Manufacturing

Manufacturing industries have undergone profound changes over the past five years. Traditional supply chain management—from product development, production, and supply to sales and service—no longer dominates the business model. As expanding international manufacturers relocate facilities in countries around the world, the business assets that make up the supply chain—people, products, equipment, and raw materials—are increasingly on the move. They seek solutions that improve communication and collaboration, provide flexibility for changing market conditions, enhance operational efficiency and improve security.

According to Hoovers, there are over 1.5 million manufacturers worldwide, which represent over $11 billion in market opportunity. Large or small, all manufacturing businesses face similar product development, supply chain, production, sales and service challenges.

These include issues inherent in globalization, outsourcing, reduced profit margins, rising labor costs, regulatory compliance, the introduction of new technology, satisfying and retaining customers, operational efficiency and asset management.

Smoothstone understands these challenges and knows that unified communications can help address them by helping to cost-effectively manage research and development, production and assembly lines, and networks of suppliers along with helping to oversee production by subcontracting vendors, engineering and logistics.

Why Smoothstone?

Smoothstone Unified Communication solutions provide the infrastructure to enable complete communications across the manufacturing enterprise. The hosted, cloud-based applications optimize collaboration, improve productivity and significantly reduce travel throughout the manufacturing environment and between locations.

Unified Communications can deliver compelling interactivity and connectivity at every step of the manufacturing value chain, minimizing the challenges of globalization, simplifying compliance, and enabling streamlined operations to deliver products on time, with the highest levels of quality, at a lower cost.

Smoothstone can:

• Increase productivity through communication, thus reducing latency between teams, lowering travel-related costs and causing fewer delays.
• Allow personnel to quickly and cost-effectively share information and collaborate in real time to resolve supply chain issues
• Offer sales teams the ability to perform better customer service and meet with clients more often.

Customer Example

Client
A design and manufacturing company with over 350 employees in four locations across the Midwest.

Challenge
After 15 years with their communications carrier, the client faced a new contract and a complete price hike for all of their services. Worse, their existing communications network was cobbled together with aging equipment and outdated technology. They needed a new source for their phone services–preferably one that provided a fully converged solution–and a completely refreshed network infrastructure.

Solution
Smoothstone delivered a managed MPLS WAN with access to voice and data solutions via SIP Trunking in partnership with a valued Cisco VAR that provided with Cisco equipment and infrastructure.

Benefits
The client´s locations are now connected with Managed WAN and voice/data services under one provider, saving them money. Additionally, this not only stabilizes their communications infrastructure, but delivers the converged communications they desired to enhance their day–to–day productivity.