digital manufacturing, adaptive ERP, quality management, risk management, pandemic

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic isn’t over. Manufacturers continue to face potentially indefinite remote work policies, new health screening and safety protocols, unexpected demand swings, potential supply disruptions and more. Digital manufacturing couldn’t be more important or necessary for maintaining business continuity and responding to change.

QAD Director of Product Marketing Brent Dawkins explains in the March 2021 issue of ERP News how the impact of COVID-19 continues to challenge manufacturers up and down the supply chain and the importance of digital manufacturing, even after the pandemic.

What is “Digital Manufacturing”?

Digital manufacturing is a fully integrated approach that manufacturers can leverage for planning, scheduling, quality management, cost control, material movement and shop floor operations. It means manufacturers are able to turn to digital technologies to make their shop floor more efficient. Digital manufacturing delivers improved communications, analysis and real-time data to meet performance objectives. And when it comes to digital transformation, an adaptive ERP plays an extensive role in supporting manufacturers that leverage technologies such as robotic process automation (RPA), machine learning and digital twins to gain and maintain their competitive position.

Common characteristics of digital manufacturing reflect the degree to which a manufacturer’s operations are intelligent with real-time information, innovative with new technologies that generate business insights, and agile and able enough to respond to disruptions without losing productivity and quality.

In addition to these characteristics, digital manufacturing enables manufacturers to identify disruption, address any business changes, then pivot to turn that disruption into a competitive advantage. Forward-thinking manufacturers need an ERP that deals with disruptions such as mergers, acquisitions, globalization, port strikes and other events. In the current pandemic situation, businesses are using ERP and other digital technologies to maintain global operations, respond to spikes and shortages, and collaborate on solutions with suppliers.

Manufacturing During the Pandemic

Undoubtedly, the COVID-19 pandemic is unlike any disruption manufacturers have ever faced. Manufacturing managers routinely prepare for unplanned events with risk assessment and management processes, especially in the automotive industry. QAD’s Enterprise Quality Management System (EQMS), for example, streamlines risk management by automating the identification of risk issues, their consequences, current controls and treatments to mitigate risk.

Examples of Where Digital Transformation Can Have an Impact

Brent writes about four areas where manufacturing ERP and digital transformation can stimulate operational efficiencies and business agility. These include:

Demand and Supply Chain Planning

Future product demand and supply planning is affected by a variety of factors including seasonal trends, changing customer buying patterns, unexpected weather events and competitive product innovation. Unfortunately, many manufacturers are using outdated demand patterns to inform their planning processes rather than utilizing the real-time data delivered by digital technology. The QAD DynaSys Digital Supply Chain Planning (DSCP) solution equips manufacturers with the digital technology to develop supply chain plans and forecasts collaboratively, ensuring synchronization among strategic goals, sales forecasts and operations.

Supplier Collaboration

An efficient supply chain optimized by digital technologies results in better connectivity and collaboration with raw materials, transportation and logistics, packaging and supplies. Earlier notification of supply chain disruptions makes the difference between product availability and dissatisfied customers. Real-time supply chain intelligence relating to inventory levels, quality standards, compliance requirements, and shipping status gives trading partners the agility to make accurate and reliable decisions and plans when uncertainties and disruptions occur.

Shop Floor Connectivity

Without real-time data integrated into shop floor operations, planning can become short-sighted and incomplete. With digital manufacturing technologies, management gains direct connections to production equipment and captures live production statistics. Decision-making benefits from transparency into operations, and like dominoes, inventory levels are reduced, customer responsiveness improves and overall enterprise agility is raised.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, shop floor operators and material handlers struggle to enjoy the “work-from-home” option. Manufacturers are tasked with determining the best mix of staff resources while securing the health and safety protocols brought on by the pandemic. A digital ERP that is adaptive can provide actionable insights with the operation data manufacturers already have to further satisfy customer expectations. Having this integrated information along with production analytics improves efficiency and helps maintain business continuity with a minimized staffing pattern.

Timely Business Insights

All manufacturers want and need business visibility, particularly those confounded by outdated or siloed solutions. Manufacturers thrive with agile, effective collaboration strategies that provide accessible and actionable data. The results are more innovation, a more effective supply chain and greater customer satisfaction.

Maintaining Resilience After the Pandemic

Yes, we are still finding ourselves in a pandemic, but what about after? In his article, Brent explains that “while uncertainties remain in the foreseeable future, manufacturers should increase their operational resiliency and take a hard look at their current digital manufacturing and next-generation ERP capabilities. This includes reviewing current supply chain networks and production operations to foster more agility throughout the business. It also includes adding digital manufacturing technology for intelligent insights and to drive increased ability to flex production and resources as needed.”

The post-pandemic environment will undoubtedly continue with disruptions and volatility. In order to survive and remain competitive, it is vital that digital manufacturing be incorporated into the business roadmap.

Check out Brent’s full article, “COVID Environment Illustrates the Importance of Digital Manufacturing” in the March 2021 issue of ERP News.

2 COMMENTS

  1. Very interesting article. Many markets and economies will surely take a long time to return to their pre-pandemic state.

  2. This digital and data integration revolution has the potential to help industries develop. And, in the current circumstances, another revolution is required for the expansion of our industry, companies are offering integrated manufacturing management solutions which can transform the entire industry. Thank you for your insights.

LEAVE A REPLY