FOUR out of five manufacturers in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region still lack an end-to-end supply chain planning solution, while globally, twice as many manufacturers believe their organization lacks the technology needed to outpace the competition, as compared to 2022. These are but two of several findings of the 8th “State of Smart Manufacturing Report,” a global study commissioned by Rockwell Automation.
The study surveyed more than 1,350 manufacturers across 13 of the leading manufacturing countries including Australia, China, India, Japan and the Republic of Korea and came to several conclusions, the most impactful throughout the whole manufacturing industry in these countries surveyed was the fact that 45 percent of APAC manufacturers struggle to outpace competitors mostly due to lack of innovation, a skilled workforce and smart technology. This is exacerbated by the lack of appropriations need to enact these innovations.
Rockwell Automation, Inc., the world’s largest company dedicated to industrial automation and digital transformation, releases the report annually with the sole objective of raising awareness of enterprises to the benefits of the digitalization of their processes and the impact of smart manufacturing technology on maximizing data insights, attracting talent, and minimizing risks to supply chain, quality, and cybersecurity.
“The survey found that smart manufacturing technology is enabling manufacturers of all sizes to optimize more resilient, agile, and sustainable solutions that accelerate transformation. If we’ve learned anything from history, it’s that organizations that invest in innovation, with a bias for action, during times of uncertainty can outpace competitors,” Veena Lakkundi, senior vice president, Strategy and Corporate Development, Rockwell Automation said. This year’s report reveals a focus on delivering profitable growth without sacrificing quality, an emphasis on accessing data’s true potential, and increasing adoption of technology to build resilience, enable agility, increase sustainability, and address workforce challenges.
Another important key finding is that some of the biggest barriers to adopting smart manufacturing for APAC manufacturers are employee resistance to technology adoption and change, lack of skill set to manage smart manufacturing implementation, and lack of clear definition of the value/ROI of smart manufacturing.
Corollary to this discovery are solutions which APAC manufacturers already have in their plans.
Some 88 percent will maintain or grow employment due to technology adoption. Additionally, 39 percent believe they will be able to repurpose existing workers due to their increasing use of technology.
The study also pointed out the continuing relevance of Quality management system (QMS) is the smart manufacturing system that APAC respondents have seen the largest ROI in, followed by manufacturing execution system (MES) and enterprise resource planning (ERP).
Sustainability also ranks as important because of the 94 percent of APAC manufacturers who have formal or informal environmental, social and governance (ESG) policies in place, close to half (48 percent) cite “a competitive differentiator” as the top driving factor for pursuing ESG initiatives.
Lakkundi also said that based on the survey findings, technology is crucial to mitigating risk and delivering growth. However, for one-third of manufacturers globally, the range of available systems and platforms is leading to “technology paralysis” — an inability to decide between solutions.
She recommends that manufacturers choose an industrial partner with relevant industry expertise and experience who can advise and guide them in implementing a fit-for-purpose solution to achieve desired outcomes. This one simple action can make overcoming this indecision paradigm easier and faster.
“Balancing quality and growth,” and “tracking or quantifying sustainable practices” are the biggest internal obstacles inhibiting progress for APAC manufacturers this year, compared to deploying and integrating new technology in 2022. To close this gap, almost half (44 percent) of APAC manufacturers plan to adopt smart manufacturing within the next year. Companies in China (80 percent), Australia (60 percent) and India (59 percent) are already using some components of smart manufacturing.
“Manufacturers are continuing to seek opportunities for profitable growth but are realizing that uncertainty in workforce availability is impacting quality, along with their ability to meet evolving customer needs,” Lakkundi added.
Finally, all respondents say that cybersecurity risks rank highest as the obstacle which all of them are looking to mitigate with smart manufacturing initiatives.
“At Rockwell, we combine the power of our portfolio of industry solutions with our second-to-none partner ecosystem to serve as a trusted advisor to leading companies around the world,” Lakkundi concluded. “As the biggest company focused solely on industrial automation and digital transformation, we work to make the complex simple and meet companies where they are in their journeys.”
