Industry updates
Despite the rapid pace of new ecommerce technology such as headless commerce and mounting pressure from digital-first customers, progress is mixed at best for many companies, according to a new survey of 600 manufacturing executives from Epicor Software Corp.
For example, only about 44% of manufacturers are looking to spend more on new digital technologies while 49% while 49% will keep spending the same amount as the prior year.
Although nearly half of all companies describe their company as somewhat to very modern, only 13% are fully digitized. Nearly 60% still use a mix of ecommerce, electronic business software and paper and manual procedures to conduct business. “ The shift to all-digital workplaces is slowly happening,” the report says. “ 31% (of manufacturing companies) are still using all paper.”
Other findings include:
- Big data. 41% of companies are gathering and analyzing data company-wide to gain insight into operations.
- Robotics and artificial intelligence. 36% of organizations are using robots and AI to automate manufacturing.
- Augmented reality. 32% of manufacturers are using AR to better see, understand and track data to improve manufacturing efficiency and productivity.
“ Those who say their company is ‘very modern’ are more likely to say their company is eager to embrace new technology,” the report says. “ Those companies who say their company is not very modern are more likely to say their company is hesitant to embrace technology.”