Organizations are changing and they are looking for new solutions to adopt in order to be competitive, agile, and innovative in the market. Digitally transforming your business means completely changing the approach to your work and how you plan all your activities. For this reason, digital transformation in manufacturing represents a big step to make in a way that was inconceivable a few decades ago.
Obviously, what accelerated the digital transformation has been the Covid-19 pandemic, which put companies in a situation that they have never experienced before. Nowadays, pandemic catalyzed the need to harness technology to aid business efficiency, because otherwise the risk is to be left behind and disappear.
Digital transformation in manufacturing is not easy as it seems, because we are talking about a field, the manufacturing one, where everything is about producing tangible products. It is clear that adopting new technologies in methods of production is not tangible as digitally transform your internal procedures. Nevertheless, since consumers’ habits evolve, so must methods of production. However, we can find barriers to the digital transformation, and these can be:
- Environmental barriers, for example the lack of standards and laws
- Individual barriers which can be the fear of data or job loss, and technology acceptance
- Technical barriers like dependency on other technologies, security issues, and existing infrastructures
- Organizational and cultural barriers, for instance the habit to keep traditional roles or principles; not having a clear vision or strategy, and a resistance to cultural change
- Missing skills that can be the lack of IT and process knowledge; insufficient information about technologies (Vogelsang, Kristin & Liere-Netheler, Kirsten & Packmohr, Sven & Hoppe, Uwe. (2019). Barriers to Digital Transformation in Manufacturing: Development of a Research Agenda. 10.24251/HICSS.2019.594).
Overcoming these challenges is vital to successfully implement digital transformation in manufacturing and to take advantages of the new technologies.
The Benefits that you need
We have just talked about barriers we can meet when we decide to adopt digital procedures in manufacturing, but now let’s concentrate on what kind of benefits you can get once you have overcome those barriers. Success in manufacturing depends on different qualities like foresight, and robust leadership and control on what could be a long, multiyear process.
Embracing these new digital systems means, for instance, improving the operational efficiencies, the supply chain planning, or the inventory cost control. Always considering that every manufacturing hub is different, and it may require various technologies to make the digital step. Let’s see the benefits you can get from digital transformation in manufacturing:
- Reduce costs. Using digital technologies allows you to diagnose and resolve issues and reduce downtimes. As a matter of fact, diagnosing problems before they arise and planning predictive maintenance enables to avoid any waste of time and loss of productivity.
- Increase efficiencies of processes. Thanks to hyperautomation, you can reduce human errors from their manufacturing processes. In fact, robots can work continually without taking a break, because they do not get tired, so they also increase the productivity level.
- Innovate your business. By investing on new digital manufacturing technology, you increase your employee collaboration, your connectivity, and your predictive analytics. In this way, you eliminate silos by interweaving planning and development.
- Resiliency. Through the use of automation, you can anticipate and respond promptly to the challenges of the new economic environment. Be resilient allows you to stay competitive and to thrive in difficult circumstances.
- Eco friendly. Clearly, reducing energy consumption through a careful and digital approach is the key to avoid waste of material and to have an incredibly positive attitude towards the environment.
- Increase customer satisfaction. Digital manufacturing helps increase brand awareness, and at the same time it helps businesses provide more customer-specific solutions.
Digitally transform you company is not only adopting new technologies, but it also means searching new ways to innovate your value chain and create an enjoyable and productive environment for your employees. Having the right mix between people and advanced processes represents a big boost to deliver value to customers. For this reason, focusing on improving your internal business processes is now crucial.
A Digital Transformation for your Workforce
To deliver the best possible product, it is essential to have well-organized processes among the various departments of your enterprise. In this sense, TDox embodies the right choice to do to support your workforce in all its activities. TDox is a multiexperience development platform (MXDP) that enables you to centralize your activities in one platform, avoiding dispersive organization. One single app that can be used from different devices such as smartphones, tablets, or computers.
TDox offers digital tools that can facilitate the digital transformation in manufacturing through the use of automation which can make your workforce activities easier than ever. In fact, TDox harnesses the low code technology to provide to your IT department the possibility to create apps, which will be used to digitize processes, in a simpler and faster manner. As a result of this, you have access to a drag-and-drop tool to make the creation of apps even more immediate. Additionally, TDox has a high level of customization that consents you to personalize your applications exactly as you wish, adding colors, logos, and all the features that you need.
Furthermore, TDox has a camera integration that means that it is integrated with the camera of your mobile device (smartphone or tablet), so you can take pictures to make more detailed reports and read barcodes. This is a very helpful tool that simplifies these kinds of activities to your employees who have to write reports or read barcodes, reducing mistakes and increasing their satisfaction.
Then, since TDox aims to digitize the internal processes of your business, there is another significant feature: TDox can be used offline. Actually, its engine is native offline, that means it is set on your mobile device. Indeed, if your employees have to work in places where connection is low, they can keep doing it without any speed complications and without the fear of losing all data. They only have to synchronize data as soon as they get access to an internet connection. Is not a big advantage for your workforce?
In the end, do not forget that TDox has a cloud archive. All your documents can be saved on TDox cloud (XP Cloud) which is managed by our team, freeing you up from updates and other problems. Otherwise, you can use your cloud (Private Cloud) to get your own customized version of the software hosted on your cloud.
Don’t Get Wrong and Choose TDox
As we said, choosing TDox means having a specific attention to the internal processes of your company which will help you to get all the benefits of digital transformation in manufacturing. This is a big difference between TDox and all the other software, because they mostly aim to propose solutions for the final consumer, but they do not focus on the internal business processes that happen before the product is available on the market.
Facing the digital transformation can be done just with a software like TDox which guarantees high standard levels, great accuracy, and an increase of efficiency.
Thanks to our peculiar application development, we help you to achieve your rapid development goals. Our technicians are here to support you and lead you to create your own automation process.
Do not hesitate to contact us to know more about TDox and what it can do for you. Furthermore, if you are interested in seeing what TDox looks like in action, request a free demo, and discover a new world of opportunities. We’re low coding your business apps!
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