Manufacturing in the Digital Era

Just like many other industries, manufacturing has had to adapt to working remotely.

Shorter meetings, facilitated by sending agendas ahead of time, is forcing good corporate behavior right now. While it’s true many things have changed to working remotely, it turns out it might not the best situation for team ideation on a whiteboard. It’s difficult to replace in-person brainstorming sessions, because you can’t pick up on body language and visual cues. Is virtual fatigue for real? I know I’ve experienced this after jumping off a Zoom call, I try to schedule a quick break before switching gears back to work. Zoom, Google Meet and WebEx meetings won’t be going away anytime in the near future – they are far better (and acceptable right now) not to mention more efficient & flexible. The upside? Less travel. You won’t have to jump on a plane to work through any issues in communication when problems arise.

Manufacturers will be reinvesting in:

Digital technology
More virtual work
More automation on the floor
Retraining to handle digital tools

Speaking of all things digital, collaboration on Slack has been very helpful for teams right now.

An example of these successes were the mask creation teams that were formed during the start of COVID. 28,000 masks were delivered to front-line health workers which would not have been possible without collaboration and use of digital tools such as Slack. This wasn’t the case with all teams, team leadership is crucial to getting the right people on board. I know for my business and the design industry, Slack has been a great tool as well. It’s an easy way to keep your team or clients informed and up to date on projects.

In the past, companies looked at digital as a way to disrupt or protect what they were doing, but now it will be used as a tool to collaborate and work in new ways. Each company’s survival will depend on how they adapt to these new tools and processes to transform their business. Improving process and digitization along with big thinking might just bring that breakthrough moment.

Need Help with Implementation?

I recently heard from a representative at Onshape and they have an interesting article on Engineering.com if you want to learn more about boosting collaboration and productivity while working remotely.

*All notes taken from the NAM Webinar in August on The Future of Product Innovation & Manufacturing in the Digital Era. Featured Speakers: Dave Broussel, NAM President; Anna Thornton; John McEleney, Onshape