In manufacturing, the frontline is responsible for executing tasks and following clear guidelines and SOPs. 

While doing so, they use their experience and judgement to ensure results are compliant with intended specifications and work instructions. Manufacturing operations evolve to incorporate more digital tech equipment like IIoT sensors, automation, and robotics. As it becomes more normalized to use advanced IT tools to extract manufacturing data, the frontline and the decisions they make on a day-to-day and minute-to-minute basis will play a key role in ensuring that optimal results are obtained from digital transformation and automation efforts.

On September 10, 2001, I became a founder of my third software company. The next day, as I came to learn that the world had changed forever, I experienced one of the key lessons that many founders learn on their journey to build a new venture—despite what you think you know, there always comes a moment when you realize you know very little.

What's the single biggest challenge of supply chain management? Well, it depends on your view of the business. Webalo believes it's the end to end visibility of the supply chain--in other words, understanding the cause and effect of activities that may occur to impact supply chain performance: whether it's insufficient incoming supply, unexpected performance within manufacturing (low yields, quality issues, equipment downtime) or problems downstream (within the warehouse or in transportation--either orders not being delivered, or incorrect orders being shipped).