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Covid 19: What could've been with Smart Manufacturing?

The biggest crisis since the Great Depression

With the disaster striking the face of the earth, people scratched the bottom of the barrel for all they could find. Resorting to their survival mode, many went into frenzy behavior and disrupted the whole flow of work. A purge of some sort was felt around the globe, with everyone crying out for help in one way or another. The need for excitement and a productive routine was eating up everyone from inside. If only a precautionary measure or counter strategies had been devised beforehand, it certainly would’ve saved the economy a lot.
However, it wasn’t all bad for everyone. With the reduction of physical stores and interaction, the e-commerce industry skyrocketed to a peak level. The need for consumer products was so much since most people were sitting at home and eating without doing any physical movement or workout. Amongst the products being used the most were the popular, easily accessible, and reasonably priced products known as fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG). In the retail industry, these products are known as “fast-moving” since they are always in high demand from frequent customers. Four distinct consumer goods exist convenience, shopping, specialty, and unsought goods.
COVID-19 had expedited structural change in FMCG, such as a focus on health and wellness and a move in strategic approach toward e-commerce, while potentially revealing weaknesses along the distribution network. In the early stages of lockdown, most sub-sectors had done pretty well because of supportive consumer trends; also, medium-term revenue and margin forecasts have stabilized. The whole phase of Covid bought about the lack of food production and the need for more production, which was reconciled with extra production. The lack of food was only prominent in the regular or poorly financed families, while most of the families started to bulk up food reserves in fear of food depletion completely.

The surge in Fast Moving Consumer Goods Industry

According to “The FMCG Global 50” survey, the top fifty fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies worldwide all had successful fiscal years in the most recent twelve months. According to the numbers, the industry’s top dogs were in more vital financial health going into the coronavirus epidemic than they had been in for a long time, with 2019’s headline revenues growing 3.9% after expanding 3.4% the year before. Among the top 40 FMCG giants, Nestlé raked in the most revenue at $93.1 billion, contributing to the group’s overall $1.13 trillion in sales.

Effects of Covid on Consumer Behavior

Consumer spending on fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) had been affected by the coronavirus outbreak in a way that was felt for quite some time. Reasons for the transition included a rise in demand for some fast-moving consumer items, modifications to consumption patterns, and a resulting increase in the requirement for stock.
Stock-outs and shortages occurred as people began hoarding necessities for regular use. These include staples like cereal and bread as well as non-perishables like meat and cleaning products like bleach and ammonia. NCSolutions, a company that monitors consumer goods, reports that on April 19, 2019, approximately half of all supermarkets in the United States of America ran out of toilet paper at some time during the day. The significant increase in demand, mostly driven by panic-buying and hoarding, quickly exhausted stockpiles, however, because grocery stores and other retailers normally only stockpile several weeks’ worth of toilet paper in their warehouses. Many people believe that supply chain disruptions are to blame for shortages. However, the truth is that this resulted from a buying frenzy. The average American household of 2.6 people consumes about 409 rolls of toilet paper every year, according to data undertaken by Georgia-Pacific, the manufacturer of both Angel Soft and Quilted Northern brands. In order to remain competitive, organizations today require a supply chain that can rapidly respond to and implement new ideas.

The changes in Manufacturing Industries

Equipment performance, maintenance schedules and practices, and the ability to meet demand on time can all be significantly impacted by manufacturing firms’ decisions to either increase capacity or reduce production in response to requests. Many industrial workers were ordered to stay at home and avoid contact with others to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Since some businesses couldn’t afford to shut down entirely if they wanted to keep customers satisfied, they implemented an alternating-days policy to control the number of employees in the factory. This way, business people kept the equipment running and products manufactured.
When it comes to industrial maintenance management and support, Advanced Technology Services has been at the forefront of innovation, providing cutting-edge people, processes, and technologies to handle unexpected spikes in demand, keep production on schedule and fix broken machines quickly and effectively. The ability to meet demand or fall behind schedule may have hinged on the availability of these vital asset support services.

How to reduce the impacts of Crisis in Manufacturing Industries

A solution to reduce the workload in the workspace would have allowed the industries to work more efficiently. Since covid SOPs were mainly required to minimize human interaction and avoid the usage of public spaces, a method to digitalize the processes in the industry would have certainly helped a lot. A way to tackle the factories’ difficulties without having to manually complete every single task by hand would be a huge deciding factor in the crisis.

The Modern Smart Processing

Process Intel is the solution to the adversities faced in manufacturing industries. It is a platform that introduces smart manufacturing with the help of inspections and sensor systems. The system is capable of saving vast loads of time and transforming the process into a much more accurate one that is accessible to all the team members. Process Intel is the precautionary measure you may need for the worst-case scenario.