One of the segments likely to face the greatest challenges in 2022 are automotive plastics manufacturers who will continue to face shortages of the raw materials, composites and resins required for both interior and exterior vehicle parts. 

Competing on product quality has never been more urgent as rising raw material and component costs continue to squeeze manufacturers’ margins. At the same time, unpredictable supply chains make it increasingly difficult to maintain consistent product quality and cost visibility.

In the middle of the most chaotic, uncertain months of 2020, manufacturers discovered that the perfect antidote was to double down on quality and reliable delivery—turning to their enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems for the timely insights needed to navigate rapid changes in market demand and resources across their supply chains. 

Increasingly, manufacturers are looking at the potential of digital transformation to improve their competitiveness. The benefits in quality management are particularly compelling—offering the ability to optimize product quality and customers’ experiences by streamlining audits and reporting, improving batch and process manufacturing workflows, and synchronizing production centers to improve perfect order performance.

The heavy trucking industry is defined by the many industry and regulatory standards it relies on to ensure safety, quality and reliability. Among the most notable is International Standards Organization (ISO) Technical Standard 16949 for quality management, which as adopted by the International Automotive Task Force (IATF) is known as IATF 16949.

The cornerstone of every manufacturer’s success is the ability to shift gears from one product generation and business model to the next while finding new ways to excel at quality.

Medical product manufacturers—including producers of medical devices and plastic medical components—are in the some of the most competitive segments of manufacturing. And many of them are growing 10% a year or faster than their peers, according to a recent survey of 151 North American manufacturers conducted by research firm Decision Analyst on behalf of IQMS.

Increasingly complex customer and regulatory compliance requirements, tighter time-to-market schedules from customers who want greater product customization, and the constant pressure on costs and pricing make aerospace manufacturing one of the most challenging businesses in the world to compete in.

Discovering the underlying factors that influence compliance, product quality, production efficiency and your performance as a supplier requires greater accuracy and precision than many manufacturing metrics provide.