The contemporary climate of unprecedented and incessant change has transpired an unexpected wake up call for companies in the manufacturing industry. Companies centralised within this arena have arrived at a set of cross roads – where they either compete in the race to digital transformation or reap potential negative consequences in not doing so. Those that take advantage of the emerging technologies existing today have the ability to reinvent themselves into data-driven consumer-centric organisations. Now, more than ever, companies globally are required to not only be agile but demonstrate the ability to successfully adapt to the ceaseless changes in industry trends materialising within this complex marketplace. There is no doubt that monumental opportunities will surface for companies who seek to ride the wave of digital transformation.
One of the main areas of pressure stimulating this shift in strategy results from an observed shift in demographic, in both industry customers and employees. This shift has subsequently highlighted a noticeable skills gap among manufacturing company employees.
A recent report published by Dynamic Signal indicates that close to one-third of all manufacturing customers are millennials, millennials whose worlds are dominated solely by the immense power of the digital landscape. Consequently, they are programmed to buy products, engage with social platforms and obtain information at an unparalleled rate. When engaging with brands this demographic have expectations that go well beyond that of the generations that came before them. If we isolate this and look at it through a different lens, the way that millennials as employees want to interact with other businesses would be in the same nature, and businesses that do not facilitate ease of operations and immediate access to information are no longer competitive within the industry.
Manufacturing companies have encountered an era of dramatic change, and in order to survive, are encouraged to press reset on all they once knew. They now compete in a world where the standards they are held too are not just an option, they’re a necessity.