We speak to entrepreneurs from all industries, as Southeast Asia has a diverse culture, people and also business ecosystem. This means that we cover stories from ecommerce to enterprise B2B solutions in the region.

Manufacturing is also one of the pillars for Southeast Asia’s economy and has been a mainstay for many markets in the region. Entrepreneurs in this industry have to deal with a traditionally-run mindset, but Willson Deng from Arcstone is looking to change all of that.

Having worked in the manufacturing industry since 2006, Willson is an industrial engineer by trade. He formed Arcstone as a way to digitalise the manufacturing industry and create a solution that helps improve efficiently.

Here are the 5 tech tools that make his work easier with James Soh, Founder & CEO of Renopedia

Arcstone is a digital manufacturing solutions provider, that aims to provide full transparency across the whole supplychain for manufacturers. The provide toolsets to run the shop floor and operations on the factory level, connecting the entire supply chain end-to-end. The goal of the company is to make it easy for users to take on the toolset to digitise and go paperless in the shop floor, to ensure you can see the production process is being run, no matter where you are in the world.  

Reduce process waste with arc.lite (Free)

Arcstone’s arc.lite free Light-Weight Manufacturing Execution System (MES) is designed specifically to give SME manufacturers a head start on manufacturing digitisation by streamlining the heavy manual-based production processes to the fully automated ones at zero cost.

Thanks to its intuitive, plug-and-play nature, the solution enables 1-day installation that allows manufacturers to significantly reduce time spent on deployment to rapidly optimise productivity and product traceability.

I find this tool especially useful when speaking to industry partners and engaging with new customers. By giving them a free tool to see how they can simplify their workflow, we help to kickstart their digitalisation process, and show them the power of harnessing data in workflows.

One of the major advantages of arc.lite also comes from the fact that it allows for the discovery and elimination of wasteful processes and inefficient paper-based workflows, providing me with the ability to make better, informed decisions efficiently.

Manage signatures with DocuSign (Paid)

Being on the go and travelling between countries mean that everything I do has to be digital. When it comes to signing contracts, technology has allowed us to complete this process remotely. This is especially important when I travel and meet up with vendors, business partners and clients. The DocuSign app allows signatures to be collected and updates me on the status of my documents.

From the many times I have used DocuSign, my conclusion always remains the same – it saves an abundant amount of time for me that can now be put to something more useful.

As an advocate of digital transformation and automating workflows, I hope more companies can take advantage of the available technology in place to help people save time and effort just like how DocuSign does.

arc.net to help understand the whole supplychain (Paid)

Organisations that manage the supply chain on a bigger scale will require a wider range of data and solutions. Managing product materials from start to end would require a solution like arc.net – one of the key tools I use to automate my processes – which allows full visibility of all production statuses in real-time, allowing manufacturers to account for each stage of the supply chain journey, and ensure that they arrive at their designated destination promptly, with the right quality and costing.

I integrate arc.net with existing tools and ERP systems to provide a holistic view of my entire supply chain from raw materials to finished goods.

arc.net is especially useful for me to ensure I react quickly to changing events and minimise disruption, ensuring rapid production and delivery lead-times.

I also find it very beneficial in leveraging accurate, instantaneous data on manufacturing activities so that I can optimise supply chain planning in both the short and long-term. The in-built machine learning capabilities also allows me to forecast supply and demand while automating sourcing decisions.

Microsoft Teams to help with better communication (Paid and Free)

Microsoft Teams has been the bridge to our communications ever since the pandemic struck. When almost everything moved virtually, we had to leverage Teams’ powerful video conferencing tool to stay connected with our employees and continue being an inclusive and active member in the manufacturing industry.

I use Teams almost every hour I’m awake to conduct webinars as part of our partnership with various partner organisations, along with our own educational and knowledge-sharing objectives on the outside and internally for all our enterprise communications and collaboration. In the big external sessions, I share more about digital transformation, digitalisation solutions, client/customer use cases and best practice, as well as production visibility and control. These sessions have been a vital way for me to be an influential voice in the manufacturing industry and allows me to project my vision for both SMEs and young talent moving forward.

Being a heavy traveller across multiple regions, Microsoft Teams also helps me to stay in touch with my employees and partners so that our operational efficiency is never hampered and I can be present at the click of a button.

Sharepoint to help with file sharing (Paid)

Sharepoint is my go-to for sharing files and information with my team. Their collaboration features, such as project management, messaging, and shared document storage allows my employees to easily access Arcstone’s data in a safe way. As I am constantly on the go, a secure server is something I look out for so that I can be assured that there are no data leaks or mishaps happening externally that can cause disruption to our workflow.

Tapping on a technology known as cloud computing, data stored on the drive can be accessed anywhere, and can be managed jointly or individually, with the option to limit access to users.

Sharepoint’s edit features also allow me to access various suite editing tools. Having such tools integrated into the drive, combined by the fact that the drive is compatible with most devices means that I can edit documents on my iPad, and seamlessly switch to my laptop if I need to.