Survey: Manufacturers Struggle to Adopt Smart Manufacturing

Digital technology affords manufacturers the ability to revolutionize operations to reach the next level of performance, quality, productivity and efficiency.  

Internet-enabled sensors generate data that give operators unprecedented insight into their operations. Connected devices and augmented reality bring a sci-fi dimension to the worker experience improving training, knowledge retention, and productivity.  Artificial intelligence and machine learning elevate robots and help manufacturers automate processes previously too challenging for previous generations of robots.

However, it’s one thing to envision that future. It’s a lot more difficult to realize it and a new survey has quantified just how challenging it is.

“The 2022 ISG Global Smart Manufacturing Pulse Survey” found that nearly three quarters (70%) of manufacturing organizations say that they are making “slow to minimal progress” on their smart manufacturing plans. Smart manufacturing is defined as leveraging digital technology and data to improve operations, drive revenue, and increase customer satisfaction.

Respondents cited organizational resistance as the biggest barrier for smart manufacturing initiatives (57 %). Technical barriers such as integrating IT with operational technology (34 %) and legacy equipment (30 %) were among the other top impediments.

“The challenge of turning a traditional shop floor into a hybrid connected workplace is daunting but doable,” said Prashant Kelker, partner, ISG Digital Strategy and Solutions in a news release about the survey. “What often masquerades as organizational resistance may actually be gaps in talent and barriers created by legacy investments and architecture. Everyone wants to change, no one wants to be changed.”

Most organizations (75%) began their smart manufacturing journey less than 2 years ago, spurred on by the need to rapidly change processes in response to Covid-19. Sixty nine percent of survey organizations have a team focused on delivering smart manufacturing solutions.

Direct cost savings (64%) topped the list of drivers for respondents’ smart manufacturing initiatives, followed by indirect costs savings such as through waste reduction (57%), customer experience improvements (39%), reduced time to market (34%) and increased revenue (29%).