Challenges In The Manufacturing Industry And How To Overcome Them

With increased demands from customers, manufacturers are increasing their efforts to create unique designs to meet the expectations of customers. But this is proving to be tough with so many challenges to be met along the way.

1. Legacy System

Chances are your company is using a system which was implemented almost a decade ago. Although there’s nothing wrong with using an older system, its capabilities can be somewhat stunted or limited.

Even if you plan on making the jump by using a new system, there’s so much of data that needs to be moved over from the old one. So the fear of updating into a newer system and losing precious data is not a misplaced one.

But what if there was a way to stay on with your legacy system and integrate it with a new system that has limitless potential to suit your business requirements every time?

2. Staying On Top & Relevant

The manufacturing industry is moving at a pace that’s faster than ever. So are you doing what is necessary to secure your client’s satisfaction and keep your business on top by staying relevant?

Client satisfaction is key these days. Case in point? The recent blunder made by a telco company which resulted in them losing hundreds and thousands of subscribers within months.

Related: 4 Ways You Can Enhance Your Channel Partners’ Experience

Being the spinal cord of any manufacturing business, the system employed by your company plays a crucial role in tracking and updating data as well as ensuring your customer’s needs are met efficiently.

3. Inaccurate Sales/Demand Forecasting

Another common challenge across today’s manufacturing industry is the inability to efficiently manage order and demand forecasting. There is difficulty lining up what the market is dictating with what customers have and need. As a result, manufacturers are facing pressures when it comes to how they successfully grow their business and processes at scale.

4. Limited Channel Visibility

A big market and opportunity for manufacturers is that of the reseller. Yet without visibility into the best path through their networks of distributors, such opportunities tend to stall.

Manufacturers have a hard time collaborating with resellers and thus find it difficult to forecast what product needs will be. Efforts to reach out via email and offline conversations tend to be lost, as they are very difficult to track by field reps, especially when an individual is added to a communication chain late in the process.

5. Lack Of Product Knowledge

When a new product is launched, it’s vital for every member from every level of the business to understand the features and specs of the product. But sadly the knowledge about the product is not communicated to distributors or sales reps who are doing the actual selling to the End User. This hinders the sales of the new product because a customer who receives “I don’t know” or “I’m not sure” as an answer, is an unsatisfied customer.

The solution for many of the problems faced by manufacturers lies in a good solution that brings together your processes and let’s you focus on what is critical.

Get in touch with our consultants at asklava@lavaprotocols.com today so we can help you connect the dots and remove the hurdles you may be facing in your manufacturing business.

Lava is an authorised Salesforce Partner in Malaysia and has more than a decade of experience in cloud solutions which includes marketing automation, CRM implementation, change management, and consultation. We pride ourselves in not just being a CRM partner but in also understanding the needs of our customers and taking their business to the next level.