Ahhhh, 2015! The start of a new year is always filled with optimism, positive outlooks and fresh starts. It’s also when all of the “best of” blog posts come to an end and all of the outlooks, predictions, and resolutions posts kick into high gear. The trouble is most of those posts provide context into the what and why, but not the how. Just as with any resolution, whether it’s to lose weight or get more organized, if you don’t have a “How” plan in place you’re certain to fail.
So, with that mind, below are 5 manufacturing predictions for 2015 and exercises for how to meet each one. 
Customer Intimacy Will be at the Heart of the Value Chain
Business Wire predictsthat in 2015, customer centricity will require higher standards for customer service excellence, efficient innovation, and responsive manufacturing, which will motivate 75% of manufacturers to invest in customer-facing technologies.
Manufacturers must adjust the purpose of their technology development and implementation with the customer in mind. Sales and marketing must also be designed for the customer, and this includes understanding the impact of inbound and outbound logistics on the customer. It’s also imperative that manufacturers broaden operational analysis and create a component dedicated to customer intimacy.
Read here for how to build the customer back into the value chain.
Ecommerce Will be Enhanced
Ecommerce Newsbelieves ecommerce will make some important strides in 2015. Amongst their ecommerce predictions are omni-channel, personal content, recreation of the physical store, m-commerce, and big data.
Ecommerce is a growing channel in the manufacturing industry, but to date it’s mostly been viewed as just a channel to sell. Ecommerce tools have focused on transactions, and sometimes as a digital sales assistant. But when viewed from the perspective and interaction of the customer, ecommerce tools provide an opportunity for relationship building, inventory planning, and insight into the motivations and behaviors of customers.
Ecommerce solutions also enable interdepartmental transparency to better support the customer and grow the business. Integration between ecommerce, CRM, and marketing automation is imperative if connected communications are an objective. Through multichannel communications you can begin to see who’s coming to your site, what they’re looking for, what messages resonate, and how they like to transact.
Read here on how to improve your ecommerce program in 8 ways.
Asset Performance Management Will Become an Asset
According to LNS Research, Asset Performance Management (APM) is an area already receiving ROI with emerging technologies in the form of downtime reduction, improved productivity and higher product or service quality. Being mainly driven by improved data collection and analytics, we expect this to continue as well in 2015.
And while APM is focused primarily on supply chain production, front office teams are working to build in similar production analytics for their deliverables.
Specifically, these Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma practices commonly exercised across production can now be incorporated into marketing organizations. Marketers can now reduce the process cycle to develop both marketing assets and opportunity. They can reduce over, or under, production of content and leads avoiding empty funnels and lead fatigue. With automated processes unnecessary rework and errors are practically eliminated, and the business can leverage the collective intellect of both employees and the voice of the customer.
Read here for exercises on how to eliminate wastes, reduce costs, and increase throughput.
Hiring is on the Rise and Recruitment Must Catch Up
According to the National Association of Manufacturers, "Firms plan to increase their employee levels by 2.1% on average over the next 12 months, up from 0.9% one year ago. This marks the fastest pace in more than three years (second quarter of 2011)."
It’s good to see hiring is on the rise, but the challenge remains, can manufacturers fill those positions? While 70 percent of Americans view it as the most important industry for a strong economy and national defense, only 30 percent of parents encourage their children to pursue a manufacturing career.
The industry is working to overcome the outdated dirty shop floor perception that many have. But in my research I find very few manufacturers who are adjusting their content to meet the interests of those sought after candidates. Like much of their marketing content, information about the companies is very focused on product. People don’t choose to work for a company because of a product. They choose to work for a company because of the culture. Suzanne Burns, Vice President atSpencerStuart, states that “60% of employees fail at a job because of lack of culture fit”. And yes, the manufacturing culture can be very cool, it just needs to be better communicated.
Read here for suggestions on how to improve your recruitment practices.
Demand Insight is in High Demand
In order to achieve this type of demand insight manufacturers must to provide real-time visibility to their teams, channel partners, and end users. No one can predict the future. Just as it makes the most sense to have a diversified stock and bond portfolio, manufacturers should balance their “production portfolios” to serve as many possible markets as possible and be as flexible as possible to respond quickly to changing market conditions.
Demand Prediction Reporting is becoming a highly requested feature. Manufacturers want to build out data models that track (or pull data over from an existing system) inventory, purchase history, frequency of purchase, quantities of assets, partner they buy from, average delivery time per partner and per asset. Based on the data model, they want to create dashboards that demonstrate trends in purchase (time of year, geography, etc), opportunities for up-sells and add-ons, and sales cycle duration. This information can be used to create automated trigger emails that send communications in the month or so leading up to when they typically order.
But this is now more than a futuristic objective. Companies are now integrating systems and tying customer-facing channels into their sales, marketing, and production programs.
Read here for how 3 manufacturers are achieving this demand insight.
What are some practices you plan to put in place for 2015?