March 3, 2023 Top Trends in the Industrial Manufacturing Complex

Continuous digital improvements untangle enterprise-wide business systems and processes while fueling success.

By Peter Pearce, Principal, Baker Tilly Digital

The U.S. Industrial Manufacturing Complex (IMC) continues to drive economic growth. Its success is fueled by continuous digital improvements that help untangle enterprise-wide business systems and processes.

The IMC includes diverse industries and final products, ranging from aircraft carriers to custom circuit boards. Many IMC companies service and support their products post-production. Their complicated structures require technical solutions.

Historically, the associated business technologies required to support the core needs of the IMC enterprise were developed locally, limited in functionality, poorly implemented, or difficult to use. Over time, the additions and complexities required ad-hoc integrations and spot functionality solutions.

These challenges created today’s tangled web of IMC enterprises. Fortunately, the IMC can reinvent an organization’s digital experience by focusing on five areas.

Retaining and redeploying top talent

Talent is paramount to the success of IMC enterprises. Talent drives innovation, allowing top companies to thrive during challenging times. Today these resources are limited and constrained – but the need for skilled talent continues to grow.

There are several areas to invest in talent to help aid in retention and growth, including deploying leading talent management processes to distill a culture of performance feedback and review. The framework of solid human capital processes is critical. Positive environments and employee engagement enhance the desire for top talent to stay.

Modern talent management solutions can aid with performance feedback assessments and career development goals. Leveraging leading human capital cloud applications can enhance the talent management process and help retain and redeploy top talent.   

Addressing supply chain improvements

Raw and component material disruptions due to the pandemic caused enterprises to reassess their supply chains. The Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) and Science Act (H.R.4346) passed last August in response to the semiconductor supply chain shortage. The act bolsters American manufacturing, supply chains, and national security, and invests in research and development, science and technology, and the workforce, to position the U.S. as a leader in future industries like nanotechnology, clean energy, quantum computing, and artificial intelligence.

Best practices suggest IMC companies should focus on:

• Incorporating advanced analytics and predictive modeling solutions to aid in the “true” planning and modeling of supply chain demand and supply by leveraging data in all directions of the supply chain for more accurate planning and scheduling.
• Nearshoring and reshoring manufacturing operations domestically to avoid future supply chain disruptions.
• Installing RFID tags for tracking products in the field, incorporating software and performance software in products, and using GPS improves customer support by assisting service teams in providing field maintenance and support.
• Implementing project-based cloud enterprise resource planning, asset management, and field service solutions to replace the web of complex technical solutions currently servicing the enterprise, allowing talent to access these enterprise systems from anywhere, anytime with cloud business solutions. 

Driving data-based analytic decisions

IMC enterprises excel at the collection and storage of massive amounts of data. However, only a few know how to leverage these “gold mines” of the information. Analytical solutions that harness the data mines aid in the visual consumption of “real” costing information, customer performance, supplier performance, financial performance, and operational performance. This allows factually based decision-making for business and process improvement. 

Incorporating shop floor manufacturing execution systems to integrate into the manufacturing and operating assets allows IMC enterprises to harness real-time data to aid in reducing downtime, fractional downtime, and inefficiency identification. 

Reducing operating costs

The replacement of legacy software applications with a comprehensive, integrated cloud business offerings provides the foundation for continued cost improvements and operational efficiencies. Focusing on the deployment of Industry 4.0 and associated automation helps address the talent shortage by replacing activities historically performed by the skilled workforce, reducing errors, and increasing production efficiency. 

Designing and deploying a predictive maintenance solution with the four walls of operations will assist the organization in identifying and avoiding costly downtime by identifying trends in asset and operational performance and addressing mechanical and tooling issues in advance. 

Untangling the webs of complex operating and business technical solutions

The final initiative is to unravel the complexity and focus on the core areas of the business. Initiating a strategic Digital business plan will help eliminate standalone technologies.

Harnessing solutions aligned to streamline the complexities of the business allows talent to focus on essential business aspects – selling, making, and servicing the products it makes without concerns about the technologies required to make it happen.

The future characterization of IMC in the United States depends on talent focus, increased supply chain automation, greater use of analytics, cloud business technology adherence, and a focus on flexibility and agility. Enterprises that address these trends will support talent management, supply chain planning, and data analytics needs while reducing the complexity of operations, thus streamlining the business model accordingly. 

Peter Pearce is a principal in the Digital practice of Baker Tilly with more than 30 years of experience in business information solutions and 17 focused on cloud solutions across multiple global manufacturing industries. Peter has extensive experience in Digital strategy and designing, configuring, and deploying the enabling cloud solutions driving leading manufacturing enterprises.

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