PANDEMIC SCENARIO
How to optimize your manufacturing processes during economic slowdown
I
t is a fact that has been repeated ad nauseam: the Indian manufacturing industry is in a crisis- in the midst of the worst economic slowdown to have affected the country in years. In the manufacturing industry, manufacturing processes often need to be adjusted to produce maximum output at the minimum possible cost- in other words, to improve efficiency. This is known as process optimization. Most manufacturing operations are complex. Addressing the challenges presented by this is an urgent point on the agenda of nearly every manufacturer. In fact, executives at manufacturing firms are focused on five factors to optimize manufacturing processes: utilizing revenue opportunities, tuning up operations and processes optimizing, utilizing ERP across the enterprise, finding
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June - July 2020
harmony among diverse applications, and familiarizing oneself with this complexity. The essentials of any successful manufacturing industry are the same: keeping costs to a minimum, keeping suppleness to a maximum, and constantly updating systems. The question is, is it possible for a manufacturer to thrive during a slowdown such as the one that seems to have crippled the Indian industry? With the right process optimizations, yes. The best approach in the event of a slowdown is to be attentive and proactive. It is impossible to know the exact moment when an economy will slow down, but there are some indicators. If consumer-targeted industries abroad are facing challenges or companies’ orders have a downward incidence for multiple months, or accounts receivable aging trend is negative, or inventory quantities increase and inventory turnover decreases in discrete areas of business, or overall operating margins began to decline: these are all indications of a slowdown in the future. Slowdowns can also occur as a consequence of other events,
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