Today, Infor Company, and through Khaled Al-Shamy, Senior Director of Solutions Consulting in the company, reviewed a set of steps that help manufacturers of industrial machinery and equipment to stimulate investment in the industrial sector.
Global trends, including rising energy prices and companies’ need for sustainability, indicate expectations of an increase in demand for purchasing modern industrial machinery and equipment. In order to dispel the sense of uncertainty among customers about the future of the global economy, manufacturers and suppliers of industrial machinery and equipment should focus their efforts on promoting the growth of the industrial sector and helping customers to overcome concerns.
The following are 8 steps that help companies manufacturing machinery and industrial equipment to stimulate investment in the industrial sector and encourage customers to move forward with the implementation of their projects.
1. Careful attention to customers’ requirements:
When purchasing industrial equipment, whether it is forklifts, generators, or others, the availability of safety standards, availability of product, keenness to deal with ethical suppliers, as well as seeking to maintain a positive image in front of their counterparts after choosing the quality of products. Therefore, customers today seek guarantees, support and added value from companies that supply industrial machinery and equipment, and are looking forward to first-class purchasing experiences that are characterized by speed and good response to all their questions and requirements.
2. Promoting communication and providing its tools:
Industrial machinery and equipment manufacturers can improve cooperation with customers by building bridges and communication tools on product details, specifications, delivery terms and service status. Since the majority of purchases of industrial machinery and equipment fall under the category of manufactured or engineered products to the customer’s request, manufacturers must open the doors of communication within a secure environment and protect private data.
3. Connected supply chains:
The industrial machinery and equipment sector, like other major sectors, has been exposed to bottlenecks in the supply chains that have resulted in slow fulfillment of orders. This experience taught manufacturers a lesson about the need to maintain a comprehensive view of what is going on in supply chains and to stay away from dealing with just one supplier. By using live insights into the depths of supply chains across their terminals, manufacturers can better strategically plan the delivery of products and components.
4. Handling of complications:
Many industrial equipment and machines have unique specifications that make their manufacturing process a complex matter in itself. For example, specifications such as the size of equipment, high-value parts, specialty materials, high-tech components, and regulatory compliance requirements all add to the complexity of operations on the factory floor. Therefore, all steps must be synchronized in order to avoid delays, quality control to reduce waste, and to facilitate the access of work crews to the data of the requests to ensure the exact specifications required.
5. Configuration of products according to customer tastes:
Manufacturers have software solutions that help their customers choose the components and settings they like, and then obtain a price quote for the final product according to their specifications. These software solutions help provide an unforgettable purchasing experience for customers and enable them to purchase products that meet their individual requirements, as well as introduce a qualitative shift in the way purchasing processes go and help customers get exactly what they want from the benefits of the products while manufacturers are able to maintain their productivity and level of operational efficiency .
6. Dissemination of innovation tools:
It is now well known that innovation usually creates a positive atmosphere and helps clients discover the value and potential returns on investment. In this context, product lifecycle management (PLM) software solutions help speed up the product launch process, simplify production steps, document production stages including testing and meet all regulatory requirements.
7. After-sales services:
Industrial equipment, especially of large volumes, requires periodic maintenance contracts undertaken by the manufacturing or supply company. Providing field services is one of the most effective methods of cooperating closely with customers, paying attention to their requirements, and preparing for building a close relationship with them, and benefiting from new and recurring sales opportunities. Field work – such as the deployment of field technicians and inventory of spare parts – requires dealing with many overlapping aspects and therefore requires the need to rely on software solutions built for this purpose in order to ensure efficiency.
