Turning remote work challenges into opportunity

By: Kathryn Gerardino-Elagio

Industry sectors around the globe are now attuned to pandemic-driven employment. Many technology companies have reached the stage where they are considering longer term plans for their remote workforce. But for a business to not only navigate the disruption of today but thrive in the future, it is essential that their workforce can communicate, collaborate, and innovate successfully online.

International Metalworking News for Asia caught up with Benjamin Tan, AP South Customer Role Experience Director, Dassault Systèmes, during the 3DEXPERIENCE World for a quick interview.

“People always want things to be done faster because production project deadlines are always getting shorter,” he explained. Benjamin shared that customers today are always looking for cheaper alternatives for cost reasons but at the same time they want better quality.

Cost and quality were at two different ends; to improve quality meant increasing cost, but over time this view has changed drastically. Improved quality, achieved through continuous improvement of process has been able to reduce the total cost of ownership in the long run.

Benjamin revealed that after the pandemic, more customers now wanted mobility or remote work. “The pandemic has called for a re-evaluation of our working habits. A vast number of businesses have suddenly been forced to operate remotely, reliant on their global workforce continuing their job from home. This is unlikely to be just a short-term change but a more fundamental long-term shift in how and where we work,” he added.

Managing Labour Crunch

The workforce is the heart and soul of every organisation. The right people can propel a business to unimaginable heights, while the opposite can lead it to failure. In Singapore, one of the most pressing challenges for SMEs is the prevailing labour crunch.

Benjamin remarked, “This is probably the right time for companies to look at the relevancy of their business.” he believed that the only way for organisations to ensure their workforces are fully productive and able to achieve business goals is to make sure employees are continuously learning, so that they are driving the business forward.

According to Benjamin, 3DEXPERIENCE is a business and innovation platform that provides organisations with a holistic, real-time vision of their business activity and ecosystem. It connects people, ideas, data and solutions in a single collaborative environment empowering business – f rom startups to large enterprises, to innovate, produce and trade in entirely new ways.

Unified Environment

As the world grapples with unprecedented levels of uncertainty, business continuity has become of paramount importance. But now the question would be, how do we not only embrace the need for learning but provide avenues for employees to take advantage of learning opportunities?

Benjamin mentioned that fighting the pandemic gave Dassault Systèmes the understanding that investing in a connected ecosystem on the cloud can support the recovery. This ensures limited interruption, helping staff work remotely more efficiently, while collaborating more closely with each other, external partners, and their customers.

The Dassault Systèmes 3DEXPERIENCE cloud-based platform is designed with continuous ideation in mind, providing a connected ecosystem where stakeholders from across an organisation can simply and securely share ideas, issues, and insights in one place. This single source of truth creates a clear line of communication where crucial topics and employee feedback can be gathered in more streamlined and focused ways.

Key Trends Shaping the Global Business Environment

Benjamin's thoughts are that data and skills are two of the most important trends shaping today’s business environment.

Advancements in data technology can greatly help businesses deal with manpower shortage without sacrificing productivity. Implementing the right technologies can empower even the most labor-intensive industries by optimising and streamlining their business processes. Adopting a public cloud-based platform approach also gives businesses access to a wealth of data about their organisation, their industry, and their customers. This data can then be used to better analyse the impact of business trends, build more detailed customer profiles, and significantly improve scenario planning.

There are three key areas where Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE® cloud-based platform can enable more effective predictive analysis: 1. Shared intelligence from a single-source of truth – Companies and their stakeholders can share information and insights on a secure digital thread. This gives everyone greater visibility, reduces the risk of duplication, empowering businesses to react quicker to changes. 2. Contextualized business insights – AI and machine learning tools bring together data from multiple sources to help build detailed profiles of your operations, products and customers. These can then be used to simulate potential scenarios, assess their impact and model and test new ideas. 3. Cohesive project planning – Having collectively defined project scope and key delivery milestones, everyone can receive real-time notifications of project progress and then instantly update KPIs or timings in response to new insights or events.

Upgrading people’s skills could help alleviate the problem. A more capable staff can work more efficiently and multi-task, if need be. Manufacturing is one industry that has been especially hard hit during the past few years. Supply chain disruptions and a growing skills gap are making business more difficult for manufacturers globally. one way to navigate around these challenges is through the use of technology.

One new solution, DELMIAWorks Shopworks integrates RealTime™ data capture into the application to help eliminate paper-based, redundant processes and production errors. Shopworks, a touchscreen-based shop floor interface to DELMIAWorks EnterpriseIQ, improves production efficiency with configurable Work Center-specific dashboards. Key benefits include streamlining data access and RealTime™ information collection and availability, improving quality, and reducing costs by eliminating costly errors and redundant data entry. Shopworks also helps digitise manufacturing operations and improve production transparency throughout the organisation.

Lastly, preparing people for change is not only the job of universities. Leaders in today’s organisations now must figure out the best ways to identify, reward, and motivate top agile talent while supporting the constant need to learn. The labour crunch may be a big problem for many businesses today, but by finding better ways to help empower employees, being on the lookout for new technologies, and staying open to implement changes that improve work processes, businesses can overcome the labour crunch problem. When the focus is on the goal of success, the motivation to find solutions will remain strong.