If politics are to be believed, the American manufacturing industry is on the verge of a boom, with talks of increased industrial investment igniting hope for many. 

But what if the industry is already on that precipice? 

Manufacturing has been steadily climbing out of the 2020 pandemic shockwave and economic fallout with, all in all, exceptional grace. Now the tide is turning to take manufacturing up a notch with more data, more AI, and more modernized technical processes to keep operations relevant to the rising workforce generation. 

To prepare your Salesforce org for the future, you first need to clean up and address the past. A full industry-specific org optimization takes care of both past oversights and paves the way forward for new innovations not yet leveraged. In this article, we’ll examine the three main trends pushing business leaders in manufacturing to conduct comprehensive Salesforce org optimizations in their businesses: 

Combat technical debt buildup after M&A

First of all, the landscape of M&A in manufacturing has long been a factor pushing business leaders to carefully consider technical investments. Even in this past year, while M&A moves in the industry appeared to slow based on the overall deal-making number, there were actually many smaller deals making big waves throughout the industrial space. But the big worry with hyperactive M&A businesses is the exponential buildup of technical debt from one org combining to the next, and the next, and… Perpetual technical debt is a real worry for many. However, a strong org optimization effort with an expert partner can alleviate these worries and ensure clean data, harmonious flows, and adopted processes throughout all lines of business and entities in your manufacturing org. 

Empower younger generations of manufacturing talent

Another motivating factor for org optimization in manufacturing is the need for talent retention and new talent acquisition. Younger generations of the workforce won’t give your business a second look if they don’t believe your technical processes and culture are up to speed with a modern business. This means optimizing Salesforce functionality for the tech-savvy workforce and ensuring it is intuitive. For manufacturers perpetually stuck in a talent struggle, aligning technical architecture and processes with the high expectations of rising generations can’t be overlooked. 

Pave the way for embedding more innovation on the factory floor: AI, IoT, etc.

Finally, after cleaning up the backlog and instilling best practices for current and future talent, a good org optimization strategy will also leave room for and encourage the adoption of high tech factory floor possibilities, such as IoT and AI throughout the machinery. When your Salesforce instance is functioning in its prime, it becomes a powerful hub for housing and analyzing the data necessary to fuel these innovations. Embedded devices can feed their insights directly into the applicable fields in Salesforce, enhancing your view of sustainability efforts, productivity levels, product maintenance alerts, and more. 

Simplus has been optimizing Salesforce orgs for years and delivering exceptional results for a variety of clients, especially those in the industrial space. Let’s start discussing how we can partner up to optimize your manufacturing org in the face of these trends.