MANUFACTURING

IT challengers the manufacturing face and how Citrix solutions can overcome them

Manufacturers are navigating through tumultuous disruptions:

• Cybersecurity threats: Escalating cyberattacks heighten the risk of interruptions in enterprise and factory operations.
• Soaring energy costs: This trend increases the likelihood of factory shutdowns.
• Macroeconomic and political uncertainties.
• Geopolitical tensions: These add business risks for manufacturers, such as supply chain disruptions and the potential loss of crucial export markets.
• Digital skills gap: Manufacturers unable to retain or attract talent for developing smart connected products and engineering skills will lag behind competitors.
• Supply chain disruptions: Persistent shortages of essential components can cause production delays and heighten the risk of temporary shutdowns.
• Inflationary pressures: The increasing cost of raw materials and components, coupled with union demands for wage hikes to keep pace with living costs, will drive up overall production costs.

The expectations of IT include:

• Supporting strategic manufacturing business initiatives, such as enhancing global service delivery or ensuring consistent uptime for workers.
• Data analytics/AI: Gathering data, analyzing it, and transforming raw data into actionable insights to improve the quality and speed of decision-making.
• Data protection: Implementing technologies to guard against cyberattacks in both IT and operational technology (OT) domains, ensuring security across IT/OT/IoT.
• Developing Collaborative Cloud Platforms: Introducing technologies that facilitate seamless collaboration within the enterprise and throughout the ecosystem.
• Enhancing network capacity and manageability: Utilizing technologies that provide reliable, secure, and scalable communications.

Therefore, to achieve long-term sustainable growth and enhance efficiency, agility, and resilience, successful manufacturers must not only integrate digital technologies to meet strategic business goals but also embrace a digital-first approach.

Therefore, the three components of a digital first strategy are:

Scale

Initiatives should encompass scalable IT architectures and solutions that guarantee cost-effective digital operations, which can be seamlessly implemented across the enterprise and throughout the ecosystem.

Impact

Initiatives leverage digital technologies to achieve measurable business outcomes that substantially enhance KPIs by increasing the effectiveness, efficiency, and resilience of operations.

Trust

Initiatives employ digital technologies to establish the manufacturer as a trustworthy entity to customers, suppliers, partners, and employees, thus making a positive contribution to society and sustainability goals.

Digital First – Citrix Solutions

Citrix has crafted a digital-first strategy to aid in the transformation of manufacturing for an era of agility.

By streamlining and strengthening the supply chain, expediting IT modernization for growth and innovation, and optimizing productivity through hybrid work, Citrix supports a digital-first methodology - reinforcing business through impact, scalability, and trust.