Australian barriers to smart manufacturing identified: report

The global ‘2023 State of Manufacturing Report’ from Rockwell Automation contains responses from 75 of the Australia’s manufacturing industry leaders and identifies the primary areas that need to be addressed for this sector to advance.

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.

This may explain why 71% of Australia’s C-suite leaders identify technology paralysis as one of the largest barriers to growth. An excess of technology options is making selection and adoption much more challenging, especially when familiarity with the solutions is quite low.

The report also revealed that 86% of C-suite responders would invest in cloud technology as a result of the disruption of the last 12 months. This compares to only 24% of managers who put this at the top of their list last year. A cloud-based operation may help mitigate the effects of variable staffing levels, monitoring the supply chain and accommodating hybrid work.

Biggest leadership obstacles. For a larger image click here.

The report also showed that 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.

To download the full report, and see all the data and statistics, click here.

Top image: iStock.com/gorodenkoff