John Clemons consults for Rockwell Automation and Maverick Technologies, a leading platform-independent automation solutions provider.
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Resilience in manufacturing means building an operation that can face adversity and challenges head on, defeat those challenges and come out on the other side even stronger. But that’s easier said than done, and the time during and since the pandemic has been an eye-opener for the manufacturing industries.
Many manufacturing enterprises might have thought they were resilient, but the challenges of the pandemic and post-pandemic have mostly proved them wrong. Many manufacturing enterprises were not nearly as resilient as they thought, and building resiliency turned out to be a lot harder than they thought. Many manufacturing organizations hadn’t even thought of the word resiliency before the pandemic. But it’s at the top of their lists now.
Likewise, many manufacturing organizations thought they had the tools they needed to beat the competition, to stay in business and to stay profitable. They believed they had the winning formula, the best product, and all the technology they needed to beat the competition and be profitable. They might have thought they were resilient, but the harsh reality was they were not nearly as resilient as they thought. For many organizations, building resiliency has turned out to be quite challenging.
Getting Started
In building resiliency, many companies believe that the best place to start is to conduct a thorough assessment of where they are right now, the good and the bad. And yes, that does make a lot of sense, but it may not really be needed.
Take it as a given that many manufacturer enterprises are not where they need to be. The organization is not resilient enough. Operations are not resilient enough. They may lack the right tools and technologies needed to become a truly resilient enterprise and to effectively compete in the marketplace.
So, where is the best place to start?
The first step is to realize that the current state of the operation really doesn’t matter—whether it’s ahead or behind the curve. The answer is the same: Action is needed. Companies need to get moving as fast as possible. Manufacturing enterprises that get started building resilience into their operations—and that get started using the technologies needed to support that resilience—will almost certainly reap the highest benefits and have the best chance to beat the competition.
So, how can companies get started? By starting. By adopting the attitude and the business approach that says, “This is important and we’re going to do it.” They have probably already been doing some of the right things for years, at least since the beginning of the pandemic. After all, few companies truly have no resilience and no technologies to support resilience. So, they’re probably already off to a good start.
Building Momentum
First, realize that building resilience is a journey, not a destination. That’s a bit of a cliché, but it’s true, nonetheless. It’s a journey because it’s impossible to get there. There never really is enough resilience. And measuring resilience is extremely difficult. Many companies thought they had plenty of resilience until the pandemic hit. No one saw that coming, and some of the manufacturing enterprises that thought they were the most resilient were hit the hardest.
Second, companies need to realize that not everything is going to work well. Some things will work, and some won’t work. But that’s the way it is. They shouldn’t worry about it. And they especially shouldn’t get bogged down with business approaches, organizations, processes and, most especially, tools and technologies that simply don’t work for them. They need to be prepared to abandon them and move on. Companies must always move forward. Staying tied to the past or still using a technology that doesn’t work effectively is bad on so many levels. They need to leave it, move forward and keep moving forward.
Third, companies can’t get bogged down in pilots. That’s where so many were before the pandemic. They believed they were moving forward, embracing whatever business approach or new technology someone felt they needed to beat the competition. But they were just piloting it. Trying it out a bit. Looking for flaws. Looking for reasons not to use it. Looking for reasons to keep the status quo. After all, change is painful. It’s risky. Mistakes may be made.
Post-pandemic has changed all that. There’s no time for going slowly or playing with pilots. It might seem prudent to be conservative and explore all options thoroughly and then pilot an approach, but the competition probably doesn’t see it that way. And while pilot programs are being evaluated and re-evaluated—and options are being assessed and discussed—the competition may just come up with something new and innovative. This could disrupt the entire business model and put the company at a severe disadvantage. The best manufacturing companies don’t wait for that to happen. The best companies are the ones creating the disruption.
Conclusion
The good news is that most manufacturing enterprises are beginning to understand the need for resilience, already have some operational resilience and already have some technologies that support becoming even more resilient. The bad news is that many competitors are probably in that very same place.
So, who’s going to come out ahead? The company that’s most committed to moving forward and moving forward fast. It doesn’t take much to get ahead of the competition, and only one innovation in a product or a business approach is all that’s needed to disrupt the marketplace and gain a competitive advantage.
Now is the time to get started. Create an attitude and a mentality around building resilience and getting the tools and technologies necessary to make resilience a reality. And then don’t stop. Keep moving forward. Keep building momentum. Don’t get bogged down.
With competitors working hard for resilience, the question is: Who is going to get there first? That’s simple. The manufacturing enterprises that start the soonest and move the fastest will almost certainly reap the highest rewards. So, get moving—now. And move fast.
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