Mexico’s Manufacturing Industry Ready for Digitization

Q: What is Infor’s role in improving Mexico’s automotive manufacturing processes?

A: We consider ourselves to be the first 100 percent cloud-based enterprise application company with an industry focus, providing scalability and safety, among other benefits.

We provide a unique ERP for all types of manufacturing activities. Because they do not share the same software base, all of our services are created exclusively with the particular industry in mind. Inlate 2021, Infor acquired smart manufacturing company Lighthouse Systems. This acquisition allows Infor’s customers to receive real-time information directly from their machines. This gives our customers the upper hand because it makes it easier to manage their business.

Q: How does Infor provide an “infinitely scalable ERP?” What does this mean in terms of streamlining processes?

A: Being a 100 percent cloud-based service allows us to have scalability. This means that any company, from a small or medium-sized business to a multinational organization with thousands of employees can use our ERP. We are able to leverage our service to meet each client's needs. Infor can resize its offering without losing any of its characteristics since it is designed to offer robust solutions to our customers. 

Infinitely scalable also means that our customer’s computing capacity is going to be as big as they want it to be and at the time they need it since the workload is done through Info’s cloud service. We take care of everything necessary for our clients to focus on growing their business. We perform the updates, maintenance and security of their entire administration.

Q: How does the company boost its client’s cybersecurity?

A: We are always going to invest more in technology and security tools than our customers will, so we guarantee their security against cyberattacks in a much more strategic way that any business could internally achieve.   

Companies tend to have a false understanding that it is safer to internally control their security but as specialists we have the tools to guarantee that a company’s sensitive information is kept safe with our services. 

Q: What are the key areas Mexico’s manufacturing industry must tackle to fully realize Industry 4.0?
A: To reach the country’s full potential, manufacturing companies must digitize their entire plant, which is becoming increasingly affordable as the price to do so has dropped significantly, and even though we see that the upward trend of investing in digitization has not slowed down in recent years, we still have a long way to go to catch up with our North American neighbors. Being so close to the US and Canada encourages us to continue investing in these technologies, especially in medium-sized companies, which is where Mexico is having a hard time adapting to all these changes that Industry 4.0 requires. The most important step is transforming extremely manual plants to a fully digitized landscape. Every business has its own challenges, so it is hard to give a general answer but one thing is clear: we need strong investment that supports SMEs in this transition. 

Q: The manufacturing industry is facing major supply chain disruptions. How does Infor help companies prepare for these disruptions?
A: We talk a lot about AI and we do this because it is key for us and the industry. Infor AI looks for patterns within the world of information that people are not able to identify. These are the outliers that can help us forecast any change in supply or demand. Through linear programming, we first need to identify a company’s seasonalities and variables, which allow us to understand demand and supply behavior. Then, we can work to solve questions regarding distribution, manufacturing capacities and logistics; however, it is necessary to first perform a thorough analysis to then be able to forecast and design the future business strategy. 

Q: Infor is now a standalone subsidiary of Koch Industries. How has this transformed the company’s products and services portfolio?
A: Koch is among the two biggest private businesses in the US, which makes it a really stable company. This allows us to have a strong economic base from which we can invest in developing new software solutions and explore new industries in Mexico.

Q: What are Infor’s objectives for 2023?

A: Our focus remains on our ERP and Cloud Suites, while moving toward greater specialization by industry and vertical growth. We also have different objectives depending on each industry. We want to promote advanced warehouse management, since it is a critical issue for Mexican companies that, regardless of their size, continue to bet on manual logistics processes, which limits the operational growth of these businesses.
In the automotive industry, we aim to implement our “configure price quote” to improve our direct communication with OEMs and address the challenges and opportunities that arise for them on a daily basis. In the food and beverages industry, we seek to exploit product life-cycle development, which is an area that has been seriously underutilized in Mexico.