The pressure is on in the manufacturing sector to reduce supply chain costs. Visibility and control has never been more important, but manufacturers often struggle to achieve this in what is a heavily paper-intensive business, says Mark Hiller, Country General Manager at Lexmark SA.
Relying on manual data input to bring data into their business is time intensive and error prone. Manual document handling, storage, copying and routing admin all create small inefficiencies that quickly add up. This creates a gap between the people within the business and critical information, which can lead to decreased employee productivity and customer service.
An effective supply chain needs routine processes, but these can cause bottlenecks and it's nearly impossible for a manufacturer to get a full picture of its operations if it lacks real-time visibility to information. With visibility and control over information, a manufacturer can respond to change on either side of the supply chain and solve problems quickly and effectively.
A distributed intelligent capture solution is the starting point for greater productivity in logistics workflow. It enables production companies to eliminate manual steps and errors, as information is captured digitally at the beginning of every process. It takes processes with unstructured data and turns them into a flexible, optimised freight claims workflow that integrates easily with the company's existing systems.
This reduces the need for manual data entry, providing a fast, efficient way to capture the information needed to transform costly, error-prone business processes into streamlined, revenue-generating and value-added operations.
By harnessing advanced features like intelligent data extraction, context sharing and collaborative storage, an organisation can rapidly process even the most complex documents.
Of course, manufacturing is just one part of the business. Products then have to be shipped to customers or distributors. As such, another core element for manufacturers is the pre-printed bill of lading (BOL) forms. They incur higher printing costs, lack flexibility and the data must usually be rekeyed to enter the digital business processes at both ends of the shipment. Ensuring that everyone uses current forms also takes vigilance, and off-site document storage and expensive scanning services delay access to shipping documents.
As before, automating and digitising these processes can solve a lot of the challenges, especially if the solution easily drops into existing shipping document processes. For the foreseeable future, there will always be a requirement for some physical form to accompany a shipment, but with this approach, instead of costly multi-page forms, there is just a single-page, laser-printed form that is ready for signatures. This eliminates the manual steps of separating, mailing, faxing and filing and can transform outbound logistics by bringing new efficiency, accessibility and simplicity to BOL workflow.
The final piece of the puzzle is to implement the same technology within admin centres. Even with integrating paper and digital content into daily business routines, many manufacturers still spend too much time reconciling discrepancies and locating information spread across multiple servers, hard drives and mobile devices. As a result, what should be a simple case of authorising a payment, preparing a shipment or on-boarding a new employee turns into a string of e-mails, endless phone tag, and stacks of photocopies shuffled between offices.
A well implemented content management software, combined with thorough processes, makes it possible to streamline all the admin around invoices, procurement documents, travel and expense receipts, inventory records, shipping paperwork, contracts and more.
These intelligent solutions increase throughput by extracting data with superior accuracy, while ensuring confidential or sensitive information remains secure. This allows admin staff to get more done in less time, using fewer resources and allows them to quickly find what they need for audit and compliance requests.
The manufacturing industry has a lot to gain by abandoning paper-intensive practices in order to improve efficiencies, reduce costs and generate revenue.
Lexmark's range of solutions bridges the gap between unavailable content - both paper and digital - and the people and processes that need it. Combining smart devices, software and services, Lexmark refines and automates the workflow to boost efficiency.
A manufacturer may not be able to control the journey from factory to the warehouse, but they can get better control over the documents and data that drive the supply chain. Lexmark's intelligent content management solutions can provide an organisation with the holistic view it needs to propel performance and growth.
Share