The Covid-19 pandemic affected the world economy during 2020. In fact, within the European economies, Spain was one of the most affected by quarantine and confinement. The industrial sector suffers a serious recession as a result of all this situation.
Of course in every crisis there are losers and winners, in this case the entire sector related to entertainment, recreation or hospitality plummeted. While the food sector, technology, online commerce, software, among others experienced growth.
Those companies that bet on digitization before or during the crisis were able to overcome it and fare better than those that did not. In this post we are going to talk about how the crisis is affecting the industrial sector and the need to digitize to survive.
What is the digitization of the industrial sector?
The new Industrial Revolution is a digital revolution . The digitization of the industrial sector has been anticipated for a few years now, but due to Covid-19 and the peculiar circumstances of confinement, many companies have decided to update soon.
The digitization is merely automate all production processes for industries using this new technology, they are not so new.
Those industries that already had a good digital presence were able to better cope with the crisis and recover in less time. However, industries that did not have in mind the option to digitize or did not want to do so, had less chance of recovery and many did not manage to overcome the crisis.
Industries must update and automate their processes in order to keep up with the reality of the market that is becoming more demanding and more technical. Basically, if companies don’t update, they are destined to die.
Supply chain digitization
The digitization of the supply chain is one of the innovations that many industries put into practice during the strongest months of the crisis in order to continue operating and not disappear. With this, the integration of the supply chain processes is achieved, from the supply phase to the sale of the finished product. By automating the supply chain, organizations can have a global vision of it, achieving simple decision-making automatically and reducing waiting times.
Advances in communication systems allow a better flow between suppliers, industries and customers. In addition, the different links in the production process connect better with each other, increasing immediate responses to generic situations that in other circumstances would take a long time to resolve.
Marketing Automation
The digitization of the entire supply chain includes the automation of the marketing and sales system . The confinement and the impossibility on the part of the clients to go to the industries or the impossibility of the industries to visit potential clients, showed that technology is an alternative to be able to continue selling and generating new clients.
A good digitized marketing platform is essential if the company has digitization projects. In fact, those companies that already had a digital marketing platform managed to continue serving their customers and attracting new customers, since these software promote digital communication with potential customers through the company’s website.
As we have already indicated, the crisis generated by this pandemic created unique situations in the economic sector. One of them is the way the customer approaches the product and also the way the company approaches the customer.
Customers no longer go to a store to choose the product, but instead search for the product online. Companies use the same system: they offer their products through a web page instead of in a physical store.
This trend is going to continue. Which is why it is clear that the time has come to go digital and the software developer Hubspot offers the digital marketing platform called Marketing Hub that integrates the marketing and sales process. In other words, he manages to contact customers and carry out the entire process without leaving the office.
Update all staff
The crisis has highlighted that those who do not catch up and update are left behind, like their industries. So it is time for all staff to take courses aimed at updating themselves in the use of digital tools.
The company-client relationship changed completely. Therefore, staff and managers must be up to date with information technology and know all the processes that are carried out within the industry.
Cost reduction and work optimization
Digitizing the industry brings innumerable benefits and one of them is the reduction of production costs , while increasing the quality of production . Many automation solutions help reduce energy, water or gas costs. Also, the reduction of personnel in certain areas where work was previously done manually.
In crisis situations, cost reduction is very important. Digitization achieves cost savings, a higher quality final product, an increase in sales made and increases customer satisfaction.
