Top 3 Trends for Legal Teams in Manufacturing

The manufacturing industry has begun to see a bounce-back since the global pandemic sent it into turmoil. With regulation changes, economic challenges, and a drive towards innovation, the manufacturing industry must quickly navigate new risks. This article covers the most recent trends in the manufacturing industry and outlines how legal teams can be at the forefront of innovation.  

Additional Regulation

45% of General Counsels agree that the complexity of regulation is increasing due to the rise in modern technology. More technology brings additional guidelines. This affects every sector, but as regulators now require companies to disclose all metrics related to innovation, manufacturing organisations are particularly impacted.  

On top of this, with the increase of regulations related to the pandemic, regulatory contracts within the industry have become incredibly complex and lengthy. Legal counsels are already overworked and must manage the admin of many low-value contract reviews - new regulations only add to the workload.

To handle these regulation changes effectively, Summize users can utilise the Word Add-In to run health checks on their contracts against a customisable playbook. Not only does this identify where clauses have been used incorrectly, but it also can be used to update contracts at the click of a button. Organisations can reduce the financial and legal risk they face, and avoid mistakes caused by human error.

Summize even helps business users self-serve on low-value contracts, giving back time and reducing costs for companies. Using the Summize Microsoft Teams chatbot, other departments can become more engaged with their own contracts and less pressure is placed on the in-house legal team. This re-focuses legal onto areas of key importance, including regulation changes and strategic projects.  

New Alliances

With the ever-changing world of manufacturing, larger companies have started to collaborate.  For example, see the most recent partnership between Ford Motor Co. and Volkswagen Group, who agreed to collaborate on their vans and other commercial vehicles.1  

38% of general counsels are encouraging alliances or joint ventures to grow their businesses as a direct response to the global pandemic and the subsequently precarious economic situation. To encourage these alliances, “legal executives should be committed to playing a more critical and consistent role in strategic decision making”.

It is vital that legal has the right tools to start and maintain these strategic partnerships, and Summize’s shareable links are a great example of this. Not only does this feature increase contract visibility, but it enables contract accessibility across the business.  

A Summize shareable link also provides read-only access to contracts, displaying the legal team’s comments, notes, and red flags. And to ensure complete security, access to this feature can be given or denied at any time. When engaging in strategic partnerships, this tool is therefore invaluable for legal and helps them efficiently provide their expert advice.

Another supporting feature to encourage new alliances is Summize’s reporting element. The tool enables legal users to search through thousands of contracts instantly, meaning legal executives can provide proactive advice to the business. Legal can then support all strategic partnerships in real-time and enable business growth.

Automation

Automation has become a trend across most sectors. Automating processes means companies can eliminate time-consuming, manual methods while boosting productivity. Specifically in the manufacturing industry, automation has come off the back of a desire for growth and a drive to innovate the sector.  

64% of lawyers say that the most important trends for legal to be aware of in the manufacturing space are ‘data & analysis’ and ‘digitalization of information. But, in an article with K&L Gates, Forbes argues “it is not enough for general counsels to simply learn about technology; they must also embrace it”. Embracing technology can seem daunting but automating contract processes is a quick and easy place to start.

Legal should utilise game-changing solutions, like Summize, to harness automation for their department. In an article with K&L Gates, Forbes argues “it is not enough for general counsels to simply learn about technology; they must also embrace it”. Embracing technology can seem daunting for legal but automating contract processes is a quick and easy place to start.

Summize helps legal teams embrace automation and save time throughout the contract lifecycle. It is designed to automate time-consuming and admin-heavy tasks, saving the businesses time and money. For example, crucial features like the quick summaries automate the process of summarising a whole contract. A legal team can then access these instantly, speeding up their contract reviews by 85%.

Legal has a pivotal role to play in innovating the manufacturing industry and Summize is here to help. Want to find out more? Why not book a demo.

All quotes and statistics from: https://files.klgates.com/files/upload/forbes_insights_future_of_manufacturing.pdf