Manufacturing stability strategy for times of economic uncertainty

In times of economic uncertainty, businesses must be savvy in their strategies they employ to navigate challenges and seize opportunities. Between regulation, innovation and competition, the only constant in manufacturing is change. Adopting a manufacturing stability strategy can help safeguard your organization, streamline operations and support informed decision-making during turbulent times. From enhanced cybersecurity measures to leveraging manufacturing accounting solutions, development advisory services and updating Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, these tactics will help you stay resilient amidst economic fluctuations.

Protect your business with cybersecurity

As manufacturers continue to embrace new technologies to streamline operations, their cybersecurity strategies need to evolve with them. With ever-increasing artificial intelligence (AI) and automation, protecting your processes and data is more important than ever. Without proper governance and protection, technology investments can expose organizations to breaches, reputational damage and intellectual property theft. For an industry which is dependent on continuous production lines and timely delivery, the ramifications of a successful attack can be devastating. Large-scale disasters can threaten production and profitability and lead to significant financial repercussions. Organizations should understand where they have protective measures in place and what vulnerabilities are associated with those measures. Running vulnerability scans regularly is a great way to understand whether a company is susceptible to potential threats. Business interruption insurance can also offer financial protection when manufacturing processes are halted. It’s crucial to evaluate and update your cybersecurity controls to keep your organization’s assets protected from financial losses and reputational harm.

Update processes with manufacturing accounting solutions

Today’s finance departments must act as business advisors, providing data-driven insights to support strategic decisions across operations, sales and supply chain management. This evolving role requires finance teams to wear many hats and oversee a wide range of responsibilities to protect and grow the organization’s assets. Despite facing numerous challenges, CFOs can leverage resources to effectively manage financial planning, enhance supply chain resilience and conduct scenario planning, ultimately steering their organizations towards success. Manufacturing accounting solutions can help you take the time to control your internal processes when you can’t control external factors. By incorporating scenario planning and market trend analysis, manufacturers can create more accurate and adaptable budgets.

Expand efficiently with development advisory

Development advisory services assist manufacturers in creating and refining their business strategies. These services can help you identify and secure the most strategic locations for your operations, taking into account factors such as proximity to suppliers, transportation networks and labor markets. Assessing the competitive landscape, identifying growth opportunities and positioning your company to anticipate market shifts can be challenging. Whether you’re expanding locally or seeking to bring a physical presence to the U.S. in the wake of recent administration decisions, our development advisory team can help guide you from concept to completion. We help navigate project assessments, financial analysis and securing funding ensuring you set up shop in the most opportune location. Additionally, development advisory services can help ensure that manufacturers stay compliant with industry regulations by providing tools for tracking, monitoring and reporting quality standards. By leveraging development advisory services, you can optimize your facility's location, enhance operational efficiency and position your business for growth.

Leveraging technology for better decision making

In uncertain times, focus on what you can control. From the factory floor to maintenance records, manufacturers constantly require well-organized, easily accessible and high-quality data. It’s important to take the time to address inefficiencies in your processes and update your ERP systems to enhance decision-making. Greater visibility allows companies to quickly respond to market changes, improve efficiencies across the supply chain, optimize production schedules and manage inventory more effectively. By creating more digitized processes through tools like IFS Cloud, manufacturers gain insights into production efficiency, quality and maintenance needs. IFS Cloud helps manufacturers streamline their operations with AI-drive scheduling, real-time insights and comprehensive lifecycle management that boosts efficiency, flexibility and sustainability. Depending on the new features or functionalities your business needs, cloud solutions enable you to seamlessly adjust and expand your ERP requirements as necessary. Government policies like tariffs can cause disruptions to manufacturers but digital transformation is a powerful strategy to maintain competitive advantage in the market. By adopting technologies to minimize manual documentation and enhance decision-making, product teams can redirect their efforts towards more valuable tasks such as conducting thorough market research, refining strategies and speeding up development.

Manufacturers need to employ tactics that address regulation, innovation and competition to remain resilient amidst economic fluctuations. It’s imperative for manufacturers to build an adaptability for change in both skills and infrastructure. By enhancing cybersecurity measures, leveraging manufacturing accounting solutions, utilizing development advisory services and updating ERP systems, businesses can safeguard their operations and streamline processes to make informed decisions.

Discover how Baker Tilly can help fortify your business against external pressures and ensure long-term success.