How Manufacturing Companies Prepare for a Successful Technology Investment

If you're the CEO or in a similar leadership role with a small- to mid-sized manufacturing company, you’re likely a fan of technology as a competitive tool. However, you’re likely also equally concerned about making smart technology investments to set your company on the right path to compete in a digital world.

The Key Steps

With that being said, what are the key steps you should take to prepare for a successful technology investment?

• Assess whether your company is ready for change.
• Start with a trial period on your planned investment.
• Involve stakeholders on multiple teams throughout your company to figure out if the planned technology investment meets user needs. End-users must weigh-in on their requirements. It’s not enough to just get buy-in from company executives or managers.

Technology investments make sense only when they’re integrated into the whole organization. The platform under consideration has to provide much more value beyond just one person or one team.

For a manufacturing company to unlock the true value of a strategic technology investment, the platform must be tightly integrated with its entire ecosystem.

The End Goal

The end goal? The system adoption needs to help provide a small flow of information between everyone in the organization.

Use cases often depend on the kind of technology platform and business challenges being addressed. For example, if you’re considering an inventory management system and accounting system, you may start by planning with your CFO.

However, it’s equally important for your manufacturing department to weigh-in on its requirements as early as possible. This way, your technology investment is planned around the needs of the employees that will actually be using the platform.

How does your company prepare for a successful technology investment? Share your comments below.