The Covid-19 pandemic has in a very short time changed the world dramatically in many ways and as we all know, also created an unparalleled affection for toilet paper around the world.
Peoples hands are cleaner than ever, and shaved heads has become fashion amongst men who otherwise would not shave them. From a business perspective, most companies worldwide are struggling and looking for ways to get ahead and come out of the crisis while still intact. This is not different in the manufacturing sector; the effects of the pandemic have been terrible. But hold on a second. Is it only doom and gloom or could there actually be a remote chance there are some potential bright spots somewhere during this crisis? Well, challenge accepted! I’ll try to show you that there are some real opportunities for manufacturing companies through digitalization. You might think this is not the time to think about things like progressing and thinking new, but I beg to differ!
We at Eziil will always strive to turn any problem into an opportunity, this is a major principle integrated throughout our organisation. One of our Slack channels is called #greatsuccess and it’s used more than you would think for a company of 20 people. It does not mean that we are the most successful company in the world (yet) but we believe in bringing to attention and celebrating everything positive we can extract from our workdays. It creates a really good “vibe” in the (home)office and – thinking about it – I might write a separate blog post about that another time.
In Eziil we also believe the world will more than ever need tools like Eziil to be able to do more work with less resource. Oh… there you go: “Getting more work done with less resource”, that’s one opportunity for something helpful already! ✔️
OK, let’s get serious about this. When I get serious about something like this, I like to create tables and lists. I’m a ‘table and list’ kind of person. I therefore thought it might be appropriate to make a table about 1) some of the effects the Covid-19 virus have had, 2) what we believe the market impact to be and 3) how our software – Eziil – with its intelligent digitalization of production can help to mitigate these ill-effects.
So, without further ado, here’s the already hyped-up table for you…
| COVID-19 EFFECT | PRESUMED MARKET IMPACT | EZIIL'S ANSWER |
|---|---|---|
| Reduced investments | Big investments are put on hold by most companies. Production companies are pretty much turning every stone to find ways to cut cost. | Eziil offers low cost, low investment solutions that provides quick results. For many manufacturing companies, optimisation of production could be a key element in surviving this crisis and whatever new one that will inevitably come later. |
| Change in work processes | Work processes in companies will change in order to adapt to the situation. The crisis will force through new ways of thinking. | “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks”, they say. A lot of production companies we have talked with have had this attitude to a certain extent. They like the “old” way of doing things. It’s a comfort zone thing. The new reality will show that this view does no longer ‘fly’. We believe that new innovative thinking will be more prevalent as result of the need to be more competitive. |
| Staff reduction, leaving scares resources | As painful as it is to watch, unemployment rates are rising at a fast pace. Employees have been and more will be let go from their workplaces, leaving less available resources within companies. | This means that more work needs to be done by less people. As result, effective tools to improve efficiency, effectiveness, routines, control and overview are needed. |
| Same person, more tasks | Less resource forces the same person to cover a more diverse set of tasks than before. | Naturally, workers with an added number of tasks will welcome solutions that can help them take on new tasks with more ease. Digitalization helps implement well defined processes for different tasks making it easier to pick things up where others left them. |
| Increased unemployment | Reduction in trade will lead to unemployment rates going up drastically. | People will be pushed far out of their comfort zone. This can lead to more willingness to develop and try new solutions that could help keep their jobs. These solutions need to address challenges like “how do we deliver better quality products at a faster pace with less resource and less waste AND at the same time keeping down costs?”. These are challenges we in Eziil love to help with. |
| Increased competition | Demand for goods will lower, triggering increased competition between producers. | Cost reduction becomes essential and a tool like Eziil can help faster turnaround of production jobs with better overview and improved delivery times. These kinds of improvements will also help companies keep the same profitability at a lower price. |
| Diversification of work | Some types of production companies will need to diversify their product range to broaden their marketplace and cover losses. | The “old ways” of planning will not give a good enough overview when adding more complexity. The “old ways” of planning will not give a good enough overview when adding more complexity. Eziil can offer a better overview and allow for easy integration of new ranges of products and processes, thereby easing the added complexity. |
| Weak points become clear | Weak spots and bottlenecks within production companies will become more evident. | Having a tool that identifies and solves bottlenecks and weak spots in production will provide an increasingly important advantage to its users. We see a big opportunity in identifying and providing good solutions in this area. Both existing and onboarding customers will, over time, also be able to contribute to this process by collaborating with Eziil to develop ideal solutions for them. |
