Is your business prepared for Industry 4.0? Don’t get overwhelmed by the coming transformation. Here are five things you can focus on in 2019 to future-proof your business.
You don’t get to be a company with more than a half century legacy without being prepared for what’s coming next. In fact, it’s our ability to predict what’s coming next that has made us a leader in providing quality custom control solutions across industries for more than 60 years. Today we’re sharing our best practices for preparing your business for the future and the Industry 4.0 revolution.
Have the Right Leaders in Place
Like most things, a future-ready culture starts at the top. Leaders must both role-model and enable transformation and innovation. At UCEC Smart, our leaders make both a priority and frequently engage employees in conversations about greater operational efficiencies. By creating an environment where it’s not just acceptable, but encouraged to ask, “What if?”, our entire organization becomes more innovative and future-focused.
Supercharge customer focus
Good service translates to good business. This seemingly old-school principle has never been more important than it is today. In our hyper-crowded marketplace, excellent customer service may be the last true differentiator. As an organization committed to providing not just a solution, but the right solution, superior customer relationships are what help us get there. Without a close understanding of the end user, we couldn’t create the high-quality products our customers have come to expect.
Know your numbers
Big data has been all the buzz in the business world for more than 5 years. But how are you actually using that data to make better decisions and drive profitability? According to Forrester, 74% of businesses want to be “data-driven” but only 29% are actually successful at connecting analytics to action. In our inevitable IIoT environment, data is going to be even more central to your operations. It’s important now to not only collect it, but begin to understand it. Create a data habit today that involves setting up processes for data collection, time for analysis, and an investment of tools to help you track, learn and eventually predict your data trends.
Start innovating through collaboration, not just tech
It can be easy to get distracted by the promise of new technology and overlook the importance of ‘people power’ in driving sustainable business growth. Implementing a new technology can be a great way to create more streamlined and efficient processes, but without highly engaged people on board designing solutions that either fulfill employee or customer needs, there is little chance that the new platform will succeed.
Collaboration and the ability to listen to and consider the perspectives of others, from both employees and leaders, leads to better innovation and problem solving.
Embrace automation- without replacing whole systems
Lastly, it’s important to keep in mind that embracing automation and the larger world of IoT is not an all or nothing proposition. By creating a culture of innovation, but consistently asking “What if?” we’re able to identify areas where incremental investments in smart technology can make a big impact to shop productivity. Our Steinhauer MC-80 is a great example of this. We remain one of the only shops in the area to have this kind of technology on board and this simple addition radically transformed our ability for efficiency. We can now produce complex custom cutouts in a fraction of the time with better accuracy plus it frees up our craftsmen for more complex operations.
Technological advancements are creating new opportunities in every industry for efficiency, predictability, performance and control. Whether your business survives the coming revolution is up to you. UCEC Smart can help your business be future ready. Contact us today to learn more about our smart solutions.