Sourcing professionals and engineers today rely heavily on digitized comprehensive product data to use in their manufacturing process. Whenever they require data, it has to be available fast enough.
If you are into manufacturing and you rely on phone calls and your website whenever you need new data, you need to ask yourself whether these are the most convenient ways to get data.
What about your customers? According to a study by Forrester Research, an omnichannel approach delivers many advantages for manufactures. An omnichannel approach is fully integrated and will provide your customers with a seamless experience that they can’t get elsewhere.
That’s not all. Here is a list of five other things you need to know as a manufacturer.
1. You Need More Than a Website
As the years go by, the manufacturing industry is getting more and more complex. This means simple product descriptions or reviews may not be enough for customers who want more information about your product to help them make informed decisions as to whether it is the best fit for their needs. Customers want detailed eCatalogues, 2D drawings, and 3D models that can help them have a feel of what you have on offer.
A website alone may not serve this purpose to the satisfaction of your customers. What may help you, in this case, is a dynamic eCatalogue, which you should make available for both your customers and your distributors.
With an eCatalogue, both your potential and current customers will find it easy to order your products to use them in their projects.
2. Build a Convenient Communication Channel
Customers need instant, detailed information about products. If your company can not supply such information, they’ll have no option but to look elsewhere, and that’ll mean you’ll lose them to your competitors.
Because technology has broken communication barriers and information can flow freely on several channels (email, desktop, mobile, etc.), customers won’t accept any form of communication that isn’t in line with their specification and design needs. In essence, what customers want is that they should be able to communicate with you using a channel of their choice, a channel that’s convenient for them, not for you.
What this means is that it’s upon you to avail of a variety of channels that your customers can choose from. Having a variety of communication channels will also help you deal easily with your distributors and suppliers.
3. Use Project Management Tools
The benefits of project management tools in the manufacturing industry need not be overemphasized. As your company grows, there’ll be lots of operations that can’t be managed manually.
A project management tool will help you schedule your activities and monitor the progress of your projects. This way, it will ensure minimal lead times without compromising the quality of your products, especially if you source the services from a reputable company like EAD corporate. Project management tools help with:
- Easy planning
- Cost-effective task management
- Seamless team workflow
- Shared calendars, documents, and contacts
- Precise project tracking
- Showing real-time staff and equipment availability
- Scheduling staff
Project management tools can be accessed using mobile devices, can be web-based, or can be installed locally. They usually come with security features to ensure that only authorized employees can use them.
4. The Better Your Content is, the Higher You’ll Rank
The fact that you are dealing with an eCatalogue, expanding your communication channels, and signing up for project management tools doesn’t mean you can neglect your website. It is your website that ties everything else in one place for ease of access by your potential and current clients.
For this reason, your website must be professionally designed and must have all the information about your company and the products you deal with. But then again, you need to have a way of attracting visitors to your website. You can do this by creating high-quality SEO content and post them on your website to generate qualifying traffic. You can also integrate your website with your social media platforms to bring in more traffic.
5. Humans Vs. Machines
Technology is currently replacing humans in certain product lines. In a bid to cut costs, many manufacturers are automating their production processes and laying off workers. Well, it is a good idea to automate. That’s why you need to identify the areas in your production process where automation can be feasible.
Automation may be a costly investment, but it will pay in the long run. Nevertheless, automation can not replace all humans in your company. So as you automate, you must identify your best employees so you can retain them.
Technology is dynamic, and what’s trending today may be outdated in the next few months or years. That’s why you need to keep yourself up to date with the current technological trends so you can pick relevant ones and implement them.
