2023 State of Smart Manufacturing Study Finds Over 45% of Asia-Pacific Manufacturers Struggle to Outpace Competitors Due to Lack of Innovation, Skilled Workforce and Technology
Global survey reveals impact of smart manufacturing technology on maximizing data insights, attracting talent, and minimizing risks to supply chain, quality, and cybersecurity.
Rockwell Automation announced the results of the 8th annual “State of Smart Manufacturing Report.” The global study surveyed more than 1,350 manufacturers across 13 of the leading manufacturing countries including Australia, China, India, Japan and the Republic of Korea.
This year’s report reveals a focus on delivering profitable growth without sacrificing quality, an emphasis on accessing data’s true potential, and increasing adoption of technology to build resilience, enable agility, increase sustainability, and address workforce challenges.
Key findings include:
- “Balancing quality and growth,” and “tracking or quantifying sustainable practices” are the biggest internal obstacles inhibiting progress for Asia-Pacific (APAC) manufacturers this year, compared to deploying and integrating new technology in 2022.
- Globally, twice as many manufacturers believe their organization lacks the technology needed to outpace the competition, as compared to 2022.
- Four out of five manufacturers still lack an end-to-end supply chain planning solution.
- Close to half (44%) of APAC manufacturers plan to adopt smart manufacturing within the next year; out of this, China (80%), Australia (60%) and India (59%) are already using some components of smart manufacturing.
- The biggest barriers to adopting smart manufacturing for APAC manufacturers are employee resistance to technology adoption and change, lack of skill set to manage smart manufacturing implementation, and lack of clear definition of the value/ROI of smart manufacturing.
- Quality management system (QMS) is the smart manufacturing system that APAC respondents have seen the largest ROI, followed by manufacturing execution system (MES) and enterprise resource planning (ERP).
- Cybersecurity risks rank highest as the obstacle all respondents are looking to mitigate with smart manufacturing initiatives.
- 88% of APAC manufacturers plan to maintain or grow employment due to technology adoption. Additionally, 39% of respondents believe they will be able to repurpose existing workers due to their increasing use of technology.
- Of the 94% of APAC manufacturers who have formal or informal environmental, social and governance (ESG) policies in place, close to half (48%) cite “a competitive differentiator” as the top driving factor for pursuing ESG initiatives.
“Manufacturers are continuing to seek opportunities for profitable growth but are realizing that uncertainty in workforce availability is impacting quality, along with their ability to meet evolving customer needs,” said Veena Lakkundi, senior vice president, Strategy and Corporate Development, Rockwell Automation. “The survey found that smart manufacturing technology is enabling manufacturers of all sizes to optimize more resilient, agile, and sustainable solutions that accelerate transformation. If we’ve learned anything from history, it’s that organizations that invest in innovation, with a bias for action, during times of uncertainty can outpace competitors.”
Based on the survey findings, technology is crucial to mitigating risk and delivering growth. However, for one-third of manufacturers globally, the range of available systems and platforms is leading to “technology paralysis” – an inability to decide between solutions. Manufacturers can overcome this indecision by choosing a partner with relevant industry expertise and experience who can advise and guide them in implementing a fit-for-purpose solution to achieve desired outcomes.
“At Rockwell, we combine the power of our portfolio of industry solutions with our second-to-none partner ecosystem to serve as a trusted advisor to leading companies around the world,” said Lakkundi. “As the biggest company focused solely on industrial automation and digital transformation, we work to make the complex simple and meet companies where they are in their journeys.”
The full findings of the report can be found here.
Rockwell Automation Announces Acquisition of Knowledge Lens
Acquisition to accelerate Rockwell’s delivery of Industrial AI solutions to manufacturers globally
Rockwell Automation has acquired Knowledge Lens. Based in Bengaluru, India, Knowledge Lens is a services and solutions provider that delivers actionable business insights from enterprise data, combining digital technologies with deep data science, artificial intelligence (AI), and engineering expertise. Knowledge Lens will join Rockwell’s premier digital services business, Kalypso, to accelerate transformational outcomes for more manufacturers around the world.
Rockwell’s digital transformation services business is one of its fastest growing, as demand to scale connectivity across the enterprise and enable data-driven predictive and prescriptive insights increases. Together with Kalypso, Knowledge Lens will significantly expand Rockwell’s capabilities to unlock the power of data, enable autonomous manufacturing, and drive continuous optimization for more manufacturers.
"Data offers enormous advantages for those manufacturers able to harness its full potential. But for many, only a fraction of the data generated by their plants and in their supply chains is ever used,” said Frank Kulaszewicz, senior vice president of Rockwell’s Lifecycle Services segment. “The acquisition of Knowledge Lens improves our ability to help more manufacturers around the world discover and use the hidden insights in their data to drive game-changing value for their businesses.”
Knowledge Lens, founded in 2013, serves a broad range of manufacturers, with a specialization in highly regulated industries, including life sciences. Knowledge Lens also expands Kalypso’s ability to serve clients with an open platform approach across leading AI and digital technologies.
“We are excited to join Rockwell and Kalypso and extend our collective ability to innovate and build a more sustainable, resilient, and human-centric society," said Sudheesh Narayanan, Chief Executive Officer and founder of Knowledge Lens. “With our combined experience, and Knowledge Lens’ pre-packaged cloud-native solutions for common use cases including smart factory, connected workers, IT/OT integration, data migration, and sustainability, we are well-positioned to extend our impact in the market.”
Rockwell Automation Names Shovan Sengupta as Regional Vice President, Market Access
Shovan Sengupta has been promoted to regional vice president, Market Access, for the Asia Pacific region. He will be based in Singapore and report to Scott Wooldridge, president, Asia Pacific.
Rockwell Automation’s Market Access organization collaborates with key distributors, systems integrators, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and technology partners to help customers design, implement, and maintain solutions that maximize their automation, software and IIoT investments.
“In the Fourth Industrial Revolution, companies need strong partnerships to achieve their full potential. Together, we connect the imaginations of people with the potential of technology to expand what is humanly possible, making the world more intelligent, more connected, and more productive,” says Rockwell’s Scott Wooldridge, president, Asia Pacific. “Our PartnerNetwork has been evolving as we upskill existing members and add new partners with capabilities in areas like software and cyber security. In his new position, Shovan will play a critical role in helping our partners to transform and grow to meet the challenges of our rapidly changing industry.”
Shovan joined Rockwell in 2021 as channel director, Asia Pacific. Since then, he has played a key role in leading the company’s channel strategy working with value added distributors, specialty distributors and authorized resellers. Following the acquisition of Fiix, Shovan implemented the Fiix Partner Pilot program and the Information Software Value-Added Reseller Program in the region.
He succeeds Don Shoemaker, who recently returned to the United States to take up the position of Rockwell Automation’s vice president of Market Access in North America.
Rockwell Automation Names Bob Buttermore SVP, Chief Supply Chain Officer
Robert (Bob) Buttermore is senior vice president and Chief Supply Chain Officer, effective Feb. 13. He reports to Rockwell Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Blake Moret.
In this role, Buttermore heads the Integrated Supply Chain (ISC) organization and is responsible for leading global strategy and development of Manufacturing Operations, Manufacturing Engineering, Quality, Sourcing, Logistics, and Customer Care. Buttermore succeeds Brad Skogman, who has served as the interim head of ISC since June 2022.
“Bob has demonstrated vision and leadership in growing our core business and meeting our customers’ needs. His strategic vision, leadership track record, passion for building and empowering teams, and ability to work across the company position him well to lead our agile supply chain organization,” Moret said.
“I would like to thank Brad for his strong leadership and results during this dynamic supply chain period,” Moret said. “He and Bob will partner for a smooth transition, and we are happy to have Brad return as a leader in our Finance organization.”
Buttermore has built his career at Rockwell. He joined the company in 1997 in the Operations Leadership Development Program as an engineer in Cleveland, Ohio. He has gained global industry expertise with roles of increasing responsibility and leadership scope in operations management, sales, and sales management, including as regional vice president, Greater China. Most recently, Buttermore was vice president and general manager of the Power Control Business within the Intelligent Devices operating segment, overseeing global operations, and developing and implementing strategic direction for this critical area. In this role, he led Rockwell’s recent acquisition of CUBIC. Buttermore holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from The Ohio State University.
