Page 46 - Plastics News January 2023

FEATURE

Top Predictions for Manufacturing in 2023

turing company who is responsible
for part of the value chain and bring-
ing products to market, then you are
most effective if you also have a solid
digital experience. Having digital ac-
cess to the next version of products,
what the next features are, and what
options you can offer to the market
creates a better experience for cus-
tomers in terms of what they are
interested in, what they are buying,
what you end up delivering and per-
haps what went wrong in the process.
The digital employee experience con-
n the near future, manufacturers build this into their operations. cept is essentially a similar concept to
Iwill increase their focus on sustain- As the push toward greater sustaina- digital customer experience but from
ability, workers’ digital readiness, and bility gains traction, this will undoubt- the employee perspective. Manu-
the “servitization” of assets. edly influence how manufacturing is facturers will put more emphasis on
Most manufacturers didn’t take a conducted. This is the direction of the the digital employee experience and
break during the COVID-19 lock- business, and organizations must pre- make greater strides toward this.
down. They used this extraordinary pare for it. As a result, we expect that Prediction 3: The digital employee
period to continue innovation and more businesses will continue to try experience will help address present
digitalization. The pandemic revealed to include more sustainable strategies supply chain problems.
multiple weak areas that needed to in their processes. That means more
be corrected. Since then, we’ve seen companies will try to In the face of disruption, you want to
manufacturers increase their efforts integrate sustainable practices into be able to react quickly, and if you don't
to meet new demands. their operations. This has been a have well-connected systems where
you can see the effects of adapting to
That means focusing more attention struggle so far, but it’s something that the changes in the supply chain, then
on sustainability, making sure employ- customers are asking for and need you will have issues. Manufacturers
ees are trained to be successful in a guidance on in terms of how to make who implement configuration tools
world of greater digitization, and – sustainable choices. Implementing will benefit from a greater customer
when appropriate – utilizing the ability software that can guide you through experience due to being able to react
to rent assets rather than own them. this process is key, and we expect to very quickly and confidently because
All roads to the future of manufactur- see higher demand for it. they know that when they make a
ing are paved by technology. Success Prediction 2: Employee digital experi- change, they will know what the ef-
will be won by those who are best ence will become an integral compo- fect will be on downstream systems.
able to utilize that technology. nent in manufacturers’ business pro- The digital employee experience will
We caught up with Henrik Reif An- cesses. gain popularity as supply chain issues
dersen, chief strategy officer of Con- When speaking about digitalization, persist.
figit, a company that produces man- most people automatically think of Prediction 4: Modular architectures
ufacturing configuration tools. He the customer experience, but it’s also will become more common as manu-
offers five predictions for the future important to consider the digital em- facturers seek to maximize the advan-
of manufacturing. ployee experience. tages of new technologies.
Prediction 1: Manufacturers will give If you’re an employee of a manufac-
greater weight to sustainability and

46 PLASTICS NEWS January 2023