Manufacturing and Logistics

Overview

The world of manufacturing is changing. Customers and suppliers are more demanding. Pressure from competitors is more intense. And manufacturers are expected to do things better and faster—with fewer resources. The added pressure of entering new markets, reducing costs and growing revenue means manufacturers have to embark on joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, strategic alliances and outsourcing to expand their global footprint. How do you stay ahead of the game when things are moving so quickly?

If you want to stay competitive you have to find innovative ways to improve manufacturing capabilities and business processes. That means making sure everyone in your company—from the top floor to the shop floor—has access to the information, communications and applications they need to work collaboratively, both internally and across your supply chain.

BlackBerry Business Solutions offer so much more than just wireless email. They can extend your existing investments in enterprise applications and put ERP, MRP, SCM, SFA and CRM applications in the hands of your mobile employees so they can record at the point of performance—giving them instant access to the information they need to improve productivity, streamline operations, increase revenue and decrease production costs. And ideally, improve relationships with customers, dealers and wholesalers, whether they’re in the building or out and about.

Production/shop floor supervisors

Use your BlackBerry smartphone to access job, inventory and scheduling information from your Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, while receiving predefined alerts for quality and delivery issues. You can easily identify if a required part is in stock, expedite an order to meet a promised delivery date and collaborate with others in your organisation on the resolution of issues—all with your BlackBerry smartphone.

Sales professionals

While visiting customers, you can instantly pull up information about outstanding jobs, delivery status, order history, sales programs and more to provide answers to your customers quickly. As well, you can update account information, view your sales pipeline and place an order on the road—without powering up your laptop. With the pressure for sales reps to spend more time on the road rather than in the office, the benefits of BlackBerry smartphones are endless.

Manufacturing executives

Your executive dashboard can be pushed out to your BlackBerry smartphone, allowing you to access business intelligence, from anywhere—the airport, hotel or on the way to an appointment. Whether you need to stay informed about customer service issues, stock price information or competitive intelligence, you can stay on top of your business wherever you happen to be. With BlackBerry smartphones, you can increase your efficiency throughout the day by being able to perform tasks such as providing approvals, accessing customer data and viewing order and financial metrics. Increasing your flexibility could mean spending more time in front of customers, on the shop floor or with your family—wherever you would like to be.

Fleet managers

Manufacturing facilities with a private fleet recognise the difficulties associated with managing a completely mobile workforce. Equipped with individual BlackBerry smartphones, drivers, dispatchers and managers can communicate more effectively. When integrated with the latest GPS technology, BlackBerry smartphones easily become invaluable tools appreciated by both dispatchers and drivers. Dispatchers can easily track driver location, making logical assignments and real-time changes to delivery schedules, while drivers always know the best way to get to their destination.

BlackBerry smartphones can also be used to accept, update and send completed jobs to the dispatcher and capture additional job information from the field, such as number of pieces, weight and proof of delivery. This information feeds back into enterprise systems for tracking and measurement purposes.

Field service employees

Manufacturers with a field service team find the BlackBerry smartphone an invaluable customer support and productivity tool that keeps their reps connected to customers, coworkers and applications. As a field service rep, you can access details on support cases, escalations and customer activities while on the road. While at the customer site, you can quickly check for parts availability and place a parts order. You can even update your service ticket, trigger the billing process and set up another call—all before you leave the customer’s facility.