Network reliability is key to turning industrial data into insights that lead to smart decision making and ultimately, to better business outcomes.
The disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic, along with the evolution of advanced network connectivity and connected assets and technologies, have accelerated long overdue modernization and digitization, efforts across the manufacturing industry. Todays and tomorrow’s manufacturing leaders are tossing aside processes designed to ossify cost control, efficiency, and predictability, and replacing them with those that emphasize flexibility, innovation, and resilience.
Analog Devices commissioned Forrester Consulting to evaluate the state of industrial modernization, including the efforts to improve network reliability.
Forrester Consulting conducted an online survey with 312 senior manufacturing leaders who are responsible for defining industrial connectivity strategy at their organizations. The study shows that industrial manufacturers who have made investments in connectivity technologies (“high maturity”) are better positioned to drive innovation and gain a competitive advantage compared to firms that have been slower to implement connectivity (“low maturity”) across the factory floor.
Here are some key findings:
• 85% of high maturity firms are currently using Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technologies across much of the factory floor, compared to 66% medium maturity and 17% of low maturity firms.
• Over half (53%) of low maturity firms report that their legacy equipment is unable to communicate with other assets at all.
• 54% low maturity firms lack a sophisticated cybersecurity strategy which puts their businesses, customers, and employees at risk.
• Leveraging insights from connected assets for cloud-based analytics and real-time monitoring of equipment and productivity are critical investment priorities for high maturity firms.
• High maturity firms unanimously agree that investing in industrial connectivity is crucial to unearthing insights that are necessary to informing their long-term competitive strategies.
• 90% of high maturity firms expect future systems to significantly rely on time synchronization between wired and wireless networks
Findings from the research:
• Improving Network Reliability (implementing 5G networks) will create significant opportunity: 68% of high maturity firms say this will enable them to make better use of existing cloud infrastructure and 66% believe their industrial data and IP will be more secure. Conversely, only 21% of low maturity firms believe that improving network reliability will help improve security.
• Importance of Talent: Almost half (47%) of low maturity firms say they lack the expertise to understand which connectivity technologies to invest in, indicating a skills gap. Even high maturity firms report that it is not easy for them to access the insights they need to make labour planning and safety decisions.
• High Cost due to Unscheduled Downtime: High (5%) and medium (17%) maturity firms reported much lower occurrence of unscheduled downtime of their industrial technology or equipment each week than low maturity companies (53%). These interruptions lead to higher cost of holding inventory and labour per unit, loss of production and customer confidence and decreased work capacity.
This research shows us that while many firms are benefiting from the promise of industrial connectivity, others have significant legacy and talent-related hurdles to overcome. Both a shortage of in-house expertise and interoperability of systems and data are two major hindrances to manufacturing modernization.
