Are You Putting Technology To Good Use? 4 Tips To Help Your Manufacturer Clients Deliver IT Operations Efficiently

By Colleen Smith, Vice President, Progress Software

Manufacturing requires precision, no matter what type of product is being developed. Yet in today’s technologically advanced world, many manufacturers are finding that their IT operations are not as efficient as they should be. And it seems like every day there’s a “new” product or solution that they must have to compete in the marketplace. This leaves operators wondering how and if they can improve upon some of the more critical functions with existing technologies. The answer is, of course, yes!

Historically, the quick-fix has always been more manpower. The thought process is understandable: more people (aka “power”) usually equals more resources to monitor business practices, identify weak areas, and find ways to strengthen them. However, sometimes it’s helpful to take a step back and further examine the problem. That is, to distance yourself enough to determine if what/how they are utilizing technology is in fact helping or hindering their performance. For example, how is your manufacturing client using analytics today? If those systems are not up to par — which can be done pretty easily these days — they could be missing out on data that could very quickly be turned into valuable information for making better business decisions.

Surprisingly, the lack of efficiency is often the result of something that started off positive, like significant growth for the company (whether organically or through acquisitions) or implementation of a new system that was customized to the point of being too complex to understand. In this scenario, fixes that seem intuitive are frequently ineffective and can even be counter-productive.

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