Guest author Hardeep Chawla, Zoho's Director of Enterprise Sales, is a seasoned SaaS sales leader with over a decade of experience driving growth and building high-performing teams. Known for his strategic vision and consultative approach, he excels in guiding enterprises through complex buying journeys and digital transformations while fostering long-term customer relationships.
Amid broad transitions to Industry 4.0, manufacturers have been among the fastest and most ardent adopters of software automation. As they progress toward the new era of manufacturing, businesses are continuing to embrace traditional deployments of automation in robotics and machinery—but they're also using it to streamline operational processes, improve employee experiences, and simplify data collection across their organizations. As we look to the future, forecasts point to continued advancement in automation, and as a result, I expect we'll see its applications in the manufacturing sector expand.
To maximize the potential of their investments, manufacturers should start working now to develop precise implementation strategies that address both business and industry-specific challenges. Here are some key opportunities I recommend exploring:
Tackling ongoing talent shortages
Hiring challenges will likely persist throughout 2025 as wages rise, demand for worker flexibility increases, and labor participation rates decline. Through automation, however, manufacturers may find a practical and cost-effective solution to their talent shortages.
By turning routine and repetitive tasks over to their automated systems, business leaders can bridge workforce gaps and reduce strain on their employees. For instance, CRM automation, if implemented effectively, can handle the bulk of manufacturers' standard communication tasks, such as providing stakeholders with production updates and alerting customers about services or products that complement their initial purchase. An automation-enabled analytics platform or ERP BI module can manage data collection, record validation, and report generation with high degrees of accuracy and efficiency. These technologies can also help to eliminate bottlenecks, improving process efficiency and making up for a leaner workforce.
Further, manufacturers that invest in automation could gain an advantage in attracting tech-savvy talent to their organizations. With a significant percentage of manufacturing employees approaching retirement over the next few years, employers that embrace cutting-edge technology will likely experience more success connecting with younger generations of candidates who haven't traditionally gravitated toward the industry.
Building a more compliant supply chain
In the coming years, we are likely to see more global regulations that make companies responsible for upholding human rights and sustainable business practices within their supply chains. Major examples of this include updates made to the California Transparency Supply Chain Act and passage of the EU's Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. For businesses with customers in multiple regions, these types of due diligence laws add an extra layer of complexity to compliance practices. This is especially true for manufacturing businesses, which routinely work with hundreds, or even thousands, of suppliers.
For this reason, I'm expecting automation to play a more prominent role in supplier onboarding going forward. Full or partial automation can be used to ensure that vendor agreements regarding sustainability and human rights standards are signed and in place before the final contracting stage. Automation can also be used to prompt the timely sharing of licenses, insurance certificates, and other materials businesses need to confirm the credibility of potential suppliers.
If any important compliance information is missing from a vendor's record, or if the information provided is incomplete, an automated system can detect the anomaly and prompt intervention from a human stakeholder. Automating these compliance responsibilities helps ensure peace of mind that no potential liabilities slip through the cracks. However, it also has the broader impact of improving transparency and accountability throughout the onboarding process.
Supporting critical sustainability goals
Lawmakers and consumers alike are beginning to tighten their focus on sustainability in the business world. Businesses that commit to green practices—and produce credible data to back up their claims—will be in the best position to maintain compliance with critical regulations and earn favor with customers.
Manufacturers can deploy automation to limit non-essential energy consumption by controlling lighting, cooling, and other core facility functions. They can also schedule data transfers to the cloud during low-traffic hours (and hours that fall outside of the standard workday), reducing the energy needed for transmission.
The requirements for sustainability reporting often vary based on the mandates that are applicable to each manufacturer. This is why I recommend bringing automation into the reporting process as well. When a company's analytics tools are configured to pull data and generate reports according to established standards, the results are often more accurate, and businesses are better protected from financial penalties and reputational damage.
Launching your automation initiative
As this year continues to progress, manufacturers may feel like they're being asked to "do more with less." Mounting expectations from consumers and regulators will require them to bring new levels of diligence and precision to their operations—even as workforce vacancies increase. This is why it's so crucial to implement reliable software that can fill in the upcoming gaps, supporting consistency, cohesion, and quality across the organization.
Equipped with data derived from a comprehensive analytics platform (or from applications with embedded analytics features), manufacturing enterprises can develop an informed strategy for automation, targeting the processes that are most prone to errors and delays. Meanwhile, tools like CRM automation can help put these strategies into action, increasing efficiency and minimizing bottlenecks. In this way, manufacturers can ensure that they're not only capitalizing on Industry 4.0 trends in the moment, but using them to future-proof their business practices and achieve long-term profitability.
