As an industry, manufacturing has changed substantially in the last two decades. The supply chain is increasingly globalized. The costs of doing business are going up with increasing labor costs and falling profit margins, demanding greater efficiency and productivity. Two decades ago, manufacturing was a mostly national endeavor, relying on faxes, paper records and basic telephony. Today, even for small manufacturing firms, an entirely domestic supply chain is frequently the exception rather than the rule. As a result, manufacturing firms are relying more and more on information technology to keep costs down and processes efficient. The way customers, suppliers and employees communicate are changing and evolving, and yet, manufacturing firms need to keep all communications processes streamlined in order to safeguard security, efficiency and productivity. Whether your suppliers are in Taiwan and your customers are in Paris, or maybe just Paris, Texas, they form a chain of communications that resembles your supply chain. Manufacturing firms need flexible communications systems that enable them to organize and secure customer information across projects, and that enable staff to make quick and informed decisions, while keeping costs low.

Manufacturing firms face a number of communications challenges.

Increasing costs. Manufacturing businesses rely on a number of different data systems to manage their customer records. Offices may be in the next county or on another continent, and that means multiple phone systems and long distance charges. Single repositories of customer project information are difficult to develop and costly to keep up-to-date. Multiple technologies and systems mean high costs to ensure that the systems work together effectively.

Increasingly global business processes strains efficiency. Collaboration is a challenge when a single project may involve a number of different suppliers and even customer stakeholders in different countries and time zones. Manufacturing firms can’t afford telephone tag, missed calls and other hindrances to productivity. Customer information easily spread across e-mails, voice mails, faxes and databases, making it difficult for staff to keep abreast of project details. The Interactive Voice Reponse systems that would enable 24/7 customer self-service are costly and difficult to develop.

Communications security. Collaboration through various parts of the manufacturing process requires increased communications security and impeccable logistics and coordination. Your communications processes must provide the right information to the right employees in order to protect your clients’ intellectual property. The more staff involved in the manufacturing process, the greater the opportunity for mistakes, delays or breaches in security. Separate systems for phone, fax and e-mail messages provide multiple points for security breaches. Objectworld products can help manufacturing businesses meet these challenges. ->