What do you see as the biggest challenges facing the Industrial Goods industry at the moment?
One of the biggest challenges facing the industrial goods manufacturing sector is the increasing competition from emerging markets and the need for companies to innovate to remain relevant. The sector is also grappling with supply chain disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, rising raw material costs, and changing customer demands.
Which key trends and innovations will have the strongest impact on the Industrial Goods industry?
Key trends and innovations that will have a strong impact on the goods manufacturing industry include the use of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, 3D printing, and automation to improve production efficiency and reduce costs. There is also a growing focus on using data analytics and digital tools to optimize supply chain operations and improve customer experience. Finally, the trend towards sustainability and circular economy is leading to the development of new materials and production processes that reduce waste and emissions.
What strategies do you recommend for companies in the Industrial Goods industry to effectively market and sell their products through digital channels?
Marketing Strategies: companies in the industrial goods manufacturing sector can effectively market and sell their products through digital channels by creating engaging and informative content, optimizing their website for search engines, using social media to connect with their target audience, and leveraging e-commerce platforms.
What do you offer companies in the Industrial Goods industry, and why is Spryker the right partner for you?
NETFORMIC GmbH is an e-commerce agency. Our services include development, strategy, customer experience, PIM, and much more for marketplaces and online stores. Equipped with the perfect toolbox, NETFORMIC makes our clients' ideas and businesses grow - digitally, of course.
Spryker is the right partner for NETFORMIC because it offers a powerful e-commerce platform that can be customized to meet the unique needs of our clients in the industial goods manufacturing sector. The Spryker platform is highly scalable, secure, and flexible, making it an ideal choice for businesses with complex requirements.
What do you see as the biggest challenges facing the Industrial Goods industry at the moment?
Technological Advancements: The industrial goods manufacturing industry is rapidly evolving, with new technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), robotics, and artificial intelligence (AI) being introduced. Manufacturers must stay up-to-date with the latest advancements to remain competitive and meet customer expectations.
Global Competition: The industrial goods manufacturing industry is highly competitive, with manufacturers from around the world competing for customers. Manufacturers must continually improve their products, processes, and services to stay ahead of the competition.
Supply Chain Disruptions: Industrial goods manufacturing heavily relies on the availability of raw materials and components. However, the pandemic has caused significant disruptions in the global supply chain, which has led to shortages of critical materials, higher prices, and longer lead times for manufacturing.
Workforce Skills Shortages: There is a shortage of skilled workers in the industrial goods manufacturing industry. Manufacturers are struggling to find workers with the necessary skills to operate and maintain new technologies and equipment. This shortage could limit the industry's growth potential.
Sustainability: Customers increasingly demand environmentally-friendly products, and governments are implementing regulations to reduce the environmental impact of industrial manufacturing. Manufacturers must find ways to reduce their carbon footprint, waste, and pollution, while maintaining profitability.
Overall, these challenges require manufacturers to be agile, adaptable, and innovative to remain competitive and meet the needs of their customers.
Which key trends and innovations will have the strongest impact on the Industrial Goods industry?
The Internet of Things (IoT) connects devices, machines, and systems via the internet, enabling real-time monitoring, predictive maintenance, and enhanced automation in industrial manufacturing. This technology boosts efficiency and productivity.
Additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, facilitates rapid and cost-effective creation of intricate designs and prototypes. It enables mass customization, reduces inventory requirements, and accelerates time-to-market.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) empowers predictive maintenance, quality control, and process optimization. Machine learning algorithms analyze large data volumes, uncover patterns, and enhance performance.
Marketplaces serve as platforms for manufacturers to expand their reach and streamline procurement. They provide convenient and economical channels for buyers while offering valuable insights into customer preferences and demand.
Augmented Reality (AR) equips workers with real-time information, improving productivity and minimizing errors. Remote collaboration and training enhance workforce efficiency.
Sustainability is increasingly important in industrial manufacturing. Manufacturers adopt energy-efficient practices, renewable energy sources, and recycling to reduce carbon footprint and waste.
These trends and innovations have the potential to revolutionize industrial goods manufacturing, driving efficiency, productivity, and sustainability. Manufacturers embracing these technologies and practices gain a competitive edge.
What strategies do you recommend for companies in the Industrial Goods industry to effectively market and sell their products through digital channels?
- One-stop-shop: A one-stop-shop in the industrial goods manufacturing industry can offer several benefits for customers, including:
- Convenience: By offering a wide range of products and services, customers can save time and effort by procuring everything they need from a single supplier.
- Cost savings: By leveraging economies of scale and reducing procurement costs, a one-stop-shop can offer competitive pricing to its customers.
- Expertise: A one-stop-shop can provide expertise in various areas, such as design, engineering, and maintenance, which can help customers optimize their products and operations.
- Streamlined procurement: By managing the procurement process from start to finish, a one-stop-shop can provide a more streamlined and efficient process for its customers.
What does Spryker offer companies in the Industrial Goods industry?
Spryker can help streamline sales processes, increase efficiency, and improve customer experiences. Its platform is scalable and flexible, enabling companies to adapt to changing market conditions and customer demands. Additionally, Spryker has experience working with companies in the industrial goods manufacturing industry, providing them with tailored solutions and expertise in the space.
What potential do you see in AI for this industry? And what role can your product or service play in this?
Predictive Maintenance: AI-powered predictive maintenance can help identify potential issues in equipment before they occur, enabling proactive maintenance and reducing downtime.
Process Optimization: AI can optimize manufacturing processes by analyzing data to identify inefficiencies, bottlenecks, and other areas for improvement.
Supply Chain Optimization: AI can optimize supply chain operations by analyzing data to identify bottlenecks, optimize logistics, and improve inventory management.
Customer Insights: AI can provide valuable insights into customer behavior and preferences, enabling manufacturers to optimize products and services to better meet customer needs.
Autonomous Manufacturing: AI can enable the development of autonomous manufacturing systems, including robotics and other automated technologies that can perform tasks with minimal human intervention.
What do you see as the biggest challenges facing the Industrial Goods industry at the moment?
Manufacturing companies are currently operating in a state of multi-crisis. They are confronted with a range of daunting challenges, including a shortage of skilled personnel, supply chain disruptions, and inflationary pressures. When these challenges are combined, they create a constant state of crisis, making it increasingly difficult to mitigate risks. In such a fragile environment, predicting future trends becomes a challenge in itself.
Which key trends and innovations will have the strongest impact on the Industrial Goods industry?
Digitization presents an opportunity for manufacturers to tackle multiple challenges simultaneously. By leveraging the right set of tools and adopting a flexible and powerful technological infrastructure, organizations can continuously improve their operations and stay competitive. To achieve this state, it is essential to excel in the basics such as a robust commerce engine, a CRM, and PIM, while investing in future technologies such as machine learning and predictive maintenance. The integration of these technologies results in numerous benefits for the organization and its customers alike.
What strategies do you recommend for companies in the Industrial Goods industry to effectively market and sell their products through digital channels?
The most critical strategic decision for any business is to create an operating model that caters to various digital channels. With the number and complexity of digital channels set to increase, adopting a unified commerce approach will become the new norm. As such, testing and refining channels is essential, and this requires a robust framework that enables the continuous transformation of online and offline channels while allowing room for constant innovation.
What does Spryker offer companies in the Industrial Goods industry?
What potential do you see in AI for this industry? And what role can your product or service play in this?
The potential for AI in the industrial goods industry is huge. The industry already collects a wealth of information through telemetrics, which can be leveraged to optimize performance, energy consumption, and predict maintenance. This, in turn, leads to lower operational costs, reduced repairs, and minimized downtime. Autonomous Vehicles and Robotics present a significant opportunity, as AI enables the development of autonomous systems for tasks like material handling, assembly, and transportation, enhancing productivity and ensuring worker safety. Moreover, businesses can explore new digital business models by capitalizing on additional services or product add-ons.
Internally, producers can utilize AI for optimization. AI-powered computer vision systems can improve production and product quality by identifying defects and anomalies in real-time during the manufacturing process, minimizing waste and ensuring high-quality products. Additionally, Natural Language Processing (NLP) can be employed to streamline Customer Support and increase efficiency. AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants can handle customer inquiries, provide personalized support, and optimize customer service processes. Lowering supply chain costs is another opportunity, as AI algorithms can optimize inventory management, demand forecasting, and logistics. This results in improved efficiency, reduced costs, and faster delivery times.
Overall, AI offers numerous possibilities for the industrial goods industry to drive innovation, improve operations, and create new business opportunities.
What do you see as the biggest challenges facing the Industrial Goods industry at the moment?
Clearly, the shortage of staff and skilled workers - and the accompanying digitization and automation. In the past, the aim was to cut costs, increase efficiency and replace employees. Many of our customers have bulging order books, they are expanding and extending their production sites, but no longer in Germany, as they’re struggling to find staff. This shortage impacts all areas of a company, including service, sales, marketing, logistics, and production.
To address this challenge, companies must implement an end-to-end digitization strategy that seamlessly integrates customer touchpoints, logistics, production, and delivery. Meeting customer demands for delivery dates necessitates efficient production setup and rapid recovery times, particularly for production with numerous variants.
Balancing machine complexity with available employees is a critical endeavor. The shortage of skilled workers is the foremost challenge, followed by the need for effective risk management due to geopolitical crises, such as the Russia-Ukraine war and the China-Taiwan conflict, which introduce significant uncertainties into logistics chains.
Companies should strive for self-sufficiency, swiftly transforming their globally connected systems to enable independent service provision. Achieving global efficiency is important, but readiness to swiftly detach from the network is equally crucial when circumstances warrant it.
Which key trends and innovations will have the strongest impact on the Industrial Goods industry?
Due to limited workforce availability, companies must prioritize maximum efficiency for their employees. Sending service staff across Germany or worldwide is no longer feasible, and digital accessibility is preferred whenever possible. Ideally, service employees can digitally access machines directly at the customer's site using predictive maintenance applications or provide digital instructions on-site.
Creating digital twins, digital productions, and digital factories has become crucial to assess the overall process efficiency of new factories, production sites, and tools. Virtual construction of entire factories in the industrial metaverse allows for exploring the construction of manufacturing lines and islands to achieve optimal efficiency.
The industry trend is shifting towards matrix production, departing from sequential production to simultaneous manufacturing of multiple tools. Different activity cycles are utilized to eliminate waiting times, enabled by matrix production.
The one-lot strategy is another emerging trend where production occurs in micro-factories with small lot sizes. These micro-factories can be virtually interconnected to produce multiple lots rapidly if needed.
Moreover, transitioning from being a product provider to a service provider is a significant trend, albeit posing challenges with ERP system coverage and customer issues. Instead of selling finished tools or machines, companies are focusing on selling continuous obligations. This shift requires developing new business models that move away from one-time payments and towards permanent fees.
What strategies do you recommend for companies in the Industrial Goods industry to effectively market and sell their products through digital channels?
In my view, a company should aim for a maximum of three touchpoints in its digital channels for customers or employees. If these touchpoints are optimized, you've taken the right steps. Having a website for awareness, a store or marketplace (possibly with an app) for digital sales, and a sales staff is more than sufficient. When these three channels are well-designed, additional channels become unnecessary.
However, these channels should not exist in isolation but should complement each other. For instance, the marketplace or store should connect to CRM, ERP, production, logistics, and end customers. Any touchpoint that operates independently, even if well-implemented, wastes resources. Even if direct integration is not feasible, it is essential to consider the logical sequence of each step.
Integration can be executed at various points based on existing IT systems. For example, CRM can be implemented initially if it aligns with other existing components, but it can also be the final step. The same applies to the store or marketplace, depending on the current status of the company. Sometimes it is beneficial to implement a step earlier or later to streamline the entire process or enhance integration. It is vital to recognize that every tool affects the entire value-creation process of the company and is no longer merely an auxiliary process.
What do you offer companies in the Industrial Goods industry, and why is Spryker the right partner for you?
As Telekom MMS, we have the great advantage that we can rely on connectivity. We can access IoT devices and the entire range of customer information across all touchpoints up to intra-logistics, along the entire process chain. We are probably the only provider in Germany with this coverage. In combination with Spryker, we have a very long shop and marketplace experience and combine this with industry expertise and information from customers we talk to every day.
In this way, we learn from the daily project business the challenges that arise from it and can directly address the root cause of any issues. In this way, we find the optimal value for every euro the customer spends. With a marketplace and store solution like Spryker's, we have a highly efficient tool that can fulfill exactly this chain closure very well - even considering business variations, efficiency requirements, flexibility, and globality, where applicable.
What potential do you see in the application of AI for the Industrial Goods industry? And what role can your product or service play in this?
I don't think we can really talk about AI at the moment, at least not in the way I would define it. While machines can perform tasks like dreaming, OCR recognition, and error detection to some extent, they rely on algorithms developed by humans. Although these algorithms continue to improve, they do not possess self-consciousness or independent evolution.
The current classification of AI primarily serves the purpose of replacing absent employees. Its use will significantly impact the future, particularly in production environments, enabling higher-quality outputs and efficient implementations. However, adopting AI is a substantial investment. Initially, we will witness its utilization mainly in quality control, order processing, and billing. In the coming years, we can expect further advancements, allowing us to discuss true AI, characterized by learning mechanisms and self-adaptation.
When we reach that stage, I anticipate that AI will not eliminate jobs in Germany but rather assist in mitigating the shortage of skilled workers. Repetitive and routine roles, such as accounting and quality control, may be rationalized. Currently, many companies exhibit a cautious and skeptical approach, with ongoing experimentation and testing. While several intriguing projects exist, the anticipated major breakthrough is yet to occur. However, I firmly believe this will change within the next four to five years - of that I am convinced.
What do you see as the biggest challenges facing the Industrial Goods industry at the moment?
Many manufacturers of industrial goods are still operating in an uncertain economic environment and looking for new business opportunities. Traditional markets are being challenged globally, and entry into new emerging markets is difficult due to historically grown, often siloed, non-scalable digital solution landscapes.
Exploiting existing or entering new markets with the tools of digital commerce means placing solutions with market-relevant, branded storefronts in a short time-to-market. And on the back-end, it means seamlessly integrating quote-and-order processes with centralized or market-specific ERP systems, drop-shipping, or marketplace solutions. In addition, traditional sales and field service approaches must be aligned with modern web-based product configuration and selection to provide powerful and seamless CPQ processes.
In terms of transforming the IT landscape from a manufacturer's perspective, it means adopting a "think big, start small" approach. Today's investments in e-commerce applications and other platforms, such as ERP or product configurators, must also consider future requirements that may not be specified in a traditional waterfall approach. This is why many manufacturers need a digital transformation partner, such as Unic, to help define visions, strategies, and roadmaps in a very feasible way.
Which key trends and innovations will have the strongest impact on the Industrial Goods industry?
Firstly, to enable new ways of designing business architecture. Manufacturers can benefit from new concepts and methods for designing their business architecture from a market/customer perspective. Thinking in terms of customer and user journeys and applying value stream thinking to your marketing, sales, and e-commerce teams will strengthen their value proposition, including digital customer communications. By applying modern business planning techniques such as Business Capability Mapping or Value Proposition and Stream Design, manufacturers sow the seeds for an adaptive, composable business architecture.
The next step for innovation: aligning IT with core business needs. Composable applications, such as Spryker Cloud Commerce OS, can support core business functions out of the box, which can be seamlessly integrated with any other (reasonably modern) application. API services enhance this. Using Composable Commerce, manufacturers can take individual building blocks and deploy them to support the business. Modern ERP systems and well-designed services such as CPQ or Track&Trace also support such a business-driven and future-oriented way of designing IT architectures.
The third part of innovation is organizational: every traditional manufacturer needs to understand digital customer communication as a powerful accelerator for its business development, be it in B2B (2C) or even in D2C. Therefore, enterprise applications such as webshops, PIM systems, or ERPs must also deliver concrete value to customers and users.
A modern, agile-minded organizational design based on agile principles, MVP (minimum viable product) project setups, and Composable Digital Solutions can crack the siloed energy bound to a traditional application-based mindset.
What strategies do you recommend for companies in the Industrial Goods industry to effectively market and sell their products through digital channels?
There are three main strategy pillars for marketing and selling through digital:
- Consequent customer-centric mindset and methodology: understand your target groups, personas, and their jobs to be done, then rethink your Digital Value Proposition. Take heart of the broad set of instruments that the Human-centered Design (HCD) approach provides to you.
- Clear Product Vision statements for the digital interaction layer: be clear and straightforward when it comes to the strategic alignment of the big building blocks within your enterprise landscape: lead-to-order, digital experience platform (DXP), integrated customer portal, webshop, self-service portal, etc. It is mission-critical to sketch out your Vision for diverse stakeholders: the internal staff and solutions designers, as well as your target groups and clients that will understand your vision as a leading and guiding North Star throughout your overall digital transformation.
- MVP implementation approach: using “Minimum Viable Product” and also “Maximum Valuable Product” interpretation in order to quickly deliver Business Values, but thinking “big” concurrently. Using the Composable Application strategies (Best of Breed) instead of Best of Suite platform decisions is, therefore, a miracle cure.
What do you offer companies in the Industrial Goods industry, and why is Spryker the right partner for you?
Unic offers the whole range of digital transformation consultancy for outstanding customer experience in B2B, B2B2C, and D2C market scenarios:
Firstly, we help companies to understand their target and user groups. Digital customer interaction always centers around e-commerce and sales, digital information service offerings, product finding, and configuration, etc. By understanding the needs, roles, and jobs as a foundation for digital projects, our clients can tailor their most valuable digital solutions. Spryker with its packaged business capabilities is an ideal vendor for digital commerce, marketplaces, and related quote and order management topics to implement a scalable and flexible solution.
Secondly, we help our clients to design highly integrated solutions. Mostly, it’s not only about e-commerce, but there is a product configuration application, a PIM application, and one or several ERP systems, for example. By designing digital solutions from a business-oriented Product Vision perspective, we help to establish a long-term, value-driven roadmap. Spryker here stands out between monolithic suites and highly complex microservice solutions. Importantly, we work with the Spryker App Composition Platform to seamlessly integrate 3rd party composable applications instantaneously, like Akeneo PIM, Algolia Search, or Stripe Payment Solutions.
Finally, as a transformation companion, we help our clients to set up concrete initiatives and projects for joint implementation by enabling their own teams, adapting an agile-minded
organization, and streamlined delivery – just like the clients need their individual support. With a modern CICD-based development environment in PaaS+ mode, Sprkyer offers full flexibility, continuously enhanced, along a strategic roadmap.
What potential do you see in AI for the Industrial Goods industry? And what role can your product or service play in this?
Our practical experience: AI is a great tool to help customers make better decisions before buying a product or service. It helps customers identify the right product or service in a convenient way. AI, especially neural network technologies, are considering alternatives for action and their multiple aspects in an accurate and fast manner.
From an e-commerce perspective, AI is perfect support for customers who need advice on complex product/service portfolios, to configure a specific product/service from multiple variants, and to find and select a specific product/service when the customer's decision points are unclear or uncertain. Taken together, AI can help identify the needs, wants, and subconscious motivations or requirements of potential buyers directly at the moment of decision – also establishing creative touchpoints, like Conversational AI Bots for Voice Commerce.
One of our prominent customer examples for applying AI is the evaluation of a purchase decision. Typically, the buying process involves evaluating a variety of features or attributes that are relevant to different buyers’ preferences. AI can help filtering out the most relevant offers based on the specific buyer's attitudes and motivations. Within a short, rich interaction, AI serves the appropriate offers to the mind of the decision-maker.