Transforming Manufacturing to Win the Battle of the Future

Guest post by Andy Jones, Vice President, Workflow Automation, Large Enterprise Operations, Xerox

Just like most industries, manufacturers are being challenged to do more with less. They must reduce costs and improve operational efficiencies, all while growing sales and competing in an agile, global market. In fact, according to the KPMG Global Manufacturing 2015 report, “Fifty-five percent of respondents cite sales growth as a top priority and 41 percent say they are focused on reducing the cost structure. And forty-one percent of respondents say their primary strategy for innovation is to pursue breakthrough advances.”

Now, the question shifts from “what manufacturers have to do” to “how,” and that’s where technology and software solutions can have the biggest impact. By utilizing digital technology, manufacturers can transform their infrastructures to automate business-critical processes to cut out paper-based inefficiencies, improving productivity, innovation and global collaboration.

Xerox today announced five new solutions to help manufacturers embark on this digital transformation, during each stage of value chain:

• Xerox Workflow Automation Solution for Research and Development (R&D) Testing: R&D is important to keep manufacturers competitive, and with this solution, companies can streamline their processes and foster collaboration. It keeps all relevant information in an efficient workflow so that the right team is completing and sharing all relevant information and market testing in one centralized platform. This integration ensures R&D isn’t slowed down, allowing companies to launch more successful new products.
• Xerox Workflow Automation Solution for Engineering Change Management: Changing a product is important to business decisions and profitability, however change management can be a complex process with many steps and people involved. This solution lets employees instantly retrieve critical information like engineering files and drawings, and track the history of all the changes and approvals received. It also guarantees everyone is working from the correct files to minimize errors and integrates with systems to improve collaboration and communication.
• Xerox Workflow Automation Solutions for Quality Assurance: This solution automatically generates checklists and assigns tasks to specific individuals so employees can review and complete their tasks, and share feedback and insights on issues and opportunities to prevent mistakes or defects. With mobile accessibility, users can easily search for relevant information in seconds and provide management with data to help identify weaknesses and inconsistencies in services or products.
• Xerox Workflow Automation Solution for Logistics and Fulfillment: By streamlining and optimizing documents during the logistics and fulfillment process, companies spend less time worrying about processes and documentation, and more on managing the fluctuations in supply and demand. This solution offers a centralized, secure location to ensure all fulfillment documents are completed, as well as allow employees to communicate with customers, suppliers and key stakeholders to improved delivery accuracy, and customer and supplier loyalty.
• Xerox Workflow Automation Solution for Maintenance, Repair and Operations (MRO): With this solution, users are able to check repair history, approve work orders, view stock availability and use mobile-optimized forms to minimize data entry so organizations can easily collect, store and share incident and/or hazardous information for maintenance safety. Additionally, it integrates with operations/response teams, ERP, GIS and Work Order Management systems to ensure MRO professionals have all the information they need to deliver a high level of service.

All of these solutions help manufacturers build a competitive differentiation by allowing them to scale collaboration, analyze data and documents to make better business decisions, increase productivity and deliver solutions to meet their customers’ needs.

To learn more about these solutions, please visit: xerox.bz/1XwLHRR