Has there ever been a more exciting time in manufacturing? Advances in robotics, AI, materials science, engineering and energy systems are opening up serious possibilities for what firms can achieve next. There’s real momentum behind the sector right now. Plenty of manufacturers are looking ahead to a future of faster production, smarter innovation, and ultimately, better products.
Unfortunately, not everyone is feeling this excitement.
While all this is happening, many businesses are finding themselves buried under growing layers of administration. Regulatory demands are increasing, supply chain communication is becoming more complex, and customers now expect quicker responses than ever before.
This is where the ‘heartsink moments’ begin.
What is a heartsink moment?
Even if your team doesn’t use that exact phrase, they know precisely what it means. It’s that task that immediately gets an eye roll. It’s repetitive, time-consuming and adds very little visible value to the business. And often, it’s not even a task that the person was hired to do.
Reconciliations. Quote admin. Supplier chasing. Document checks. Essential, sure. Thrilling? No.
The frustrating part is that businesses cannot function without these tasks being completed. The issue is that they’re often being handled by highly skilled people whose time would be far better spent elsewhere. This is especially true in manufacturing, where many firms are still carrying the lingering effects of COVID disruption, supply chain instability and rising materials costs.
During the pandemic, one third of manufacturers saw orders fall between 26% and 50%, while around one quarter saw orders fall between 51% and 75%. This is not easy to come back from, and it’s why many manufacturers simply aren’t in a position to be hiring dedicated full-time staff to handle easy yet time-consuming admin. Instead, the work lands on engineers, sales teams and operations staff who would rather be focused on the work they were actually trained to do.
The scale of the issue is bigger than many people realise. A nationwide poll found that 91% of UK manufacturing staff believe they spend a significant part of their day on avoidable or low-value work.
The solution is tech
At Tekh, we believe that most manufacturing admin doesn’t need some giant transformation initiative. It needs sensible automation aimed at the everyday work that drains people’s time.
Take drawing workflows. Many manufacturers still receive PDF drawings, then manually review, interpret and prepare them for quoting or production. There is often room to digitise parts of that process, reduce rekeying, and give people a cleaner starting point.
The same applies to supplier communication. If a precision engineering company handles laser cutting and welding internally, but outsources powder coating or bending, someone may still be manually writing the same quote request emails over and over again. A simple automated workflow can gather the details, prepare the request, and send it to the right supplier automatically, saving time and freeing up talent.
*Example: A customer sends over a complex drawing and asks for pricing. Someone then has to review the file, check materials, consider third-party costs and pull everything together into a quote. In custom engineering environments, this can easily take most of a day. The problem is that customers want answers NOW. If one supplier responds significantly quicker with a credible quote, the slower business may lose the work before anyone has even compared quality. Technology can be used to gather information and reduce the amount of repetitive admin involved.*
Finding balance
While technology is key, it’s not everything. Embracing automation isn’t about replacing factory floor staff, engineers, sales teams or office workers. It’s about empowering them to work smarter.
The goal is to stop using skilled people as the glue holding the business together. Engineers should be engineering. Sales teams should be selling. Operations teams should be improving how work moves through the business. Let’s be honest – No one builds a career in manufacturing because they’re deeply passionate about retyping supplier emails again and again, or filling in compulsory paperwork!
When tech takes on the repetitive burden, people get their time back. They get to do what they love; what they were hired to do; what’s going to allow firms to do all the exciting things. And for businesses, there’s no need to weigh up the benefits of adding to the headcount against the costs. Automation is affordable, and when supported by human oversight, it’s capable of great things.
Removing the work that gets in the way
Technology should help people work smarter. That starts with identifying the heartsink moments, and actually doing something about them. It ends with happy, satisfied and productive staff.
At Tekh, we’re not here to tell manufacturers how to manufacture. We’re here to help remove the work that gets in the way of you doing what you do best.