Businesses in the manufacturing sector are becoming increasingly reliant on AI. As the scope of operations continues to grow, you should prioritise integrating software such as NetSuite into your working ecosystem.
Business management software can dramatically streamline workflow across multiple departments. It can update in real time to account for complications such as supply chain delays.
The longer you hesitate to integrate AI into your operation, the more time your competitors have to get ahead of you. If you’re committed to incorporating NetSuite into your operations, it’s vital that you prepare to ensure a smooth transition. This can help various teams to become familiar with the software, minimising the risk of user errors and mismanagement.
By partnering with Eventura, we can ensure your teams are thoroughly prepared for how NetSuite will change operations. This low-risk guidance will prepare your business for a successful transition to AI-driven business management.
1. Compile your data for future projects
AI tools use uploaded datasets as references for their responses. Without access to high-quality data, AI responses will lack detail and fail to identify data correlations. Failure to notice trends in data can prevent your business from gaining real insights into how you operate.
E.g. If one factory site logs machine output in hours while another uses production units, AI will struggle to identify trends across sites. Standardising these metrics allows NetSuite to highlight inefficiencies and support better decision-making
We recommend gathering as much relevant data as possible for your business. By developing a database like this, NetSuite can take an evidence-based, data-driven approach to managing your business operations. Please note: any data used with NetSuite must comply with GDPR.
First, ensure your data is cohesive across terminology and measurement, avoiding issues when comparing datasets. Organised data ensures that AI provides accurate results when requested, without omitting relevant information due to phrasing issues.
2. Set KPIs and end goals.
Setting achievable goals for your business is a key part of growth and development. NetSuite can break down the steps needed to achieve these goals.
Determine where you stand before utilising AI, and pinpoint what you aim to achieve. This way, you gain a better understanding of how NetSuite’s toolkit has assisted you in the long term, allowing you to replicate results in other areas. These goals should be specific and not features.
While it may feel like a key progression, implementing AI into your operation isn’t the main achievement. What NetSuite can help your business achieve, through error mitigation and workflow refinement, is much greater. Your progress will be clear through changes to metrics such as profit, sales, and carbon emissions.
By taking advantage of NetSuite’s potential, your KPIs become much easier to achieve thanks to its ability to streamline your workflow without losing professional attention to detail.
3. Start small, scale up
Avoid starting your AI journey with the intention of it to handle every stage of your operation. Instead, use tools like NetSuite’s SuiteAnalytics AI assistant to identify small yet complex stages of the manufacturing process.
By streamlining these individual stages, you can accomplish “quick wins” for your business. This can range from behind-the-scenes administrative work to inventory management. For example, utilise NetSuite Text Enhance for email responses and report drafting, then use the additional time to focus on tasks that require human involvement, such as meetings.
Perhaps look into which products aren’t selling as quickly as you had hoped. Tools like NetSuite can save valuable time by avoiding the need to comb through datasets to create reports that compare statistics.
Succeed in streamlining these areas, then apply what you have learnt across the rest of the manufacturing process. Use AI to quickly improve workflow, then try repeating the results in other areas.
4. If it ain’t broke…
Improving areas of your process that already work rather than fixing unresolved issues shouldn’t be your priority. You may think the best way forward is to use NetSuite to speed up the parts that work. Instead, put your time, effort, and newfound AI assistance into fixing issues that you still haven’t solved.
Maybe you know how to solve it, but are struggling to find the right way to approach it. Perhaps you need help laying out the solution more clearly. It could just be that the issue stems from the customer side, and you need to find ways to minimise the impact.
AI will help you to better understand your operations, allowing you to identify where the real issues lie. You can use tools such as Suite Analytics Assistant to identify where you experience slowdowns. Tools like Text Enhance can reduce admin load and further minimise this.
5. You’re only human…
If you want to see real results from NetSuite, then it is vital that you keep humans at the core of your operations. By establishing internal AI usage guidelines, you provide your team with clear guidance on how to use it.
Establishing boundaries for its use allows operations to work more efficiently and address problems before they cause further damage. However, if something goes wrong, we shouldn’t hold AI responsible. It isn’t an artificial worker, so responsibility for issues caused should still be with your employees.
Establish guidelines by highlighting which areas still need human involvement. This can mean operational decisions (i.e., determining whether and when to request orders from suppliers) or data analysis (establishing which data NetSuite is allowed to use and access). Humans should still play a vital role in operations, spending more time on the areas that matter most.
BONUS TIP!
Interested in using an AI tool such as NetSuite to assist in your manufacturing operations? We recommend having a technology partner who can support you in the early days. Overhauling your business in this way can come with teething problems, and we don’t expect you to deal with them alone.
Eventura can support you by providing assistance with NetSuite and its AI tools whenever you need it. Integrating AI tools into operations can transform your business. By choosing Eventura as your partner, you can ensure the transition is as smooth as possible.
Get in touch with our team today.
