The State Of Technology In The Manufacturing Industry

KEY TAKEAWAY

Digital transformation takes time. It’s iterative, and the challenge for suppliers is achieving maturity in Brownfield facilities. To that end, Greenfield facilities are making slow progress towards digital transformation, while Brownfield facilities are catching up.

13% of Greenfield facilities
are classified as being at least Digitally Transformed, up from just 1.1% in our previous survey.

Just more than half of Brownfield facilities (51%) are no more advanced than early automation, with 49% characterized at least as a modern factory.

KEY TAKEAWAY

More Greenfield facilities in Germany have achieved at least Modern Factory Maturity, while Malaysian Brownfield facilities lag behind other regions. In Malaysia, this is reflective of heavy investments in advanced areas with less investments in traditional or legacy areas.

Investments & Implementation Maturity Heading

KEY TAKEAWAY

Improving cybersecurity posture emerged as the most important investment for improving productivity. This comes on the heels of the CrowdStrike incident and increasing geopolitical tensions.

KEY TAKEAWAY

Improving cybersecurity posture emerged as the most important investment for improving productivity. This comes on the heels of the CrowdStrike incident and increasing geopolitical tensions.

The technologies that saw the biggest increase in achieving stage 7 maturity are On-Premises Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Quality Management System (QMS), Warehouse Management System (WMS), and Supply Chain Management (SCM) solutions.

KEY TAKEAWAY

Manufacturers are increasingly embracing cloud solutions for advanced security.

Cloud Solutions Provide Advanced Security-1

KEY TAKEAWAY

Manufacturers agree that cloud solutions offer clear benefits around decision making, remote monitoring, and supply chain coordination.

KEY TAKEAWAY

Single cloud solutions are preferred across regions, and the gap between single cloud and dual cloud preference is consistent.

KEY TAKEAWAY

Private 5G is beginning to take hold in the manufacturing space.

21% of manufacturers
are in the Initial Rollout phase for Enterprise 4G.

41% of manufacturers
are Devising and Implementation Program or Already Rolling out 5G.

KEY TAKEAWAY

German manufacturers have adopted 5G at a higher rate than their Malaysian and American counterparts.

KEY TAKEAWAY

Introducing new technologies is perceived as a risk to losing data and, consequently, customer orders.

KEY TAKEAWAY

The U.S. views Software Supply Chain attacks as less of a threat compared to Germany and Malaysia.

KEY TAKEAWAY

Manufacturers believe that Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI) can improve production lines both strategically (optimizing operations) and tactically (worker instructions and supporting equipment maintenance).

KEY TAKEAWAY

Manufacturers in the United States are less confident that Generative AI can help create work instructions.

KEY TAKEAWAY

Manufacturers increasingly believe in the industrial metaverse’s ability to fuel Research and Development (R&D) in conjunction with strategy, but belief in onboarding capabilities may be waning.

KEY TAKEAWAY

Germany shows less faith in the industrial metaverse’s ability to solve production issues.

KEY TAKEAWAY

Private wireless networks can underpin digital transformation projects, but the cost-benefit analysis may be shifting.

KEY TAKEAWAY

Malaysian manufacturers believe strongly in the connectivity, reliability, and security benefits of private cellular technology… while U.S. manufacturers see operational efficiencies and productivity as a strong benefit, reflective of labor savings and reduction of input costs, whether they are components or raw materials.

KEY TAKEAWAY

Manufacturers increasingly prioritizing QMSs, industrial robots, and ERP software as priority investments to improve quality levels, firming up their view of which technologies can improve quality.

KEY TAKEAWAY

German manufacturers feel more secure in their QMS infrastructure, ranking it as less of a quality concern.

KEY TAKEAWAY

People and processes both present formidable challenges to digital transformation in the industrial and manufacturing industry.

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