In Denver and beyond, manufacturers for a range of sectors including energy, bio-medical, and construction, are facing an evolving landscape of regulatory requirements from bodies such as OSHA, the EPA, and the FDA.
Of course, these requirements are stringent, bearing on data protection, quality assurance, consumer safety, and environmental protection. As the world evolves at a faster pace, so too will the standards expected of manufacturing businesses in areas such as their cyber security and monitoring of their IT environment.
In this blog, you will discover the technology solutions that can empower compliance with a range of regulatory requirements for your manufacturing business. These can help you save time, stress, scale compliance, and enjoy peace of mind. Let’s get into it!
Embracing Technology for Manufacturing Compliance: An Increasing Necessity
Regulations are evolving because of how quickly technology is developing and becoming an integral part of life and work. Data protection frameworks such as the CMMC and regulations from bodies such as the FTC are being updated to reflect developments in the cyber security space.
While in January this year, an update was made to the OSHA requirements for regulated businesses with over 100 employees to electronically submit detailed information from Osha 300 and 301 to improve safety transparency.
Gradually, regulators are learning to become more agile in alignment with markets and technology, so having the right IT solutions in place that can adhere to, scale with, and simplify adherence to regulatory requirements will prove more and more invaluable to your manufacturing business over time.
Here’s some IT solutions you might not know about for empowering manufacturing compliance. You can use these categories to search for solutions specific to your business and requirements to find the right solution for you:
Implement Digital Documentation and Record Keeping Software
Still using paper for your compliance processes? Digital documentation may be just what you need! Digital documentation and record keeping solutions can simplify the storage and retrieval of compliance-related documentation and can streamline your compliance workflows as well. They also make it much easier to conduct auditing and reporting, saving you time and empowering accuracy and transparency.
Use Automated Compliance Monitoring Solutions
Automation coupled with accuracy is a recipe for empowering exceptional compliance for your manufacturing company. Whether it’s via the use of sensors, IoT devices and software, it’s possible to continuously monitor compliance-related processes 24/7, with these tools being able to provide alerts to potential compliance issues before they can turn into time-consuming, costly problems for your business.
Harness the Power of Technology for Your Manufacturing Compliance
Navigating regulatory compliance can be complex, stressful, and time-consuming, but you don’t have to do it alone! With the right IT partner by your side, one that knows how to transform compliance complexity into sweet simplicity. Curious to see how, using the right tailored technology? We can help! Get in touch with us today for a complementary insights session for your business.
Utilize Business Intelligence for Risk Management
A fairly advanced solution, some manufacturers are systematizing their risk management using business intelligence tools such as Microsoft’s Power BI. In a nutshell, BI platforms pool together multiple datasets to into one place, enabling your business to effectively bring together a dashboard of compliance vitals.
In addition, data analytics can be applied to the datasets to potentially predict compliance risks by correlating data together to find patterns and regularities, enabling manufacturers to move from a reactive to a more proactive and foresightful approach to their compliance.
Implement Robust Cybersecurity Measures
As so much of work and life has become digital, so too has security and its relationship to regulatory requirements. There are some general security best practices that your business should follow to ensure compliance, among them is 24/7 network monitoring, encrypting data, having safe network, and data access policies, and having a business continuity strategy and data backup and disaster recovery plan.
Other measures include undertaking regular network and vulnerability assessments to discover and address vulnerabilities promptly. While these are some very common measures mandated by regulators, it’s worth working with a cyber security specialist in manufacturing to align the right tools and processes water-tightly to your unique regulatory requirements.
Build a Compliance Culture Alongside User Training and Education Platforms
Of course, compliance is not just about IT, data, and processes; it’s about people! The quality of your compliance will rely greatly on the compliance culture of your business. You can train your team to follow compliance practices in alignment with your workflows, and particularly when any new relevant tech is introduced in your business.
Cyber security awareness training for users will go a long way in preventing data breaches in the first place too. Different compliance software and solutions may also offer training resources that your team can tap into as well.
Harness Collaboration Tools for Compliance Coordination
Regulatory compliance is often a cross-departmental effort that takes coordination between production, quality assurance, legal, and other teams.
By using collaboration and productivity tools that can integrate together in a unified ecosystem like the kind often found in businesses that use Microsoft 365, you can bring compliance collaboration and workflows together across communication, project management, document sharing, co-editing tools, and more. By breaking down silos in your business, ensuring regulatory compliance will be a much more seamless experience.
Discover and Implement Regulatory Compliance Software
As an ecosystem of regulators has developed, so too has an ecosystem for regulatory compliance tools! These platforms wrap around the regulatory requirements of bodies such as the FDA, and handily they will tend to evolve their capabilities in lock-step with these bodies’ changing requirements.
These platforms offer specialized features like compliance checklists, audit management, and reporting tools that can all make it easier for your manufacturing business to save time, ensure adherence, and scale its compliance.
What Does The Future Hold for Technology and Compliance?
The convergence of technology’s use in meeting compliance requirements is only going to get closer over the coming years.
In the future, solutions like blockchain technology for supply chain validation and security could take off to streamline and assure compliant manufacturing and production processes. In any case, the increasingly rapid evolution of cyber threats, tech, and regulation frameworks will tend towards a faster approach that only technology can help with.
For manufacturers in Denver and beyond, there is the same clear message: technology could serve as a powerful asset for being compliant and competitive alike. By removing the barriers to implementing these solutions, you can secure the future of your business while powering your day-to-day and future growth. If you’re interested in finding out what this could look like for your business, Red Bigfoot are always happy to help.
Discover The Best IT Solutions for Your Manufacturing Business: Talk-Tech with A Free Consultation On Us
Curious to see where IT can make the biggest difference for your business? We’d be glad to help you! This won’t be any ordinary consultation; we make it all about you – answering your questions, asking you the right ones, and helping you to deal with your operational challenges using the power of technology.
We take the pain out of talking-tech; we’ll help you discover better for your business without dragging you through the bits and bytes of it all. After your consultation, you’ll have clear, actionable insights for your business that help you to move forward with clarity and confidence.
