Analyst hosted web conference revealing its predictions for the manufacturing sector from 2015 to 2018.
The IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Manufacturing 2015 Predictions web conference was held on 4 December with the aim of providing organisations with insight and perspective on long-term industry trends, as well as “new themes that may be on the horizon”, and was “designed to help IT leaders capitalise on emerging market opportunities plan for future growth”.
Among the predictions is that “in 2015, product quality, including compliance, will underpin two-thirds of all IT application investments across the manufacturing organisation” and “customer centricity will require higher standards for customer service excellence, efficient innovation, and responsive manufacturing, which will motivate 75 percent of manufacturers to invest in customer-facing technologies”. In addition, “65 percent of companies with more than 10 plants will enable the factory floor to make better decisions through investments in operational intelligence”.
Meanwhile by 2016, IDC predicts that “30 percent of manufacturers will invest substantially in increasing the visibility and analysis of information exchange and business processes, within the company and with partners”, and “70 percent of global discrete manufacturers will offer connected products, driving increased software content and the need for systems engineering and a product innovation platform”.
By 2017, IDC expects that “manufacturers will actively channel 25 percent of their IT budgets through industry clouds that enable seamless and flexible collaboration models”; while “50 percent of manufacturers will explore the viability of micro logistics networks to enable the promise of accelerated delivery for select products and customers”. Furthermore, investments that enable digitally-executed manufacturing will increase by 50 percent by the end of the 2017 as manufacturers seek to be more agile in the marketplace”.
Looking further ahead to 2018,IDC predicts that by then, “75 percent of manufacturers will be coordinating enterprise-wide planning activities under the umbrella of rapid integrated business planning” and “40 percent of the top 100 discrete manufacturers and 20 percent of the top 100 process manufacturers will provide Product-as-a-Service platforms”.
Commenting on the predictions, Simon Ellis, Practice Directorfor IDC Manufacturing Insights, said: “IDC Manufacturing Insights sees a number of important industry drivers that will shape the manufacturing industry for the next few years, including complex value chains, support for continuing emerging market growth, customer (and consumer) centricity, ubiquitous connectivity, and data-driven insights; these drivers inform the ten decision imperatives for 2015 and beyond.”
You can access a recording of the web conference by clicking here.