What Exactly is Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud?

The implementation of Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud into your operations can create efficiencies up and down the organization. While many manufacturers have been cautious about adopting new technologies, and protective of their long- standing processes, there is a real business benefit to deploying this technology across the organization.

Manual processes are time consuming and often lead to errors that can be costly. Transitioning to an automated system that delivers information in real time is far more reliable and accurate. Adopting Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud helps companies stay competitive and is a real game changer for the manufacturing industry.

Elements of the Manufacturing Cloud

Manufacturing Cloud is built on top of the fundamental features of Salesforce Sales and Service Cloud; therefore, all existing and soon-to-be-released capabilities of the underlying CRM Clouds are included in the solution.

Salesforce has stepped up to deliver an industry-aligned platform, building on the current top CRM platform, to align to some of the influential demands for manufacturing firms

with Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud. The solution, which began with a number of the most core skills, has expanded. It will continue to be a platform that fulfills manufacturers’ most critical and significant requirements.

Manufacturing Cloud Enhances these Capabilities in the Following Areas:

Sales Agreements

In Manufacturing Cloud, Salesforce developed the concepts of “Sales Agreements” to meet the requirement for firms to track and manage business known as “Run-rate,” which is frequently at the heart of manufacturing organizations’ revenue and operations. Clients or partners have committed to buying a specified amount of merchandise over a set time period in a run-rate business model. Although the formality of these agreements varies, in most cases, the idea is for manufacturers to create a baseline expectation for future orders that they can assess and monitor during the contract.

Organizations can use Sales Agreements in Manufacturing Cloud to:

• Manage the agreement lifecycle, which includes collaborating with clients on new

agreement volumes and price, current contract revisions, and agreement renewal and expansion for the following period.

• Key agreement metrics, such as planned and actual volumes, product pricing and margins, as well as unique metrics that can be generated to fit particular demands, should all be measured.
• Convert acquired new business possibilities into sales agreements, or create arrangements apart from the new business pipeline.

Account-based Forecasting

Forecasting for run-rate business should incorporate both current scheduled business for a specific account over time and future business prospects for that same account. Other

elements, such as past order trends and real-time market and consumer information, should be considered when making a budget estimate.

Organizations can use Manufacturing Cloud’s Account-based Forecasting to:

• Capture a sales estimate for new and run-rate businesses, including expected volumes and income sources.
• Develop and fine-tune commercial projections existing sales, and new business pipeline that may function as the source of validity’ for downstream supply chain and production planning by collaborating across sales, finance, and operations.
• Reduce the time sales or account managers spend developing and monitoring predictions by leveraging data to provide forecast ideas.
• To help operations without burdening sales teams, disaggregate projections to SKU levels.

Manufacturing Analytics

Of course, any CRM is only as valuable as the information it provides. Salesforce has enhanced Tableau CRM capabilities with Manufacturing Cloud to assist manufacturers in gaining insights into critical performance areas such as:

• Product performance – Understand how each product performs in terms of actual revenue or unit quantity and how it compares to the forecast or plan.

• Account health – Assist in tracking income against forecasts and plans for each account.
• Sales agreement insights – View sales agreement insights, such as real monthly income and a specific contract’s total planned vs. actual revenue.

Drive Efficiency with Automated Service Processes

At the beginning of 2022, new declarative tools were unlocked to Manufacturing Cloud, enabling organizations to quickly automate key service processes, such as warranty and returns, parts management, or sample fulfillment. Some of the key capabilities include:

• OmniScripts: offer a guided route for customers/partners/employees to complete a specific business process, including logic branching and responsive design for mobile apps.
• FlexCards: give access to appropriate tasks for the provided data and display contextual information at a glance.

Together with other new process capabilities, these features will enable businesses to digitize operations that span organizational borders and beyond easily.

Why Choose Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud – 5 Benefits

1. Manufacturers can better meet commitments and run a more streamlined business

The Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud allows companies to connect disparate departments together. By connecting Sales and Operations, businesses can instantaneously and automatically submit sales orders into a unified system that

are then sent straight to fulfillment.

Eliminating extra manual steps removes the possibility of human error, which can be costly. We’ve all heard stories of how entering a simple, extra zero in a fulfillment order, can cost a company thousands of dollars. Automating and connecting the process creates reliable data for Sales and Operations to work together.

2.Create accurate business predictions

Instant access to reporting provides information on product performance that can be invaluable. These insights give businesses information about what products are selling best and which are underperforming. Manufacturers can use these insights to identify trends and better predict where resources should be allocated. If there are high return rates on a certain product, having a connected system gives a manufacturer instant knowledge of the problem. This allows them to address issues quickly instead of costly production problems continuing indefinitely.

3. Manage inventory appropriately

Manufacturers often create a designated amount of product to meet the estimated demand. The ability to accurately track customer demand not only assures that you aren’t creating a surplus of product, but also able to meet customer needs.

Without a 360-degree view of your operations you can easily over or under produce. If you create too much of something without the demand, you’re going to lose money. If you are out of stock, customers will be disappointed and may move on to a competitor. There is definitely a balance that must occur and Salesforce can help hit that sweet spot of just enough stock on hand.

4.    Update contracts instantly

Separate updates to client agreements coming from various parties can create version-control chaos. With an automated digital process for contract management, any changes to existing agreements can be made instantly and accessed by all. Having a single source of truth ensures that your operations are all unified, legal liability is diminished, and departments are executing to the same specifications.

5.  Track leads and improve conversion rates

Implementing an automated system that tracks leads through the sales process gives greater insights to businesses about what is successful and where there is room for improvement. A company can then better understand what type of sales strategies work with prospective customers.

Any attrition in the sales journey can be identified and trigger an alert so manufacturers can find out what is happening at that point in the process. Once

the problem is identified, sales teams can adjust so that prospects don’t fall out of the pipeline at that point any more. Ultimately this leads to more sales and adds revenue to the bottom line.