To make reading more targeted, I extracted and summarized some valuable points in one place.
• Roofing Industry has a great chance to transform from manufacturing of constriction elements to providing foundation for personal power generation. Such power generation promises to be a cornerstone of smart electrical grids. New trend opens multi-billion business opportunity for industry expansion, as well as career opportunities for bright managers and professionals.
• Drones are going to be part of Roofing Industry. A lot of opportunities are here, and it’s better to be first and eventually dominate in this business segment.
• Machine Learning (ML) is going to be one of key company’s expertise. Roofing Industry has its own set of data and tasks, and it is always tricky to gather data suitable for successful ML. As sharpening algorithms for specific problem takes a lot of time, starting earlier gives steady competitive advantage.
• Company should be ready for pivotal changes in Sales Practices. They are coming with new technologies and new digital infrastructure. Company should architect vision, prepare new business model in time, train people, make right decisions and use new opportunities rather than collapse as a hostage of old model.
• Predictive Analytics is going to be hot topic (see Big Data and Actionable Insights chapter), but it’s better to not overestimate prediction models. Coming years of dramatic changes are not friendly to trend analytics.
• Robotic Process Automation should be in company portfolio ASAP. Digital Workforce is going to change all business rules. If you are late, you are out of business.
• Block Chain Challenge. Pretty soon, we will see acceptance of cryptocurrencies everywhere. And using money surrogates is only a tip of iceberg of coming digital wave. Transactions costs are going to be reduced to bare minimum for every activity from Sales Order Processing and Payments to Quality Control and Warranty Management.
• Big Data is going to be new foundation for almost all business opportunities from Advanced Process Control Optimization and Marketing to Digital Workforce Management.
• Roofing industry should hire and grow best available people. Coming changes require talents, energy, innovations and hunger to be first. And there will be competition for right people who can convert challenge into opportunity.
Technological future. Roofing industry transformation.
New business and career opportunities for bright people.
About author: Dmitry is expert in modern wave of technologies: Big Data, Machine Learning, Clouds, Business Intelligence and Enterprise Architecture. Extensive 20+ years experience of implementation of ERP, CRM, Budgeting, SharePoint and BI, 4 years of IT Director at manufacturing company, combined with 4 years as Database Architect in one of largest shingle manufacturer gives him truly unique view on internal and external processes in North American Roofing Industry.
Changes are already here.
Information and equipment landscape is dramatically changing right now; IoT, Big Data, Machine Learning, 3-D printers, electric and self driving cars are just several waves of new technological tsunami.
Residential roofing manufacturing can’t avoid dramatic evolution in coming years. In some cases, transformation is required to use benefits of new technologies, and in others it’s question of survival.
To thrive through these inevitable challenges, companies should employ strategic approach, balance modern technologies with internal culture, get and motivate brightest people available.
I’d like to discuss several insights about these looming changes. They are already visible to people working with leading edge technologies, but it is not easy to grasp them following everyday routines.
I truly believe that fate of residential roofing industry is in hands of just several hundred managers and innovative professionals. So, my hope is that some ideas from the article can help them to concentrate efforts and address coming risks and opportunities.
In the article, I am mostly concentrated around possible business opportunities available in 2018-2025. Some insights are universal, and they can be applied to any industry. Others make sense only for roofing manufacturing and connected industries.
Only as an illustration, I give some estimates for business outcome based on available statistics and my previous experience. It is clearly not enough for making any investment decisions. So, persuasion of any mentioned opportunities requires professional marketing research as prerequisite.
Porter’s Five Forces Model of Competition
To analysing industry opportunities/risks, it makes sense to refer to Porter’s Five Forces Model of Competition (see simplified version below). Latter in the article, I will show that at least two of the forces are threatening traditional shingle manufacturing unless energetic measures are taken. But, if industry successfully fight the challenge, it’s going to extend to new areas and transform itself to a cornerstone of future local and global smart infrastructure.