New Delhi- India has the highest number of manufacturing organizations investing in technology. This is according to the 8th annual “State of Smart Manufacturing Report” by Rockwell Automation. The global study surveyed more than 1,350 manufacturers across 13 of the leading manufacturing countries. These including India, China, Germany, Japan, the United States (US), and United Kingdom (UK).
The report found that digital transformation is being embraced to make manufacturing more productive and efficient, particularly in India. Manufacturers in India are investing 35% of their operating budgets towards technology investment. This is ahead of the global mean average (23%) and countries such as the US (27%) and Japan (24%). Globally, the top five technologies that respondents invested in and had the highest return on investments over the past year were process automation (33%), cloud/software as a service (SaaS) (30%), industrial internet of things (IIoT)/internet of things (IoT) (25%), machine integration (24%) and machine learning/artificial intelligence (23%).
Smart manufacturing:
Smart manufacturing continues to grow as an important catalyst for digital transformation for manufacturers in India, the study showed. Fifty-nine percent plan to adopt smart manufacturing within the next year, while 57% of companies already use smart manufacturing solutions.
When it comes to talent and the workforce, 58% of survey respondents in India shared that employee resistance to technology adoption. Further, change is the main barrier to adopting smart manufacturing. This is followed by the lack of knowledge and skills to take advantage of smart manufacturing technology and benefits. Half of the manufacturers in India (51%) plan to introduce flexible scheduling (for example, working hours as able and short shifts). This is to address the manpower shortage, and utilize technology to create more engaging jobs (49%). Furthermore, 37% believe that smart manufacturing can help to mitigate the skills shortage.
The report includes recommendations and adoption guidelines for manufacturers on system-level approaches. This is to reduce ‘time to talent’ and achieve Industry 4.0 business outcomes too. It also highlights the growing significance of environmental, social and governance (ESG) for manufacturers. 87% of Indian respondents have at least some formal ESG or sustainability policy in place. In addition, the report advocates for collaboration between government and industry in creating the manufacturing workforce of the future.
The full report can be found here.
Methodology
This report analyzed feedback from 1,353 respondents from 13 of the top manufacturing countries with roles from management up to the C-suite and was conducted in association with Sapio Research and Rockwell Automation. Out of the total number of respondents, 425 are based in Asia-Pacific in Australia, China, India, Japan and the Republic of Korea. The survey covered discrete, process, and hybrid industries across a balanced distribution of company sizes with revenues spanning $10 million to over $10 billion, providing a wide breadth of manufacturing business perspectives.
