Manufacturing is one of the age-old industries involving economic activities in the world. With the fast-paced digital transformation, there is a demand for manufacturers to build resilient, versatile value chains. The key elements that insist digital transformation in the manufacturing industry include:
Commercial Operations
At every step of manufacturing, supply, and distribution, manufacturers have digitized their commercial operations to become more secure, agile, and resilient. Digitization helps growth in sales, inventory optimization, process automation, enabling self-service, and many more functionalities.
Siloed Processes
Siloed Processes with incompatible goals, multiple sales processes, and multiple Revenue Models lead to sub-standard performance. Hence, manufacturers need to build a collaborative culture, unify their goals, and connect teams.
Improve Traditional Forecasting Methods
Solutions for traditional forecasting are created across multiple spreadsheets, ERP systems, computerized systems, and accounting software. For accuracy in demand planning, manufacturers prioritize forecasting optimization capabilities.
Customer Service Experience
Customer service is the key to an enhanced product value proposition and growing customer relationships. Manufacturers are future-ready to deliver personalized, seamless, and memorable service experiences to their customers.
Manufacturing Cloud helps overcome such hindrances and provides enhanced customer experience, improves team collaboration, increases information visibility, and drives innovation in manufacturing.
Features of Manufacturing Cloud for Sales
- Sales Agreements: Brings predictability into the run rate business and visibility of their customers.
- Account Manager Targets: Helps account managers and executives distribute the created measurable targets across the organizational hierarchy.
- Advanced Account Forecasting Framework: Managers plan demand and revenue grouped by region, product, business unit, and other custom dimensions.
- Program-Based Business Capabilities: Suppliers incorporate Original Equipment Manufacturers’ (OEM’s) forecasts and build long-term relationships with suppliers to produce components
- Experience Cloud Site: Manufacturers and their Partners collaborate on Sales Agreements, forecasts, and many other activities.
- Partner Visit Management Framework: Executives schedule visits to distributors and suppliers and enable field reps to perform visits and capture details.
Manufacturing Cloud enables manufacturers to drive sales, transform customer experience, manage warranties, and achieve more as below:
Managing Long Term Business
Manufacturers manage their run rate business by creating Sales Agreements and recording their terms, like planned and Actual Quantity, Planned and Actual Revenue, and associated Pricing and Discounts.
With an increase in Partner Accounts and Products, Capturing Agreements becomes laborious and complex. Account Executives manually compare Agreement terms with Orders to analyze customer compliance. This process of comparing impacts planning inventory, forecasting demand, and fulfilling orders.
Sales Agreements help Executives track and manage run rate business, track sales negotiations, and build long-term relationships.
Transform Service Experience
Manufacturing Cloud is built on Service Cloud and offers several features for orchestrating end-to-end service journeys.
Service Console for Manufacturing: Service Representatives get a complete picture of customer activity and tools to deliver delightful, meaningful service.
Warranty Life Cycle Management: Warranty managers can administer product warranties and simplify claim settlement for warranty adjudicators.
Advancement Account Forecasting: Account Managers build and manage granular and accurate forecasts to monitor spare parts.
Salesforce Surveys: Agents gather feedback from customers and partners with surveys that are easily integrated with web chat, calls, and case management.
Flow for Manufacturing: Admins build, automate, and run workflow processes, set up rules, and create branded, personalized customer journeys.
The Service Console for Manufacturing gives Customer Service Representatives 360-degree visibility into a customer’s Journey and combines the tools needed to resolve their queries.
Manage Warranties and Claims
Account Executives store details about Warranty terms, Entitlements, and Products on separate spreadsheets. For Representatives, finding the information is very time-consuming.
Warranty administrators relate their products and Assets with Warranty Terms and Define conditions, extensions, and void terms. They also extend or restrict warranty coverage by defining product, defect, or entitlement based on conditions of eligibility.
With Manufacturing Cloud Partners and Distributors can easily submit warranty claims with key details such as defective assets, casual parts, replaced parts, and labor changes. Warranty Claims adjudicators adjudicate claims by detecting defective assets, and also look for any existing warranty coverages, and determine claim expenses all from a single view.
Suggested: AI Use Cases in Manufacturing
Forecast Spare Parts and Service Revenue
Whenever a product needs Service, the Service center should be prepared to procure the parts. As the parts are not part of the finished products, they must be purchased separately. Planning for Spare parts is a challenging task as the need for spare parts should be projected well ahead.
With Advanced Account Forecasting Feature, Account Executives can create Advanced forecasts for the demand for spare parts. Customizing a Data Processing Engine can create demand forecasts on historical orders. Executives can plan inventory more efficiently with accurate forecasts.Â
Optimize Visit Management and Execution
Field representatives use the Salesforce mobile app to view the list of assigned visits, navigate to a visit location, check tasks to be done, make notes, and capture key metrics. After every visit, every information created is stored in the Salesforce Org which helps account managers analyze in determine future actions.
Incentives to Partners
To Maintain Long Term Relationships and to drive the desired channel purchasing pattern with partners, Manufacturing Industry gives rebates to Partner Distributors and their Dealers.
Incentives in the form of money awarded to partners for achieving a certain threshold of revenue, orders, growth, or any other target is a Rebate. Rebates increase sales and encourage repeat business.
Rebate Management, an add-on app helps rebate program managers to orchestrate the entire rebate life cycle, from program creation to sending rebate payouts to members.
Rebate program managers can:
- Configure DPE to automatically pull out transaction data from different objects, aggregate the transactions, and calculate the rebate payouts.
- Schedule the aggregation of transactions and payout calculations by using flows and batch jobs.
- Audit transactions and adjust payout amounts.
After Finalizing Payouts, ERP systems are used to send the payouts to partners and track rebate payments in the app.
- Rebate program managers can collaborate with partners on transactions, rebate attainments, and payouts using the Manufacturing Experience Cloud Site.
- Admins can integrate rebates into their sales processes.
- Account Executives see the eligible and applied rebates for a contract, account, or quote as well as the progress of rebate attainment and potential rebates from a higher benefit tier.
With this, they can prevent overpayments on incentives, shape the rebate types for specific partners, and encourage partners towards more orders.
A Manufacturing Experience Cloud site empowers streamlining account management and collaborative sales agreements, leads, and partner orders. Partners get visibility into advanced account forecasts and rebate programs.
Manufacturing Cloud Automation and Analytics
CRM Analytics is a tool for surfacing intelligent insights. CRM Analytics breaks the Salesforce data into data segments, and visual presentation is done through interactive dashboards. Preconfigured dashboards are used by teams that are customized for the manufacturing Industry.
Account Managers get insights on Account Health, Product pricing, Actuals and Planned Comparisons, and Sales Agreement performance.
Insights on data can also be shared with partners like rebate attainment using the Manufacturing Experience Cloud Site. Manufacturing cloud empowers manufacturers to connect the value chain and become more resilient, agile, and impactful.
Supercharge Your Manufacturing Game
Our Manufacturing Cloud implementation is the key driver for the digital transformation of global manufacturing giants. Let’s revolutionize your operations – connect with us today and kickstart a smarter, more efficient future for your business. To kickstart your success story, email us at hello@cloudely.com.
