People and Technology, Connected

It Starts with a Defect

The first call comes in at 9:12 AM.

A customer has reported a defect in one of last week’s shipments — a precision component that’s slightly out of tolerance.

On the shop floor, production keeps moving, but the quality manager’s phone is buzzing. He needs to track down the root cause fast.

The problem? The technician who ran the shift is on vacation. The calibration record for the machine is buried deep in the ERP. The ERP itself is… well, let’s just say it was designed for accounting, not urgent problem-solving.

So, the quality manager calls maintenance. Maintenance calls production. Someone digs through an email thread from last month. Hours pass. The defect report grows into a small crisis.

Why Communication Is So Hard

This isn’t rare. Many companies still rely on phone calls, email chains, and spreadsheets when urgent problems hit. And while ERPs are powerful for planning and transactions, they’re rarely built for fast, cross-functional collaboration in real time.

Here’s the catch:

• 72% of manufacturers already say finding skilled people is hard.

• 83% report skill gaps in both technical and problem-solving abilities.

• Every day spent untangling communication is a day lost in production efficiency and customer trust.

The Real Cost of Quality in a Talent-Strained Industry

In 2025, manufacturers are already running lean on people. When a problem strikes, the knowledge to fix it might live in the head of one veteran employee, buried in a shared drive, or hidden inside an ERP that requires three logins and a training manual.

And with turnover rising (39% expect it to climb this year), the risk is that valuable know-how is walking out the door — leaving only the systems that no one has time to fully master.

How the Best Manufacturers Respond Differently

The most agile plants aren’t relying on memory or chasing emails when defects pop up. They’ve built connected operational systems where:

• The moment a quality issue is reported, the right people are notified instantly.

• Photos, inspection data, and machine settings are shared in real time.

• Work instructions and corrective actions are accessible to anyone, from any device.

Because these systems are cloud-based, visual, and intuitive, they don’t require ERP-level training to use. They sit alongside the ERP — pulling in the data needed — but simplify it into something a production supervisor or technician can act on without extra steps.

Why This Matters for the Future

Technology adoption in manufacturing is surging — AI, automation, and IoT are bringing incredible capabilities to plants of every size. But if critical information can’t flow quickly between people when something goes wrong, the promise of those technologies is lost.

The plants that win in the next decade will:

1. Make communication instant and transparent — no silos, no chasing people.

2. Capture and share knowledge continuously — so solutions aren’t lost with staff changes.

3. Simplify problem-solving tools — making them usable by anyone, not just ERP experts.

Because when the customer’s waiting and the line is still running, the real competitive advantage isn’t just having the data — it’s getting it to the right people, in the right format, at the right moment.