4 Strategies Manufacturers Can Adopt to Increase Agility

Business agility refers to an organization's ability to adapt fast to both internal and external market fluctuations. The marketplace is prone to various disruptions that trigger a drop in demand or shatters the supply chain. When such situations occur, manufacturers should be able to ease the flow of information throughout the organization. Here are some of the advantages of business agility:

Challenge Management

For businesses to become agile, they must respond to new vulnerabilities and opportunities without compromising customer-centricity. Not only must their long-term strategies allow flexibility, but they should also adapt fast to changes.

Competitive Advantage

Agile organizations can grab limited opportunities, allowing them to beat competitors. They learn from their mistakes and new challenges and can also adapt accordingly to remain competitive.

Cross-functional Collaboration

Business agility can also bring different teams and departments together to promote creative problem-solving. This results from having a supportive environment and exchanging ideas. However, a scattered decision-making process may lead to drawbacks.

While entrepreneurs must grow business agility as fast as possible, remaining coordinated is not easy. These tips can help you actualize your efforts with ease when disruptions occur:

1. Distribute Information in Real-time

People want information as soon as it is available, whether it be workplace practices, safety and health measures, strategies, and anything else that has been affected by disruptions. Facilitating real-time distribution of information answers any questions that people may have while promoting better communication.

2. Determine Information Barriers

Disruptions such as the COVID-19 pandemic can worsen existing information barriers in companies. Thus, establishing the flow of information and analyzing how internal communication operates in an organization is critical. It helps determine where the barriers are and strategize fitting solutions. Enhanced access to information will thus speed up and improve the decision-making process.

3. Create a Procedure to Solve a Problem

Generating an automated procedure to track and handle a problem enables teams to match required activities with problem-solving and provides transparency into barriers or setbacks.

When a new challenge occurs, it can be directed to the right team depending on the priority and area of expertise. This prevents multiple handoffs and helps maintain proper communication regarding the status and the anticipated due date.

4. Evaluate the Quality of Data

Incorrect, missing, or outdated information can trigger a manual review and needless reworking. However, leveraging automation to review data and manage inconsistencies proactively can promote a fast and efficient working system, saving both time and money.

Sweet Tip from Ally:

Agility is all about predicting and adapting to changes in the market landscape, requiring companies to be in the right place at the right time with the right offerings. If your company cannot increase agility, long-term success will be nearly impossible to attain.