Charting your course on the technology roadmap
The technology revolution experienced by individuals and businesses throughout the last 10 years has opened the door to a great deal of opportunity while also creating complexity and frustration.
Today, manufacturing and advanced technology go hand and hand.
According to the 2023 PMA Metalforming Insights benchmarking study, the average capital spend as a percentage of revenue for metal formers has hovered around 4% for the past several years. This shows that most businesses are focused on investing in technology to support process improvement and equipment monitoring, ERP and production scheduling software.
However, most manufacturers do not have a technology strategy, putting them in a reactionary position to customer requests and the competitive landscape. This reactive approach can lead to issues down the road and likely generate unneeded complexity and expense.
By following best practices for establishing a technology roadmap, you can better achieve your goals and maximize productivity and profitability.
Mapping your (technology) future
So, what is a technology roadmap?
Simply put, it is proactively creating a vision for adopting and integrating technology into your business. It means laying the foundation for understanding your current capabilities and determining what processes, technology and people you will need to achieve your long-term business strategy.
By developing a roadmap, you can:
- Help ensure all equipment and software is aligned and collaborative.
- Clearly define the necessary capabilities and maximize equipment use.
- Identify the talent and/or training required to seamlessly integrate technology.
The first step in developing your technology roadmap — assuming you have already established a long-term business strategy — is to understand what is possible. What equipment, software and automation options are available and how do manufacturers use them? To help gain this understanding, you can attend equipment trade shows, such as Fabtech, and talk to your industry peers. Consider sharing a challenge that you have encountered and ask how they would have manufactured the product — you may discover a better way for next time.
Additionally, be open to and collaborate with your vendor partners. Invite them to your facility to educate them on your latest improvements, share what you are trying to accomplish and see how they can help. Finally, talk to your customers to learn about what they are seeing and experiencing across the industry.
Once you understand the available technologies and how they can impact your business, you can categorize and prioritize your investment. Common technology categories include:
- Improvements to your manufacturing speed and efficiency.
- Enhancements to your value-added capabilities.
- Process monitoring.
- Continual quality control.
Next, with all the information you have gathered and understanding everything that you want to leverage, you can determine what will impact your business the most and address your most pressing challenges.
Armed with that information, create a phased and planned implementation timeline. Keep in mind that the sum of your plan (and investment) is greater than each individual piece of technology on its own. However, it is still important to track your level of return throughout the implementation process.
Picking your partner
Once you understand the type of technology you want to invest in, it is time to pick your technology vendor.
Shops can experience significant benefits — reduced training time and the number of repair components needed, increased flexibility — by standardizing their equipment throughout their facility. So, you want to identify a partner who understands your technology roadmap and can help you achieve your milestones.
Beyond technology expertise, quality and cost, there are other factors to consider when selecting your technology partner:
- Customization and flexibility: Determine the vendor’s ability to customize their technology to fit your specific manufacturing needs. Flexibility in adapting to your requirements is crucial for seamless integration into your processes.
- Scalability: Consider the scalability of the technology offered by the vendor. Be sure it can accommodate your current production volume as well as future growth without significant disruptions or additional investments.
- Support and maintenance: Evaluate the vendor’s support, training and maintenance services. This includes factors such as response time, availability of technical support and maintenance agreements to keep the technology running efficiently.
- Compatibility and integration: Assess how well the vendor’s technology integrates with your existing systems and processes. Compatibility with other software or hardware components is essential for seamless operations.
- Security and data privacy: Be sure that the vendor’s technology meets your security and data privacy requirements. This is particularly important when dealing with sensitive information or proprietary processes.
Don’t be afraid to ask for case studies or references so you can see for yourself if the vendor has successfully implemented similar equipment. Carefully consider all these factors and select a partner that best fits your requirements and can contribute to your current and future success.
Breaking down implementation
The final step in the technology roadmap is implementation. This can be a complex process, and there are many facets to consider. First, you should form a cross-functional implementation team that consists of people from production, engineering, IT, quality and leadership. This team will collaborate throughout all phases of the implementation process, including testing and production.
Second, it is important to understand facility requirements for the new technology — including physical space, space preparation details, and IT and data requirements. Additionally, you must understand how the new technology integrates with your existing systems and processes to determine whether any customization or special interfaces will be required.
Next, to help mitigate risk and reduce work stoppage, it’s critical to develop a contingency plan. Identify different implementation scenarios and potential issues, and map out what steps will be taken if you run into challenges — an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Finally, as part of implementation, you should prepare for continuous improvement. The new technology will likely not be optimized at the beginning of operations, requiring training and use to drive improvement and efficiency.
Along with this is training and education; shops need to provide comprehensive training to employees who will be using the new technology to help ensure they have the necessary skills and knowledge to operate it.
Measures of success
Once you have completed the technology roadmap milestones, take some time to evaluate what went right and what went wrong. Having the cross-functional team conduct a post-implementation analysis can uncover opportunities that should be considered for future investment, as well as steps to continuously optimize the current technology.
Part of the technology roadmap is establishing goals and objectives — improving efficiency, increasing flexibility, reducing downtime, gaining a certain return on investment, etc. Once the new equipment is in place and running, these metrics should be revisited.
Remember, it may take time to see improvement. And, if you are not seeing the improvement you expected, diagnose why — is there a process that is broken? Do you need more training? How can you optimize the new technology?
Other factors for success in developing and implementing your technology roadmap include communication. Be sure to develop a plan to communicate what you are doing and how it benefits your key audiences — employees and customers. Integrating technology can be a differentiator not only for new business but also for attracting new talent to your organization.
Also, continuously review your roadmap and don’t be afraid to pivot or adjust as your business dynamics change or new technology is introduced. Your roadmap should align with your business’s long-term strategy and support your business goals.
How Wipfli can help
This process can be a daunting task. The required investment of time and money, coupled with the fear of the unknown, may have many questioning whether it is worth it. The reality is new technology — automation, equipment and software — has moved from a nice-to-have to a must-have to remain competitive in the marketplace.
Wipfli’s digital professionals are ready to help you embrace the future of the industry. We understand that technology fuels success in manufacturing, and we can help you establish your own roadmap to overcome challenges and drive growth. Contact us today to learn more.
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