Deliver customer satisfaction through Collaboration

Given these realities, manufacturers must build the right products more quickly and with higher quality than the competition. They must be able to ramp up volumes and adjust price points in real time. And they must differentiate on service.

The common denominator in reaching these goals -- the ability to obtain real-time customer response through effective, two-way communication.

Strategies for collaboration success

In their quest to transition to a lean environment, many manufacturers are working to improve how they effectively manage their customers. What they may not realize is that communication lags and misunderstandings with customers can actually lead to waste.

Take order management as an example. Without access to real-time customer feedback, manufacturers may fail to accurately forecast production, resulting in excess inventory. They may fail to arrange shipments during appropriate delivery windows, resulting in the added costs of overly long wait times. And they may fail to take customers' product requirements and quality imperatives into account, resulting in client dissatisfaction.

Yet, an investment in simple customer collaboration systems can help avoid these negative outcomes. Tools exist that enable manufacturers to maintain real-time communication with customers so they can keep a pulse on shifting inventory demands. By sharing schedules, manufacturers can coordinate deliveries and time shipments appropriately. And by sharing product design specifications and even 3D models in real time, defects can be vastly reduced.

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) such as Collaboration Solutions from Allstream or Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions from Oracle and Microsoft, can be used to make customer collaboration more effective. They can allow the efficient exchange of customer, product and sales information.

Improved customer collaboration can help improve business processes to reduce cycle times and enhance profitability. It can increase margins and reduce rework. In fact, according to a survey conducted by IndustryWeek, 40% of manufacturers identified collaborating with customers and suppliers as having the most significant impact on product development time-to-market performance.

Most significantly, manufacturers can achieve these goals in a phased manner - allowing them to control the pace of their investments. Even small investments can lead to improved relationships and cut down on the danger of customer defections.

To learn more about this topic, or share comments or questions, contact David Lukey at Allstream at david.lukey@mtsallstream.com. And don't forget to stay tuned for our next instalment where we discuss strategies for collaborating with suppliers.