Business Automation and Software Blog

Throughout these past few months, many companies have shown amazing resiliency and agility, pivoting to make different products that can stem from current processes and have a positive impact on current needs: car manufacturers creating ventilators, distilleries creating hand sanitizer, textile and clothing companies making masks and PPE. The list goes on.

While many front office business functions look to continue operating remotely until the end of 2020, many manufacturers have been open since May, with others having continued the entire time as essential businesses. For the most part, businesses were able to respond to manufacturing challenges and disruptions caused by COVID-19 quickly and responsibly, putting them as leaders in responding to issues and setting examples for other industries to follow. However, that does not mean that manufacturers are above facing challenges as the economy continues to roll out reopening.

ERPs already deliver process automation across industries, organizations, even departments. These systems are designed to depend on recurring events, static rules, and structured data. Because of this setup, often unstructured data cannot be automatically processed and must be manually entered.

Over the past several months of the first waves of disruption due to COVID-19, CFOs and finance teams have worked nonstop to lead organizations through the immediate crisis. But while we’ve flown through the initial turbulence, there are indications that more dips and bumps are coming.

For the first time in modern manufacturing and distribution industries, demand, supply, and workforce availability have been impacted globally at the same time. Every major manufacturer has experienced disruptions across the supply chain for parts and raw materials, much of which has been driven by recurring volatility of supply from Asia.

One of the best ways to ensure your small business’ success is through well-managed finances. For many small businesses, financial success is balanced on a fine line between accounts receivable and accounts payable. While a delicate balance to maintain, businesses could practice it and be largely successful—at least, until 2020.

For so long, companies have placed efficiency at the center of strategy, focusing strategic thinking on “just in time.” This has meant running operations as close to full capacity as possible and ordering from suppliers in ways that tightly align with production schedules in order to minimize costs.

The pandemic has changed so much of how businesses operate, from pushing the majority of employees to remote work to changing technology priorities. According to one recent survey, nearly three quarters of those surveyed identified digital transformation projects that were implemented within weeks during the pandemic rather than the months or years it would have taken prior to 2020. This rapid change has made it abundantly clear that being agile and embracing digital transformation is now an absolute necessity.

Not every person is going to be a numbers person. When it comes to building a business, that can be a good thing: you need diversely talented individuals for all kinds of roles within your company. But it can also make things difficult when it comes time to communicate data to others. Insights from data need to be communicated to others and explained in a way that inspires both action and change. If colleagues can’t grasp the significance of an insight, it won’t drive value.

Already a struggle in the Amazon Prime era, warehouse inefficiency has become an even more tenuous make-or-break part of business and customer retention in 2020. Customers will easily abandon ship if they experience longer than anticipated waits or other inconveniences with their order process. Inefficiency can also lead to wasted labor. In fact, US warehouses have an average of 6.9 weeks of wasted motion per year. That’s close to seven weeks of labor time!