Page 16 - Logistics News - December 2021

CFO 4.0

CFO 4.0 instrumental in building

the factory of the future

Global provider of ERP software SYSPRO has announced new research into CFO 4.0, which reveals
that the manufacturing CFO will play a critical strategic, innovative and financial role in the business
moving forward.

he study, which was conducted in July to ERP to increase visibility and enhance transparency and data-
September 2021 and led by SYSPRO, assessed driven decision making.
Tthe sentiment amongst senior level chief
financial officers within manufacturing sectors across Winning the war for talent
the Americas, APAC and EMEA. The participants When exploring the key reasons behind business
encompassed financial leaders across both SMEs and disruptions in 2021, it comes as no surprise that 43 percent
larger enterprises, indicating that these results reflect the of respondents point to the delayed procurement of raw
insights of a wide range of players in the manufacturing materials or inventory from either onshore or offshore
and distribution space. suppliers.

The diversification of business operations Not surprising, however, is that this figure is followed
The study revealed that the disruptions caused by the closely by the procurement of talent and skills, which comes
pandemic played a catalytic role in the diversification of in at 38 percent. “The pandemic highlighted the importance
manufacturing businesses. In order to thrive, 65 percent for digitally savvy talent as businesses continue to invest in
of CFO respondents surveyed indicated that they have smart technologies and automation. The skills vacuum is
shifted expenditure into new markets, product lines and vast and companies have acknowledged a growing need to
technologies. Drilling down further, the SYSPRO survey onboard highly specialised individuals and rapidly upskill
found: their current staff,” says Mark Wilson, Chief Executive
• 33 percent of businesses expanded into new markets. Officer, SYSPRO EMEA&I.
• 29 percent of businesses innovated through the introduction
of a new production line. Proactively managing business risks
• 39 percent of businesses will explore new routes to markets With increased pressures on global supply chains, survey
such as e-commerce channels. respondents noted that the costs of inventory management
have the potential to rise to unforeseeable levels. When
In order to enable the diversification of business models, asked about top business risks for 2022, 40 percent of CFOs
29 percent of CFOs indicated that they would invest further highlighted the management of rising inventory costs, 36
into research and development (R&D). percent of respondents were concerned about managing
cash flow and unsurprisingly 35 percent pointed to the
Building and securing a digital future management of local and global supply chains.
When asked about future areas of investment to ensure
continued success, 56 percent of CFO respondents indicated global road to recovery, it has also allowed businesses to shift
”While the pandemic continues to have an impact on the
that they would be investing in warehouse automation, 37
L O GI S T I CS NEWS percent of respondents confirmed that they would investigate operations and adapt. We are seeing the industry explore
new territories, expand production lines and evolve business
migration to cloud-based services and 37 percent would be
models. The CFO has been an instrumental catalyst in these
exploring SMART technologies including 3D printing, IoT,
shifts and is evolving the face of manufacturing as we know
machine learning and artificial intelligence. Forty-seven
percent of CFOs also indicated that they will be investing in
it,” concludes Wilson. •

14 NO V E MB E R/D E C E MB E R 2021 www .l o g ist i csn e w s .c o .z a