Automation World
Natalie Craig, Sarah Loeffler

The pandemic has forced OEMs to rely on digital communications, which has caused many manufacturers to pay closer attention to their marketing and social media strategies. In a digital world, it’s more important than ever to effectively communicate your brand story through social media to engage existing and new customers as well as to attract potential employees who are looking to LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Pinterest, to learn more about prospective companies as they consider their next career move. 

More than 3.6 billion people are on social media, which is expected to increase to 4.41 billion in 2025, according to Sprout Social, a social media software company. And right now, social media users spend around 144 minutes on social media every single day.  Full Article

ProsLine
N.F. Mendoza

​While much of the loudest buzz surrounding the impact of COVID-19 was focused on the dramatic shift from on premises to remote work, the pandemic further affected every aspect of the enterprise, which includes data and analytics technology. The uncertainty of what the tech industry would face forced D&A leadership to quickly find tools and processes—and put them in place—so they could identify key trends and prioritize to the company's best advantage, said Rita Sallam, research vice president at Gartner, in the company's recently released information.
 
Trend 1: Smarter, responsible, scalable AI
Artificial intelligence and machine learning are key factors. Businesses must apply new techniques for smarter, less data-hungry, ethically responsible and more resilient AI solutions.  When smarter, more responsible, scalable AI is applied, organizations will be able to "leverage learning algorithms and interpretable systems into shorter time to value and higher business impact," Gartner's report said.  Full Article

Manufacturing Tomorrow
Jan Burian

A new process was designed, work instructions were modified, and the staff was trained. 
Experience has also shown us that the more complex the process change, the higher probability of failure. Problematic changes may include order management, order to expenditure, sales, and operations planning processes. People tend to prefer ideas and procedures in which they see real value at first glance. If the value of the complete proposal doesn’t jump out at them, they are likely to adopt only the parts they believe will bring immediate value. They will lean toward implementing processes that demand less effort and labor or that will help them meet KPIs that result in bonuses.

Hard experience has shown me that, to ensure lasting benefit, process change must be anchored by digital technology.  Full Article