NOVEMBER 20178 MANUFACTURINGTECHNOLOGYINSIGHTSThe changing landscape of information technology has come to transform the market space of appliance manufacturing. The manufacturing industry has begun to shift its focus from durable goods to that of customer experiences, enabling increased demands in the market, unlike ever before. Accompanying this trend is also the increased demand on the IT organizations, making them an integral part of today's manufacturing. As Whirlpool steers ahead with this emerging trend, digitizing its products to enhance customer experiences, my prime focus as the CIO is to prepare the grounds for organizational alignment, enabling the right conditions and executing the right plan.The Right Approach for Technological PartnershipWhirlpool enjoys the distinction of partnering with a rich band of solution providers equipped with a deep set of capabilities, empowering Whirlpool in finding the right people and more importantly the thought leadership around specific dimensions of Whirlpool's endeavor. As the CIO of this prestigious organization, on one hand, I make reinforcements with the existing partners and on the other hand, make zealous attempts in bench marking with peers both within and outside the industry, trying to discover a number of small players in the arena. The small software providers, although short on the required scale, have proven time and again of coming up with great concepts, helping Whirlpool reinvigorate its solutions constantly. As Whirlpool moves into the digital arena, the need for different perspectives, agility, minimalism, experimentation, and implementation have become highly important. Whirlpool is taking the at the most initiative in endowing its portfolio with a diverse mix of providers. The bigger software provider will carry out the bigger technological projects, and the smaller providers will aid in the process of experimentation and laying out the strategies for the future.Whirlpool's upcoming projects in the phase of changing technology As one will never get away from the foundational IT to run the business, our prime focus is to take our enterprise resource planning (ERP) to the cloud, and as our ERP environment is largely handled by SAP, we are platforming it to the HANA software. Whirlpool is looking forward to taking the leaping steps towards the automation of the shop floor.One of the more exciting projects we are working on is to pair well with the customers; we are looking at re-platforming our entire customer experience, on how we present our brands through the web and other mobile experiences. We are looking at the internet of things (IOT) and digital experiences as part of this connected experience. A notable Technology Transforming Manufacturing By Matt Meier, VP & CIO, North America, Whirlpool CorporationIN MY OPINIONMatt Meier
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