Aussie manufacturers struggling to keep pace with technology

Over 1000 manufacturers have been surveyed in the 8th Annual State of Smart Manufacturing Report from Rockwell Automation to show the current state of technology in global manufacturing, their biggest challenges and the future of the industry. 75 of the responses were from Australian manufacturing industry leaders (49% of whom were women).

One of the key concerns raised in the report is that over 40% of manufacturers in Asia–Pacific say that they lack innovation, a skilled workforce and the technology to outpace the competition over the next 12 months.

Although smart manufacturing is key to Australia’s success in this area, only 25% of the country’s manufacturing industry leaders said they were extremely familiar with the technologies. This compares poorly with survey respondents from the US and France where familiarity with smart manufacturing technologies is vastly higher with numbers close to double that of Australia’s. Interestingly, 73% of local respondents stated that smart manufacturing is very important.

Technology paralysis was identified as one of the largest barriers to growth by 71% of Australia’s C-suite leaders. Adopting technology options is becoming much more challenging due to an excess of options on the market, especially when familiarity with the solutions is quite low.

Following disruption in the last 12 months, 86% of C-suite responders have stated that they would invest in cloud technology. Last year, only 24% of managers put this at the top of their list.

Further insights in the report include:

• 48% of Australian companies have already invested in robotic process automation (RPA) while 46% have expressed an intention to invest. This is comparable to the US where 49% have already invested in RPA.
• 86% of respondents said that up to half of their data goes unused.
• Process automation shows widespread adoption and promising growth. 64% have already invested in this technology with 43% planning to invest more. This compares well with the US and the UK, both of which report 68% investment rates.
• Other areas of concern were cybersecurity and COVID-19 recovery, supply chain shortages and staff shortages.

The full report is available for download here.

Image credit: iStock.com/metamorworks