The COVID-19 pandemic fast-tracked innovation and digital transformation across all industries, but few have been impacted as profoundly as manufacturing. Across the globe, manufacturers were forced to shift their shop-floor operations to meet the development and distribution needs of essential goods and services. Automotive manufacturers, for example, began producing ventilators for hospitals. Others focused on the development of PPE, including facemasks, latex gloves, and hand sanitizer.

These short-term experiences will have long-term impacts. The manufacturing industry was already trending toward a more digital, data-driven future - but that transformation was moving at a somewhat leisurely pace. The popular concept of Agile was once the end goal of a five-year plan for manufacturers. Now, agility has become crucial to short-term survival. Going forward, there will be a blurring of the lines between industry ecosystems as manufacturers and their third-party partners have more access to - and more use for - data than ever before.

Here at Cisco, we are primed to not only help our manufacturing customers navigate this new landscape but ultimately lead by example.

Decades of Manufacturing DNA

Unlike many of today's emerging technology companies and software providers, Cisco has deep roots in traditional manufacturing - after all, we have decades of experience manufacturing networking hardware and infrastructure.

Our history in hardware, paired with Cisco's more recent dominance in the software segment, lets us uniquely understand the needs of today's manufacturers, helping them adjust and evolve amidst the pandemic. It also lets us help them plan and set benchmarks as they define future success.

This growth mindset fueled by transformation has led us to win multiple industry awards - including Enterprise Integration Technology Leadership and Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Analytics Leadership. Most recently, I had the honor of receiving the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) Digital Transformation Leadership award.

Merging DX and CX

The "secret sauce" behind Cisco's success in the manufacturing sector exists in the confluence of Digital Transformation (DX) and Customer Experience (CX). To be truly agile, strong DX investment is a must-have. Companies need to develop an infrastructure that supports cross-industry collaboration, data transparency among partners, real-time analytics and mobility across the entire supply chain, services at the edge, and more. Each step of the way can seem like a massive project in and of itself. On top of this, add an urgent need for enhanced security and an additional layer of AI and automation, and it's easy to understand why some feel overwhelmed.

This year at Hannover Messe, Dan Wiggins, VP of Industry Solutions Group at Cisco, sat down with Domenic Tota, Executive Director of Global Infrastructure Engineering at Est