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RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

with industrial and educational institutions that when the initial marketing investment gains the brand-
skills learned in school fit the needs of employers. ing and secures market share. However, these meth-
ods aren't as effective as they once were, obviously
Given this complex picture, it'll be helpful to look ahead when unpredictable economic conditions reduce con-
and see what might go wrong. sumer purchasing power, or disruptive competitors en-
ter into the same vertical sector. To enhance their ROI,
Potential manufacturing pitfalls
manufacturing companies must engage in short-term
and long-term activities to increase their sales, improve
Worldwide, manufacturing sectors are likely to continue
growing, but expect obstacles to this growth. National their marketing strategies, and continue to control or
and regional economies are getting more difficult to reduce costs.
predict, and manufacturers face both external and inter- Addressing labor shortages
nal challenges. Here are some problems in the manu-
facturing industry and potential solutions. When countries suffer an aging workforce, many na-
tional manufacturing sectors are facing labor shortages.
Forecasting the demand for products
Automation and robots can help fill the labor gap, but
manufacturers still need the human capabilities to ana-
Today, many manufacturers have difficulty forecasting
demand for their products and services. The use of ad- lyze and solve problems and manage production pro-
vanced reporting software could – to a certain extent – cesses.
help them estimate how many items they should sell in Adopting new technologies
the future. Without modern tools, manufacturers often
fail to meet customer demand and lose revenue by ei- New technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT) de-
ther building up redundancy or falling short of the mar- vices, data analytics software, and robots appear on
ket needs. the horizon every year. The variety and number of
these products could overwhelm manufacturers by the
Controlling inventory
sheer number of choices. Often we hear the questions
from the industries such as "Will implementing this
Inventory management is another major challenge to
manufacturers. Industry 4.0 concepts expand the scope technology be the right decision for my manufacturing
of manufacturing beyond processes that occur in smart business?” and "Should I adopt new technology at all?
factories to logistical tasks in product design studios, If so, which ones should I invest?".
testing labs, and warehouses. Nevertheless, many Getting the product-level details and finances right is
manufacturers, especially smaller enterprises, manage just part of the picture. Manufacturers should also plan
their inventory without automation or IT.
their Industry 4.0 readiness and related roadmaps be-
fore deployment projects begin. ◊
Manually checking stock is inefficient and prone to er-
rors, leading to inaccuracies, shortages, overstock, and By Colin Koh, Senior Business Development Manager,
damages. Thanks to the help of automated software, Industry 4.0 Consultant of LKH Precicon
however, inventory control has become much more
straightforward. Automation- and artificial intelligence- Colin is a technology evange-
based solutions provide different levels of intelligence list, digital transformation spe-
and hands-off inventory tracking and management. cialist, and highly-respected
figure in the ASEAN business
Improving process efficiency community, who previously
served as the President of the
Manufacturers never stop looking for effective ways to Singapore Industrial Automa-
cut costs and make their processes more efficient. Fac- tion Association (SIAA), is a
tory owners often sacrifice the quality of their offerings certified IoT specialist and an
to cut production costs. This approach can backfire and MIT Sloan School of Manage-
compromise their revenue when dissatisfied customers ment Executive program in Artificial Intelligence and
stop buying mal-manufactured products.
IoT. Colin currently provides mentorship and advisory
Increasing returns on investment (ROI) to companies implementing digital transformation to-
wards Industry 4.0.
Manufacturers always want to increase their ROI. Of-
ten, they increase their selling price of the products

April 2022: Marketing Automation: AI, Big Data & Deep Learning 9