The manufacturing floor operates in the blind in the absence of real-time data from suppliers on arrival of parts or raw materials, says Jeffrey Luft, portfolio development executive with Siemens Digital Industries Software.

Given the upheaval in the last three years brought on by supply chain disruptions, it’s imperative that companies are in “lockstep” with their suppliers, says Luft. Unfortunately, all too many companies wait until the last minute to try to find the delivery that was expected the previous week. “You need to be ahead of the curve and start thinking about your inbound material,” says Luft. “Did it ship on time from the supplier? Are they shipping in full to you so you can run your manufacturing line? A lot of businesses today will wait until the week before the manufacturing date to ask, ‘Where's the material?’ By that point, it's too late.

“So when you don't have material in-house, you have to redo your production schedule and it just upsets the apple cart,” Luft says. “Get ahead of it early, get ahead of it often, and build that successful communication link.”

What if one needs to make changes after inbound material has shipped? If the supplier has to rebuild to new specs, costly air shipping may be required to meet production dates. Constant communication may obviate expensive changes. Re-work will still be needed, but emergency shipping expenses can be avoided.

“Pre-COVID, we had a good handle on materials coming in and out,” Luft says. “We didn’t see the disruption or the deviation that the past 38 months have shown us. I like to call it the ‘new never-normal.’ We’ll never get back to where we were, but the better we communicate, the smoother the product goes out.”

Consistent and continuous visibility means businesses build not only their production plans but their revenue plans, he says.