Doug Green

By Erich Gerber, SVP EMEA & APJ – TIBCO Supply chains are essential to everyday life and are made up of important links. Those links are people, processes, and facilities; everything that’s needed to deliver goods from one location to the other, and technology plays a critical role in enabling and maintaining those links. If you are simply the recipient of those goods, chances are you don’t think too much about supply chains, until one of those links breaks – just like when the toilet paper supply chain broke in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite no inherent weakness in the toilet paper supply chain, undue stress was placed on production companies due to ‘panic buying’ during the pandemic, a completely unpredictable situation. However, the pandemic also resulted in a number of expected and very justifiable demands on supply chains, for example the enormous surge in online shopping, for everything from groceries to fitness equipment. The challenge for all players in the supply chain — manufacturers, importers, warehouses, shippers and retailers — is to meet demand and keep customers happy without any noticeable disruption. The key to this is accurate data and the technology behind it at different touch points throughout the supply chain, which can help businesses analyse the demand and supply so they can plan and execute accordingly. Analytics and data-driven insights allow manufacturers and operators to optimise production and distribution capacity. And signals generated from market changes like seasonality and social events can be used to escalate production or even reallocate distribution. Using data to manage supply chains For more ambitious supply chain enhancements, the solution is to leverage the same digital technology that is disrupting supply chains and re-invent them for optimal performance. In this digital world, ‘chain’ itself becomes something of a misnomer. […]

By Leigh Pullen, CEO, CiGen Manufacturers have long embraced automation. Typically, this has been in the factory where physical tasks performed by people have been replicated by machines. For example, General Motors started using robots in factories over 60 years ago. And we’ve seen similar stories ever since the first steam driven looms were used during the Industrial Revolution. But, when it comes to business processes, there are substantial opportunities to automate tasks in order to boost productivity and reduce workplace boredom. Factories represent just one element of successful manufacturing operations. For the business to succeed it needs a number of other crucial functions to work at their best. When we look at business processes, ranging from customer service through to financial reporting, managing equipment maintenance and back office operations, we find that many tasks are repeated each day, week or month by people executing the same steps over and over. Intelligent automation, using tools such as robotic process automation (RPA), can support people in key business functions and free them from restrictive, time consuming and monotonous tasks allowing them to focus on higher value activities and empowering them to deliver new innovations that can supercharge growth and competitiveness. No more rekeying For most Australian manufacturers there are tasks that rely on information stored in one system being rekeyed into another. A machine may record how long it’s been operating or how many widgets it has turned out. At the end of a day, that information might be collected by a person and re-entered into a spreadsheet. The data might then be copied into a maintenance log or some other application.  Everything from initial data collection through to the entry into other applications can be automated. A piece of software code can read the information from the machine, reformat or […]

By Jaco Maritz, Chief Operating Officer, SYSPRO As the world continues to adapt, manufacturers and distributors have had to cope with new complexities of doing business. Driven by emerging customer preferences and demanding supplier requirements, the industry has had to shift gear rapidly to enable it to prosper. Customers have become increasingly drawn to eCommerce platforms as global lockdowns opened the opportunity for new digital channels. And while supply chain disruptions impacted business operations, it also opened the door for a new competitive market underpinned by the expansion of product ranges, and the rise of techniques such as additive manufacturing and 3D printing technologies. As a result, CEOs have had to think about new routes to market, new products and even new processes altogether. Within this zeitgeist, manufacturing and distribution leaders still have three crucial business priorities top of mind. The business must cut costs while remaining globally competitive, organisational efficiency needs to be improved, and ongoing risks need to be reduced.   Many businesses have looked at the benefits of digitalisation in addressing these priorities. ERP has been shown to improve operational efficiency, productivity, and time to value, but there ae still businesses that remain hesitant in making the investment. The key is to understand what sort of ROI ERP brings to the business. Using ERP to gain competitive advantage According to recent SYSPRO research, 29% of businesses felt that their business systems did not provide them with the availability and accessibility to manage the changes that the pandemic introduced. Many businesses still relied heavily on manual processes and spreadsheets. Those who had real time access to data could connect directly with customers and suppliers and address immediate needs and build their business. Real-time access to data is a central factor for manufacturing and distribution businesses to remain competitive. […]