Manufacturers face unique challenges when confronted with the need to find productivity enhancements and alter their operational methods & technology to achieve the necessary agility and dynamism.

Unlike businesses in the digital finance sector, for example, manufacturing and engineering businesses have significant investment in operational systems and hardware, which cannot simply be mothballed and replaced with the very latest in technology. Instead, companies have to find the automatons and process improvements that will create cost savings, yet do so without negative impact on customer experience, or any SLAs in place. At the same time, any changes that can be made have to take place on the basis of the need for adaptation to the future. That’s a tough call for decision-makers in the sector.

The plural, decision-makers, in the last sentence is important in the context of this article. In the manufacturing sector, operations professionals need to work alongside IT staff, as well as the C-suite. And the opinions on how to bring about change can be significantly different between these groups and individuals. All come to the table with their own particular priorities and needs whenever there’s a company-wide reassessment of the priorities for digital evolution.

The Zebra 2024 Manufacturing Vision Study comprises the results of a survey completed by 1,200 industry professionals, drawn from the C-suite, IT, and operational technology functions. It shows the differences in priorities and approach that may exist even inside a single company, but also is cause for optimism thanks to common ground shared by all. There is strong desire among all stakeholders to cut waste, improve operations, hit and exceed SLAs, and systemetize for a more agile posture.

In the Vision Study, both OT and IT (at 48% and 46%) identify themselves as key functions responsible for accelerating automation. It’s where OT and IT come together that the latest in technology for the sector operates, and the distinction between the two is not as simple as that between software and hardware. Robots need control systems, and data from IoT devices needs to be processed to be used effectively.

The stepwise motion

When terms like automation and roboticization are mentioned, it’s not always the production line robots and huge-scale warehouse automating systems that produce the best results.

For example, relatively simple sensors at key points in the manufacturing facility produce data in key areas of inefficiency and wastage that can be analyzed by advanced software, including AI algorithms. Such information can produce meaningful changes in work practices relatively easily, improving production efficiency, lowering risk for workers and removing cost centers.

With a relatively low outlay, a unified solution in a ‘quick win’ area will provide a fast ROI. By doing so, the technology argues its own case – with quantifiable, high-impact results – thanks to OT and IT collaborating to execute on strategy defined by the C-suite.

Imperatives for integration

While smaller projects can help sell the case throughout the business for similar investment, it’s interesting to note that according to the Vision Study, one of the C-suite’s biggest concerns about new technology is its compatibility and integration with legacy equipment like existing plant and control software networks, as well as any large business software platforms, such an ERP.

In short, success is one thing, but success in a silo, without wider benefits, is of limited value in the long term.

Room to work in

As you might expect, there was general agreement among the survey respondents on common problem areas for the sector – the scarce resource that is labor (the main focus of automation technologies stated in the Vision Study), and finding ways to add more flexibility to the limited resource of real estate; in other words, making the best use of available space.

While there are headline-catching advancements in technology designed for the sector (3D visioning, AI and XR), these revolutions should not be regarded as all-or-nothing solutions to either problem. Any number of technologies can be used to solve, for example, the issue of lost time due to workers having to walk long distances between warehouse picks. But addressing a specific problem with the right technology may be much more mundane. A single cobot, or an upgraded raft of IoT devices may yield the required results, using more mature (read, reliable) platforms, at a much lower cost and much less pushback from the C-suite or the shop floor.

Interest in the cutting-edge

It’s noteworthy that 43% of those surveyed said that AI was likely to be a feature of their workflows in the short term, a figure matched by those focusing on fixed industrial scanning solutions capable of batch scanning using mature technologies like RFID.

Big data analysis, LLMs, machine learning and deep learning are all quoted in the Vision Study as areas of possible investment for many in the sector, and this preponderance of software-based solutions is just one way that manufacturers can create agile, scalable, future-proof systems. Advanced software ranks well among the ‘decision automation platforms’ in the paper, alongside AMRs, industrial scanners, cobots and the robotic arms that many think of when ‘factory automation’ is mentioned.

Customer-first mentality

Finally on a very positive note, the Vision Study gives a reassuringly high level of the industry’s desire to ‘Meet service level agreements’ as a key driver for investing in manufacturing automation, with 69% of respondents considering it important. Another customer-focussed statistic is to target investment at ‘high-value’ customer-centric tasks done by staff, cited by 70% of the Study’s respondents as a key place to implement automation solutions.

Conclusions

There are plenty of salient insights in the Zebra 2024 Manufacturing Vision Study. If were to sum up the best approaches to automation highlighted in the paper, the two words – incremental and collaborative – would ring loudest. By working together, C-suite, IT and OT can choose the areas of operations where the application of the latest automation technology would have the most impact, and proceed from there on a case-by-case basis.

As the technology proves its own case and creates ROI, the manufacturing business can adapt for the future, not in one giant leap but in increments, the choice of which will be unique to each company. Technology, whether IT on OT is not a silver bullet that will address all inefficiencies and operational difficulties. But intelligent choices made on empirical data will yield results. And of course, the more technology at play, the better the data becomes, making each subsequent project easier and more.

Learn more about Zebra’s 2024 Manufacturing Vision Study.