New survey of 400 manufacturers done by Drishti Technologies reveals a misalignment. While 61% manufacturers prioritise adaptability over efficiency, 62% of investments are directed towards efficiency, not adaptability.
Key investment areas in factory infrastructure are cloud, edge and 5G (58%), automation (41%), and IoT, connected factory technology and digital twins (38%), with only 33 percent investing in human-centric technology
Top external challenges are perceived to be supplier price increases (45%), supply chain disruptions (42%), and inflation or economic uncertainty (40%)
Data released from the survey conducted underscores the pervasive industry sentiment that people make manufacturing operations more adaptable than machines. In fact, 73% of the 400 senior manufacturing executives surveyed agreed with the statement, “The more manual you are, the more adaptable you are.”
Despite the popular recognition of how important human workers are to resilient manufacturing, most respondents (62%) noted that new technology investments were targeting increasing efficiency, in the form of more automation and improving physical factory infrastructure.
“There’s a misperception in manufacturing, including in a number of lean manufacturing shops, that the performance of people has reached its peak,” said Dr. Prasad Akella, founder and chairman, Drishti. “So, while manufacturers know that people bring a lot of strengths to the table in terms of flexibility, cognition and problem-solving skills, they also assume they can’t be any more productive or mistake-proof. That’s simply not the case.”
Drishti, whose AI-powered manufacturing technology uses video analytics, data and insights to bring significant benefits to manufacturers and their employees, helps manufacturers increase productivity, quality and standardized work adherence on manual assembly lines, showing double-digit gains in efficiency and quality and proving that people can continue to improve given the right tools.
“The pandemic has been a wake-up call to manufacturers around the world that resiliency and adaptability need to be a top priority,” said Jason Bergstrom, principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP. “Transformational digital technologies that can introduce flexibility seamlessly into areas of operations, including by augmenting people on the line, give manufacturers the adaptability they need to meet future challenges and threats even as they improve productivity and quality.”
Productivity concerns (56%) and quality issues (54%) were the top internal challenges manufacturers say they face, followed closely by training and onboarding new line associates (48%).
The survey findings put a fine point on the situation in manufacturing today: With natural disasters and supply chain issues on the rise, in addition to these internal challenges, manufacturers see a number of external threats on the horizon. Supplier price increases (45%) and supply chain disruptions (42%) loom largest in manufacturers’ minds across industries and regions.
The lingering worker shortages are also perplexing manufacturers, who ranked “finding enough line associates to staff my shifts” the number one concern (19%) when it comes to staffing. Other worker-related concerns included knowing what’s happening on the floor when I can’t be there in person (16%), keeping employees healthy (16%) and keeping non-essential personnel away from the line (15%).
“While many of these challenges have been present for years, today there are more variables than ever to consider when producing goods,” said Akella. “A post-coronavirus manufacturing industry will look vastly different than it did just two years ago. Being able to quickly train line associates and empower people to continuously improve assembly processes will impact how quickly manufacturers can pivot and optimize for the changing business needs.”