly in the cloud
Future-ready manufacturers cite rise in channel partner collaboration and mutual benefits as a value to their business.
Nearly half (45%) of manufacturers who feel unprepared for the future have their sales and operation systems located either mostly or completely on premises. The majority (77%) of manufacturers who felt future-ready had at least half of their sales and operation systems in the cloud.
Future-ready manufacturers cite rise in channel partner collaboration and mutual benefits as a value to their business.
According to the report, future-ready manufacturers are nearly twice as likely to be satisfied with their channel partners than unprepared manufacturers (44% prepared manufacturers vs 25% unprepared manufacturers).
Nearly one in three future-ready manufacturers are expanding “servitization” services.
The majority of prepared manufacturers (86%) say that servization is part of their company strategy, with 57% currently offering servization and 29% both offering and expanding these services. The majority of manufacturers (62%) who identified as unprepared do not currently have servitization as part of their strategy.