CTE Manufacturing Guide

connectivity is one of the biggest challenges for manufacturing companies. In the worst-case scenario, this can lead to production downtimes and stops. Unnecessary production downtimes lead to losses in two respects: financially on the one hand, but also in terms of the reputation of your company. Customers as well as your partners can lose trust and possibly even leave. If you want to digitise your supply chain and integrate suppliers, sufficient connectivity is essential in order to be able to obtain the resources required for production and to remain capable of acting as a production company. In addition, poor connectivity can also hinder your data collection and analysis, as well as sharing between multinational teams. In the end, benefits from solutions like Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software will not be fully realised.

viable commercially via digital channels. In addition to the connectivity already mentioned - the quality of which is the basis for establishing a connection between the various locations at all - you need software and hardware solutions to meet your requirements.

How you can address this challenge:

How you can address this challenge:

Choose a reliable telecom provider that can provide you with versatile connectivity services and solutions. These solutions must have sufficient bandwidth and low latency. At the same time, they should be future- proof, meaning they can handle exponential growth in transactions and data exchange. For instance, if you want to expand your production or set up manufacturing facilities in additional countries, you should be able to obtain high-speed Internet on site with the right telecom partner. #3 Challenge: Communication across different time zones Locations across multiple region with large distance brings further challenges because as a manufacturing company, you want to be able to view production at any time. This goes from viewing the premises of all your production facilities and extends to the digital retrieval of data and information. This includes monitoring of production statuses in order to read progress or troubleshoot issues in products or process. It is essential so that operations can be designed efficiently and adjusted quickly if necessary. A time difference of several hours makes the exchange with your production site in China-APAC region even more difficult - especially since more advanced manufacturing requires exact timings and the fulfillment of precise scheduling agreements. However, communication is almost only

Don‘t see cultural differences as an obstacle. Cultures throughout the APAC region are extremely diverse. Chinese culture alone is so diverse that it is difficult to speak of one culture. Get involved in constantly learning new things and you will be richly rewarded. Also, as a rule, most people are open-minded and extremely forgiving. They will forgive you for small faux pas. In order to be optimally positioned, it makes sense to have the support of local specialists for the region. This is not only about understanding cultural subtleties and avoiding missteps from the outset: With expert support, it is easier to penetrate and develop the local market and optimise cooperation with regional partners. The language barrier can also be overcome and the exact exchange of information for error-free production can be managed in this way.

#2 Challenge: Sufficient connectivity

If you are a manufacturing company headquartered in Europe and want to set up a production site in the China-APAC region, connectivity will be one of the most important issues you‘ll face. The quality of connectivity over such long distances will depend on many factors and it will affect the basic communication between headquarters and off-site location, the control of productivity and efficiency, and in the last instance, the stability of your entire production. Poor network performance and inadequate

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