What are the primary challenges faced by manufacturing companies?
Are there ways to overcome those issues? Read the Details in this Post!
In Brief:
The Covid-19 pandemic has caused manufacturers and “supply chain companies” to experience consistent changes and uncertainties. There has been a significant fluctuation in demand, preventing companies from accurately forecast.
Manufacturing companies experience various challenges, including inventory problems, leading to instability, a growing concern for companies in multiple industries.
Warehouse management has become even more complex and complicated in the midst of the pandemic, economic recession, rising inflation, and the Russia-Ukraine war. Most manufacturing companies can’t stay organized amid chaos.
Innovation in technology goes a long way in assisting organizations in handling challenges. Likewise, increased consumer demand, ineffective resources, disrupted supply chains, and shortage of skilled labor are other significant problems faced by manufacturers.
The manufacturing industry is the backbone of socioeconomic development because it helps modernize production, agriculture, technology, etc. At the same time, it reduces the heavy dependence of people on industrial income by providing employment opportunities to secondary and tertiary sectors.
Industrial development and sustainability are directly proportional to unemployment eradication and poverty reduction in countries across the globe. So, this is the primary philosophy behind joint sector ventures in various countries, including the public and private sectors.
Manufacturing companies are a critical contributor to any country’s economy because they are responsible for numerous things consumers use daily, from TVs to laptops to cars and bridges, etc.
Other industries, including agriculture, healthcare, eCommerce, supply chain, food and beverage, and hospitality, rely on the manufacturing industry to streamline their businesses. However, the manufacturing industry itself experiences a wide range of challenges. Today’s article will list and explain the top ten concerns of manufacturers. Read on!
1. Inadequate Marketing Research
Trends in how consumers spend their money continuously change. Customers have evolved their attitudes and behaviors regarding selecting and purchasing products they need.
An increasing number of people in the 21st century are aware of the manufacturing process of products and goods. Consumers want ethically manufactured products and goods.
Previously, consumers followed a trend of saving money on purchasing products. However, today, the case is entirely different. Companies offshore their operations to businesses and industries in foreign countries, mainly where labor is reliable and cheap. However, offshoring often results in low-quality and less ethically made products.
The primary reason is that manufacturers do not implement sophisticated ways and tools to conduct market research. Therefore, manufacturing companies must update their strategies and drift around the market.
When you review the market conditions, you gain valuable data. Next, you use technology tools to analyze and evaluate data, allowing you to generate valuable insights. These insights help you make informed decisions and grow your business.
2. Inappropriate Inventory Management
Most companies find it challenging to perform accurate, reliable, and cost-effective inventory management. Managing inventories is a burden for most businesses in the manufacturing sector. The primary challenge for companies is to run a hectic business while updating inventories simultaneously.
Most manufacturing companies feel overwhelmed by this problem because keeping track of all stocks and everything in the directory is daunting, time-consuming, and frustrating. The situation worsens when your company keeps track of everything on an ongoing basis.
In addition, if you fail to manage inventories, you won’t streamline your projects. So, this will immediately and directly impact your market orders and prices. Overcoming this issue requires you to implement an inventory management tool.
For example, you can invest in modern technologies, such as manufacturing ERP software, to optimize inventory management and mitigate risks/errors related to stocks. Such software automates inventory management and streamlines projects’ timelines, allowing you to focus on other critical business tasks.
3. Slow Digital Transformation
All businesses use technological tools to improve their operations. The manufacturing industry is highly competitive, and not adopting modern technologies or improving digital visibility can prevent you from stepping up in every industry domain.
Consumers want reliable, efficient, fast solutions and products for their problems. So, it would help if you had digital transformation to compete with other companies and develop new capabilities based on real-time data analysis.
Digital tools can help your company optimize its product development lifestyle. It connects product design and production while stimulating collaboration and empowering teams to make informed decisions.
4. Rising Inflation Trends
Whether you run a small or large manufacturing company, inflation will take a massive toll on your organization through cost increases, contract-based constraints, and labor shifts. These issues negatively affect inventory and capital purchases. The inflation due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war is a serious concern for manufacturing companies.
Not only does inflation affect raw materials prices, but it also causes companies to increase employees’ salaries. The good news is that manufacturing teams can model product design using eco-friendly materials and adopt a reshoring strategy to reduce costs.
5. Lack of Talented Workforce
Most manufacturing companies worldwide experience a lack of skilled workforce. While numerous factors exist, the primary reason is that millennials and Gen Z misinterpret business strategies while senior professionals retire.
Recent research studies have shown that 22% of employees in manufacturing companies will retire in the next ten years. However, companies can overcome this issue or correct young workers’ misinterpretations by implementing training and development programs.
The purpose is to let young employees learn about business and become skilled workers. Collaborating with educational institutions is another way to resolve this issue. Schools/colleges offer training, development, and guidance programs.
The primary objective of these programs is to overcome labor problems and bridge the gap between senior professionals and young workers. Likewise, companies can incorporate technology to go beyond the traditional upskilling or retraining programs and resolve the shortage of skilled laborers.
We recommend embedding activities and workflows with real-time advice, automated procedures, and digital communication to train new and young workers and change their mindset to become more productive, skilled, and experienced employees in the manufacturing industry.
Training and development programs in the manufacturing sector can help new employees learn the skill they require in their current roles. At the same time, it helps them improve leadership skills, software knowledge, and strategies to overcome modern problems in the manufacturing industry.
6. Low Revenues and Profits
Increasing sales and earnings become more challenging for a manufacturing company as the business grows. Most companies find it difficult to deal with increasing volumes of finished goods. However, manufacturing companies can deal with such a situation by rethinking and modifying their production processes.
For instance, businesses can assess the situation using real-time data and keep everything on the right track. When revenues boost, you must focus on compensation because increased sales indicate high product demand.
Therefore, you must strengthen your workload to improve the process of production of goods. If you want to streamline your revenues and achieve more profits, you must focus on the following:
Product Quality
Production costs
Production efficiency
Flexibility
Lead times
Agility
Location
Capacity or low asset utilization
Scalability
Compliance with regulations
Customer support service
Valuable proposition strategy
Environmental impacts
Revenue generation strategies
Maintaining workplace staff
Retaining employees
Staying competitive in the market
Thus, you can overcome the problem of drawing relevant, comprehensive, and data-driven insights in all operating parameters. There is a lot of uncertainty in the business world driven by the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russian-Ukrainian war. So, generating insights based on historical, real-time data and intelligent decision-making is crucial.
7. Ineffective Relationships with Suppliers
Ineffective communication, collaboration, and the relationship between suppliers and companies reduce sales and profits. For example, when the manufacturing company and supplier do not have a reliable relationship, it will result in miscommunication and inefficient collaboration, leading to income loss.
Therefore, you must strengthen collaboration with suppliers to streamline the process and leverage the advantages. For example, you can ask for advice from suppliers and, in return, help them in optimizing various projects/tasks. It is a two-way road, so make sure you seek and provide help to your partners in business.
Moreover, cooperation on product specifications and associated data are critical to your manufacturing company’s success and reliable partnership between your organization and suppliers. You must focus on data cooperation and architecture to remove costly delays and improve business operations.
8. Increased Maintenance Costs
Increased maintenance costs are one of the most significant concerns for manufacturing companies. Your business becomes more complex as it grows. So, the problems you face will become more complicated.
We recommend evaluating everything, from policies to employees to equipment and tools. The purpose is to ensure everything functions smoothly. Another obstacle companies experience maintaining equipment and machinery.
Businesses in the manufacturing sector that fail to keep their machinery operational experience a loss of revenues due to insufficient production. So, maintaining the manufacturing equipment is essential, but this can cost a lot of money.
Therefore, go through the entire process and determine the machinery maintenance cost. You can reshore business operations to prevent or reduce maintenance costs.
On the other hand, we recommend determining obstacles, understanding which equipment, machine, and tools require more attention, and reorganizing the factory/workplace plan to overcome these problems.
9. Navigating Through Globalization
Most leaders in the manufacturing industry think that globalization positively impacts business. Although this is true, navigating through new procedures in globalization is challenging for many companies in the manufacturing sector.
Globalization enables companies to pick raw materials suppliers and reach a broader audience. However, the problem comes with streamlining supply chain operations. Companies find it challenging to select and partner with reliable supply chain companies.
Moreover, the business environment in 2022 is highly competitive due to globalization. Remember, other businesses in the same sector want to leverage the same opportunities. So, it would help if you found ways to overcome the challenges posed by globalization.
One way to overcome this issue is by expanding your operations to other countries and strengthening your social media visibility. It would be best if you had the latest tools to navigate the complexities of global trade.
10. Automation Issues
Businesses in the manufacturing industry use different technologies, such as machine sensors, to collect massive volumes of data. Remember that this innovation has shifted job roles in the manufacturing sector.
While organizations heavily rely on technology tools, most companies fail to implement the correct ones. We recommend manufacturing companies invest in tools based on artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to automate processes.
At the same time, you must provide adequate training and development to employees on how to work with advanced tools. The purpose is to help your IT teams innovate, develop, and adapt cutting-edge technologies.
As owner or CEO of the manufacturing company, you must make solid plans to implement automation tools and eventually focus on retaining and reskilling your employees to ensure their knowledge aligns with the latest technology tools.
Final Words
The manufacturing industry is among the most significant employers in the United States. While this industry experienced rapid growth in the last couple of decades, it has suffered from a wide range of issues, as discussed in this post. We have also mentioned solutions for each problem to help manufacturers stay afloat in the business world. Until Next Time!
Patrick is passionate about manufacturing and operational efficiency. He brings creative ideas to the table seeking to improve business processes. He enjoys forward thinking and innovation initiatives. Patrick navigated through most business functions learning how to address pain points recommending paths for problem resolution and sustainable way forward.
