Everyone needs to find the answer to that question in an ongoing way. The continual changes and improvements in technology mean we need to evaluate what we are doing and make sure our processes are providing optimal benefit on a continual basis. 

 

Remember that technology is a tool to help your business reach its potential and not the basis of your business. Many of the products made today (especially furniture and cabinets) have been made for centuries. We use technology to make them better, faster and at a lower cost.

 

The first step is to evaluate where your business is at and where you want it to go. This can be a daunting task if you haven’t addressed this yet. Without knowing where you are and where you want to go, your business will wander around reacting to everything that comes at it instead of being proactive and on a path to a sound profitable destination.

 

Next, compare the available technology to what you are using today. Determine what fits your needs now and will help you grow into the future. Keep in mind that you will probably have to build technology into your business in stages because of budget constraints. Use the monies saved by adopting new technologies at each stage to fund future stages. This is proactive by keeping on the cutting edge of technologies that fit the path to reach the vision of your company.

 

While it may seem that with increased technology employees become less important, the opposite is true. Increased technology may mean fewer employees needed to manufacture a product, but the importance of each employee increases. Each employee will need higher skill sets to utilize the technology fully. The days of low skill workers in America putting nut A on bolt B have in a large part left our shores for lower wage countries. Competing with the low wage countries requires optimizing our use of technology (working smarter and not harder). That means we need skilled workers that can not only use technology, but have ideas and are continuously upgrading their skills. 

 

We need to know what needs to be done first. Then we need to have the discipline to make it happen. Success will only happen if upper management is the driving force behind making the necessary changes.