In manufacturing, the problem is further compounded by the gap between the business and product development teams. Such miscommunication, along with patchy understanding of changing market sentiments, can lead to underperformance.

Since the operational complexities are diverse and evolving, the solutions need to not only address current business and consumer needs but be able to pre-empt issues in the future. 

Manufacturing companies should assess their maturity in terms of the processes and readiness for Digitisation in order to understand the opportunities for improvement and to pick up the strategy of operational excellence from the start. It is then that the organisations will be able to lay clear objectives of their operational excellence strategy and what value they foresee to derive in the future.

Advanced ERP systems can ease the transition
In the days ahead, doing the new is no longer a possibility but an inevitability for manufacturers. This includes harnessing the potential of not just big data analytics but everything from Internet of Everything, mobility, cloud, 3D visualisation, simulation and printing.

The key idea is to smooth the entire process of manufacturing, connecting customers and decision makers in real time to collaborate around standardizing product designs and production methods. This will reduce wasteful spend in effort, among other things. Cloud-based Enterprise resource planning (ERP) tools are crucial for the intelligent manufacturing facilities of tomorrow.

Contemporary ERP will help integrate resource allocation, project management and enable the enterprise to "see" the entire supply chain in clearer light. It also takes care of nitty-gritties like time tracking and document management and ensures a smooth and continuous workflow, all the way from product visualisation to realisation.

It also puts in place a seamless system of communication across departments and practices with instant messaging, chat, automated mail, and broadcast capabilities at individual, general and targeted tiers. This, coupled with the ability to automatically allocate resources (e.g., employees, tools) on demand from a central pool so as to distribute heavy workloads, makes ERP systems an invaluable part of the smart manufacturing organisation. 

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