ANALYTICS NEED FOR MANUFACTURING ORGANIZATIONS
Why It Is Necessary?
Many manufacturing organizations face stiff competitive challenges. Existing competitors are introducing disruptive products at a frenetic pace. New competitors are entering our markets at an alarming rate. Most importantly, customers (or potential customers) are armed with detailed information that increases margin pressures.
The customers have dynamic expectations from your manufacturing company. For example, if you are an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) that produces automobiles, your customers will want new features fitted into the vehicle. So you need to think about how to procure such accessories for the new vehicles. For this purpose, you may use analytics to analyze which type of accessories was liked by most buyers and eventually boosted sales.
Larger manufacturing companies have been employing analytics solutions for many years. It was easy for them to cost justify the investment because of the scale and scope of their enterprise. Due to the complexity and cost of implementing an analytics solution, mid-market manufacturers have been slow to adopt analytics. Having said that, advances in cloud-based solutions have made it possible to cost effectively implement powerful analytics solutions in a matter of weeks. Mid-market manufacturers are now able to invest in analytics to enhance their decision-making and maximize overall effectiveness.
Both external and internal data have been growing exponentially for over a decade. Even mid-market companies are struggling to consolidate all the information required to support data-driven decision making. Analytics can be used to develop strategic plans as well as measure the execution against set goals.
Why Analytics for Manufacturing Organizations?
Actionable Insights
Analytics provides actionable insights that answers important business questions.
Which product lines are yielding lower margins?
Which suppliers are most likely to disrupt our production?
What is the competitive landscape on sales incentives for specific products?
How can we predict and manage the levers that drive sales?
Since products are usually at the core of a manufacturing business, the primary trend of analytics is often directed at enhancing product sales and development. Other common areas of focus consist of optimizing the supply chain, controlling sales and marketing spend, lowering warranty spend, and improving overall financial operations. Finding insights in these specific areas can have a significant impact on business performance and potentially deliver a remarkable return on an organization’s analytics investment.
Reap the Benefits
Analytics typically provides a competitive advantage by unveiling opportunities to improve performance throughout the product lifecycle. Data informs an organization how to invest its product development dollars. Whether the need is to refresh the features of a waning product, introduce an existing product to a new market, or reduce the cost of a margin-challenged product line, analytics can improve the performance of the overall product portfolio.
What Is the Action Plan?
There are several key things to consider when implementing an analytics solution for your organization:
Focus on critical business functions A focused approach to analytics usually generates significantly more productive outcomes than an enterprise-wide approach. Results are achieved faster with less overall cost to implement.
Drive from the management The most effective analytics initiatives are driven by the business, not IT. Focus on business issues and strategic decisions, not merely software tools and packages. Most importantly, any analytics initiative should have upper management sponsorship.
Create value early and often Implement analytics in bits and pieces that deliver incremental value in a timely manner. This helps build positive momentum and provides benefits that can be used to invest in subsequent efforts.
Develop a closed-loop analytics strategy Think about your business objectives and existing analytics projects and capabilities. Build a phased strategy that aligns with your strategic priorities over the next 12, 24, and 36 months. Evaluate the results, and then tweak the strategy based on what you learn.
About EZlytix
EZlytix offers cloud based Analytics solution for mid-market manufacturing and distribution organizations. Discover how EZlytix helps improve sales productivity and grow revenue by empowering your team with actionable insights.