Deloitte study advises manufacturers to embrace the Net
techweb.cmp.com
Posted: 3:00 p.m. EST, 4/15/98
By Margaret Ryan
NEW YORK - A study by Deloitte & Touche
Consulting recommends that manufacturing
companies implement "Internet-enabled business
processes" to succeed in the next millennium.
The era of "innovation for its own sake" is over,
according to the"1998 Vision in Manufacturing"
study, which was conducted in collaboration with
the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler
Business School (Chapel Hill, N.C.). Instead,
companies must adopt business practices that
operate on "Internet time" in order to meet
customer demand any time, anyplace, and to
maintain enough flexibility to adapt to changing
customer and market requirements.
The study, which surveyed close to 900 executives
in 35 countries, asked subjects to identify the
critical success factors necessary to compete in the
21st Century.
Industry executives identified two critical
ingredients for such success, Deloitte & Touche
said: achieving the flexibility to cope with large
swings in market demand; and the need to continue
to create innovative products.
But the study found many high-tech organizations
unprepared to function in the era of the "virtual
customer" who wants to decide when, where and
how to purchase goods and services, and demands
them in zero time with an influence over their price.
Douglas Tuttle, global director of Deloitte
Consulting's Manufacturing High-Tech Practice,
and Mark A. Evans, national managing director for
Deloitte & Touche's High Technology Industry
Practice, advised high-tech companies to do three
things: adopt a customer-centric focus; act in zero
time; and increase new product development.
Companies should be able to access information in
real-time in order to provide solutions to
customers, quickly modify manufacturing to
customer specifications, and crank up the R & D
engine to develop new products.
"Innovation is no longer the passport for success,"
said Tuttle. Companies that follow the mantra of
"build it and they will come" may fail in the next
century, he said.
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