Cisco Philippines deep dives into manufacturing industry’s current state

Cisco Philippines gathered some of today’s most innovative leaders to discuss the current state of the country’s manufacturing industry in the third episode of their online webinar series titled “Manufacturing in the New Normal: Moving Beyond the Disruption.”

According to the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA), the industry is now showing slight improvements, regaining momentum in terms of consumer demand, while experiencing certain limitations in the global movements of goods.

Pointing out the main concern in the industry during the pandemic, Carlo Rojas, Manufacturing Industry Lead of Cisco Philippines said, “Social distancing is key in a factory because it’s very common for people to get together. Technologies such as end points that split people up but still keep them connected are vital. There are lots of ways to utilize technology, but those backbones and those investments are key to the agile situation we’re in right now.”

Apart from the need for social distancing, another common denominator among all disruptive factors was transportation.

Greg Fisher, Country Manager of Microchip Philippines and Board Member of the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries Philippines, Inc. (SEIPI), pointed out that transportation was a big problem, with the public seating capacity only at 50 percent. Like the other companies, Microchip Philippines sought to outsource shuttles and drivers to ferry their employees.

Rhett Ramos, Asia IT of Allegro MicroSystems Philippines Inc., shared the same sentiments. He did highlight that the government tried their best not to be as disruptive as much as possible with the lockdown. Allowing the processing of fees in the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC) was a great help for their part.

Their main concern, however, was ensuring that health and safety protocols were implemented in their workplace and followed and observed by their workforce. Ramos mentioned that some of the adjustments they had to make included the adjustment of the seating arrangement in the cafeteria, maintaining the physical distance among people walking in the always, and reconfiguring their office cubicles.

For Jonathan Mondero of Amkor Technology Philippines, Inc., the main challenge and the number one priority of their company, is maintaining the safety of their employees. But as the Sr. Director and Head of IT of their company, he had to ensure a stable IT infrastructure that can support new requirements, while rolling out digital transformation initiatives. The cost, however, of maintaining a hybrid workforce model and ensuring health and safety protocols in the office and in their factory resulted in operational expenses going up.

Lito Estacio, Director of Enterprise Technology and Security Asurion, echoed the same issues. Apart from physical distancing, wearing of masks and face shields, enhanced sanitizing of the facility, and daily health assessment, he said Asurion Philippines also implemented hundred-percent cashless transactions in their cafeteria, attendance check-in using RFIDs, online health assessment, and provision of gadgets and other equipment for their employees working from home.

In terms of practices and innovations that might stay for good, system integration and development is a common variable for the five speakers. This includes improving the Human Resources department and automating their services, as well as innovating the supply chain management.

For Cisco Philippines, Rojas emphasizes that making changes on a factory fore is very common. He, however, explains that the latter requires a lot of time, adding, “In the pandemic, you need to be agile and you can’t make mistakes. You have to look at ways to automate those connectivity investments from remote locations in a very sophisticated and speedy way.”

Many companies got rid of paper-based products, just like Microchip Philippines and Allegro MicroSystems Philippines, who have implemented business-to-business transactions through electronic data interfaces and tunnelling, which allows on-premise connections through VPN (Virtual Private Network) respectively.

Since Amkor Technology Philippines is fully digitized, Mondero said they instead developed an online timekeeping system to cater to the hybrid workforce model. Meanwhile, Asurion has been implementing a work-from-home system for their employees even before the pandemic so the necessary platforms and framework were already in place prior to the lockdown.

From a global perspective, the speakers mentioned that most countries are gearing toward the digitization down to the factory floor, but not all countries are capable of doing so right away,

With digital systems in place, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in supply chain management is one innovation that Rojas looks forward to. He believes the automation of network systems in connectivity will be the future of remote management.

“Flexibility is the variance I see around the world. Creating spatial separation but still keeping people connected is possible with technology. Businesses should consider how they’ll manage their supply chain. Data is also very critical in the connection to the assets, to the machines, to the systems,” he explained.

Ramos and Fisher agree that embracing industry 4.0, or industrial revolution, is a sustainable competitive advantage to make the Philippines the prime manufacturing destination for companies. To add, Estacio pointed out that supply chain digitization is inevitable and necessary because it results in improving customer experience.

Mondero supports this, saying while moving to a high-tech manufacturing is just part and parcel of innovation, the company needs to change, evolve, and adapt to keep gaining momentum and finding new ways.

In conclusion, all speakers of Cisco Philippines’ third webinar episode agreed that technology and human investment will help local manufacturers survive.

Cisco Philippines, an Information Technology solutions provider, aims to create a world of potential. Know more about the latest news, trends, and webinars in the IT industry across the globe by visiting www.facebook.com/ciscoASEAN today.

INQUIRER.net/ JA