Global Insights - Manufacturer's Outlook

I had the honor of representing Gross Automation, LLC last week as part of a panel for the last program of a 6-week virtual Global Insights Series put together by MMAC's World Trade Association (WTA). This session was titled "Manufacturer's Outlook - A Panel Discussion." The additional panel members included Shannon Bryant from Harley Davidson and Steven Wallace from Omahnene Cocoa. Katie Henry of the WTA moderated the session and we had roughly 40+ attendees.

What Are Global Manufacturing's Biggest Challenges In The Next 12 Months?

For us at Gross Automation, it is all about communication. There will be shortages and there will be surprise stock available. If we are honest with our suppliers, and they are honest with us, we can get through this. Internationally, this is even more important than ever. So, we all need to communicate, communicate, and communicate some more!

A good example is we recently received an order for (10) components that were on critical allocation from one of our suppliers. The customer needed a rather quick delivery and these were 26-40 weeks backordered. Ultimately, we received the parts in about a week, before our local team even could confirm delivery. This was due to open communication between their management and our team, even though some of these parts were "hidden" from view. Without that honest dialog, this could never have happened. Our customer has been taken care of and is happy with the service we were able to provide.

We and our vendors are also asking our customers for more planning than ever before. If there are projections, we ask to please share them. And we are asking for more orders with allocation dates than before. This secures the production time needed to manufacture their projects and helps with the allocation of the raw materials needed. This is also a tough one due to changing business situations. An additional aspect of this is growing and starting to carry additional inventory, very specific to that customer.

What Major Lesson Have You Learned In The Past 2 Years? - How Are You Applying This Lesson?

Everyone is essential! Yup, that is still a thing that we told people that they were essential and non-essential. How did you feel when someone said that you may not be essential? Let me say it again - Everyone is essential!

We strategically used our PPP funds, and our essential business status, to help a number of our customers build and design new systems as well as used some of it internally to identify new markets and new product offerings. As a result, we secured the future business at a number of our customers through some minor, but important upgrades. We also now have released a new offering under our own brand in the Green Energy market that should pay off for years to come with planned line enhancements coming in the near future.

Realize that internationally, they are still in the pandemic. I was in South Korea at the end of September and they were still under a full mask mandate. On that Wednesday while there, they lifted the outdoor mask mandate. In mid-October, I was in Germany and they also have a mask mandate of public transportation systems. While on the trains, you needed to be fully masked. Both countries still were being adversely affected by COVID and just ever so slowly, starting to come out of it. We are way ahead on our thinking here, whether right or wrong.

How Are These Changing Your Strategic Planning?

We have broadened our thought process to take into consideration expanding our product offerings, our covered markets, and our manufacturing. As a company, we are using the Traction/EOS program to plan our initiatives and the Dale Carnegie Sales Advantage program to deliver those. At the end of this month (November), we will take our management team offsite for (3) days and rebuild our future. That planning aspect for 2023 and beyond has taken on new meaning recently as our market changes and evolves.

Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of our planning process is the SWOT that we have done on our company recently. There are aspects of doing an honest evaluation that are rather uncomfortable. This is critical to our survival as a business and we can deal with it in the normal course of time, not just in an emergency situation.

Panels such as these are a wealth of information that we may not hear otherwise. We realize that our issues are not unique and that, just perhaps, someone else has that one idea that makes all the difference in our company. Being on the panel, also forces us to consolidate our thoughts and try to offer something of value to those giving us their valuable time to listen.

What a ride these last couple of years have been. It is now time to get out and about and let's get things moving again! You and your organization will benefit greatly from the positive energy that you will generate.