Engineer-to-Order Trends for Manufacturers in 2022

Engineer-to-Order Trends for Manufacturers in 2022
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The last couple of years have been full of ups and downs for everyone, and industries have struggled big-
time to recover in the right direction. While economies are getting back on track gradually, it can’t be
denied that things will take a little time to actually reach a point where they can be termed as normal.

Manufacturing or production were two of the most severely hit industries and the issues with supply and
creation are bound to get carried over to 2022 as well. However, the recovery has been quick, thanks to
how the digital ecosystem has made everything simple, and having complex engineer-to-order products
despite all troubles speaks a lot about that.

While the term has been not new, the rise of engineer-to-order products has been meteoric, to say the
least. In fact, if Market Watch stats are anything to go by, the ETO(engineer-to-order) ERP market is
bound to grow significantly by the year 2027, which is a huge leap in itself. This is because digital
transformation and adoption have made manufacturers more aware of the digital space and its substantial
influence on the market.

2022 is going to be another eventful year for manufacturers with an elaborate range of product options,
more so in the engineer-to-order space.

Here is a look at some of the most promising engineer-to-order trends for manufacturers in 2022-

1- Redefining Inventory Management

Till now, inventory management was referred to as a method that allowed better management of the stock
in hand, which was done to control the costs associated with insurance, taxes, storage, and more.

Given how storage has become a polite liability in the last few years with the supply chain issues that
were prevailing in the market, the stocks didn’t prove to be much useful in this situation where
procurement wasn’t possible at all due to the enforced lockdowns. As a result, manufacturers faced huge
losses because the manufacturing could not be completed on time.

Increased advancements in the area of managing inventory with digital supply infrastructure and better-
paced responses to material shortages, if any, in the future.

2- The Reshoring Practice

Supply-chain issues have been severely rampant in the last few months, which is why manufacturers
have been very active in their efforts to collect their business operations and get them back from beyond
the borders.

Various import and export tariffs too, have been in a state of constant flux, forcing manufacturers to
reduce their dependency on foreign imports. This thought process is going to lead to restructuring supply
chains and making them more self-reliant in the time to come.

3- Better Automation and AI
Automation and Artificial Intelligence will keep taking giant strides in the world of manufacturing, with
newer technologies showing immense promise to completely transform production floors into

sophisticated ecosystems of their own, making various engineer-to-order product solutions more
compact and seamless.

Amidst all this, some of the technological trends in AI will include-

• Autonomic Tech

Autonomic tech has the ability to ensure updates to the algorithm so that it suits the dynamic requirements
of the ecosystem it works in. With autonomic functionality, software can quickly adapt to changes,
increasing its overall efficiency.

• Design with Generative Abilities

Generative design brings the capability to simplify the process of creating new engineering designs from
scratch. The result is an enhanced ability to create, or rather, generate new products while also keeping
the manufacturing potential in mind.

4- Asset Operations

More global competition, inventory and supply chain management, and business scalability are a few of
the challenges that the manufacturing industry is currently facing. As a result, turning to asset operations
is going to be a pretty feasible option.

Asset management operations combines the technician services, data, and the organizational wireframe
to make it quick for every individual employee to achieve what is needed.

All set for 2022?

To cut a long tale short, 2022 will witness the manufacturing industry incline more towards automation
and better security while also trying to reduce the risk posed by supply chain disruptions, and reduced
skilled labor.

With the right engineer-to-order product solutions, the transition to 2022 will bring a lot of promise for
manufacturers al over the world. With Epicor and KBMax, trust us when we say this, this transition is
going to be very promising for sure.