Business

Digital Operations Platforms: A Guide to Next-Gen Manufacturing Solutions

Businesses are going digital across the world. So much so that it is nearly impossible to operate without using any kind of digital applications, platforms, and workflow to support key business processes. One of these processes is manufacturing.

Manufacturing has evolved dramatically over the past decade and shows no signs of slowing down on that road. A major driver for this change is the need for companies to innovate more and stay ahead of the curve in the digital age.

MNCs and other conglomerates are looking to –

  • Expand their international presence
  • Broaden their product offerings
  • Speed up their time to market
  • Solidify their relationship with broad networks of commercial partners to build in increasingly complex layers

All of these can add to the workload of the staff at the front line and the senior management level, ultimately hampering your organization’s growth, transparency, and agility. This calls for digital manufacturing tools and digital operations platforms (DOP) to come into their own.

What is a digital operations platform?

A digital operations platform (DOPS) is the next generation of integrated manufacturing and supply chain management platforms. Essentially, it extends the idea and promise of business process services and solutions like Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). In other words, it is a connected data and process management tool or the core software or application that brings together back-office operations, people, devices, and systems used in production or logistics processes on one central platform, online or mobile.

With the current demand for flexibility across manufacturing industries, companies are forced to reconsider their business models. Companies have ramped up implementing digital technology in their operations to remain competitive in today’s marketplace.

Multiple manufacturing organizations turn to DOP to optimize their businesses by unlocking abilities like agile manufacturing and predictive maintenance. Advancements like 3D printing, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence are causing manufacturers to turn towards digital operations platforms to implement their digital transformation initiatives.

Major Benefits of DOP for Manufacturing

A digital operations platform can transform how your company operates internally and externally. It provides solutions for improving production capacity, accessing real-time data on business-level features and security.

Let us dive deeper into the benefits of this new technology and how it compares to traditional ERP systems.

1. Informed and Confident Decision-Making Backed by Data

Digital operations platforms enable businesses to measure, track and visualize data at every manufacturing and production stage, thereby increasing process efficiency and productivity than before. It helps with breaking down silos and giving complete visibility of operations, from sales and marketing to product development, distribution, and HR.

This, in turn, enables businesses to make swift decisions regarding important matters with a clear view of implications for each business unit.

2. Enhanced customer experience

DOP provides businesses with enhanced visibility across every step of the customer journey. This way, business leaders can identify every touchpoint between the customer and the organization and identify issues that can negatively impact their experiences.

3. Simplified Workflows and Support Mechanism

DOP is a centralized business process management system that lets you manage any number of processes, from your warehouse inventory levels to your customer relationships. DOP brings all the data sources together in a single platform, thereby removing the need for messy integrations and manual re-entry of data. As a result, it reduces the chances of error and frees up time for admin and IT support teams to work on more demanding issues elsewhere. Establishing a ‘single source of truth’ improves individual and team performance. Your entire business and business partners can work together, making the most of your workflow, integration, data science, and RPA.

DOP allows you to adjust your business plan to real-time reporting and business intelligence with all these benefits.

Summary

Digital Operations Platforms (DOP) are the next-generation Industrial Operations Management Systems (IOMS). They go beyond the capabilities of IOMS to help industrial companies fully digitize their operations. DOPs are holistic and include the entire value chain from end-user to raw materials. They enable the digital transformation of companies and the digital transformation of industry.

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