Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2022. Read them in this 14th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
Looking ahead to manufacturing in 2022
By Henrik Reif Andersen, CSO,
Configit
To put it mildly, the past two
years have seen a wealth of change for the manufacturing and industrial
sectors. Many of the changes we're seeing were already in effect before the
COVID-19 pandemic, but the pandemic has kicked many of the changes into high gear
(such as adoption of cloud services and remote work.)
Here are some of the biggest
trends we're seeing for 2022 that will help you keep current and even get ahead
of customer demand and your competitors.
The digital customer experience must take center stage
In the past, to truly get a look
and feel for a product, you'd have to go see it in person at a physical
showroom, but that's no longer the case today. But now there is technology that
enables this virtually, using tools like 3-D modeling, for example. This type
of offering is quickly going to become table stakes - customers will expect a
seamless digital experience. This means organizations must ensure that
fostering such experiences is part of their digital transformation efforts and
strategy.
I've heard repeatedly from many of
the companies I communicate with that they're keen to improve digital
experience and ensure that it's linked to the internal processes. In other
words, it mustn't be just a standalone undertaking, but rather, becomes part of
the day-to-day business. In the coming year and beyond, companies will need to
make it a key part of their efforts.
Sustainability in manufacturing
becomes more important
With heightened concern about climate change, consumers are increasingly using
their purchasing power to make more environmentally friendly choices.
A recent global report by the Economist
Intelligence Unit and the World Wildlife found that online searches for
sustainable goods have risen 71% in the past five years.
Sustainability will influence everybody's daily work in one way or
another - although we're not quite there yet. But the movement for increased
sustainability is quickly gaining momentum, and this will certainly impact how
manufacturing is done. It won't just be because businesses want to
"do good"; it's going to become a competitive differentiator. This is where
business is headed, and organizations must take it seriously. We therefore expect
to see more companies looking to integrate more sustainable practices across all the different processes, from
the gathering of the raw materials to the eventual recycling of the
product itself.
The rise of green configuration
This is really a subset of the
sustainability trend, but in 2022, we expect to see the idea of green
configuration take greater hold for configurable products. Customers are taking
greater interest in sustainability and the carbon footprint of the products
they purchase, so we expect to see that increasingly, sustainability (or carbon
footprint) will become part of the selection process. Using the concept of
green configuration, each product component or choice can be correlated to a
carbon footprint cost. This could be built right into the configuration
process so that customers can choose, for instance, only options that meet a
certain sustainability threshold.
Embracing change
Times are changing, and manufacturers must
change with them to remain relevant. Keep these trends in mind as you plan for
2022 and beyond.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Henrik Reif Anderson, chief strategy officer, Configit
Henrik Reif Andersen is the chief strategy officer and co-founder of Configit, the global leader in Configuration Lifecycle Management (CLM) solutions and a supplier of business-critical software for the configuration of complex products. He holds a doctorate in computer science from the University of Aarhus and has more than 25 years of experience in IT development and research.