FEBRUARY 20198 MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY INSIGHTSIN MY OPINIONManufacturing with a Service HeartBy Mel Kirk, SVP & CIO, Ryder System, Inc.In 1996, I joined financial services company GE Capital Services (GEC) in a Master Black Belt role, helping implement Lean Six Sigma practices. For 10 years prior to that, I had been building a career in manufacturing and operations leadership. From day one at GEC, I noticed a real difference between what I had experienced in manufacturing and what I was now seeing on the new job.I observed that members of the Services business unit were locked in on the performance of the company. Somehow, their individual fates were tied to the fate of the organization. But perhaps, more importantly, there was real visibility into the performance of the company, the health of customer accounts, and wins/losses on active proposals. For me, it was enlightening to find that, for example, the receptionist not only knew that the President was away attending a customer meeting, but she was also able to articulate the importance of that meeting to GEC's growth objectives. Consequently, she was driven to offer her support by professionally engaging those customers when they called or visited. In a word, every team member was engaged. That full employee engagement translated into better solutions and business performance. Ever since my early days at GEC, I have been trying to replicate that level of engagement in the organizations I have led or supported.I use that story as a basis for this article because it's such a powerful example of an engaged workforce. The good news for manufacturers is that there's a path that enables you to replicate that level of engagement for the betterment of your company. It's called technology. The investment in technology is a key leverage point for bringing about that desired state. The three technology-based keys are to: harness the bountiful data that exists in your business, recruit powerful visualization tools, and unleash innovative techniques for collaboration. These keys enable you to garner a level of engagement that can accelerate operational improvements and ignite new product development programs. Operational improvements and new products ultimately translate into real business growth.Every company in every industry has to make tough investment decisions around ways to harness the abundance of data that is becoming available via
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