Manufacturers to increase AI spending

Augury has released its second annual State of Production Health report, which identifies challenges, trends, and best practices in manufacturing’s quest to balance the competing demands of profits, people, and the planet. The report features insights from over 700 global manufacturing leaders of companies with annual revenues exceeding $100 million and aims to help manufacturing organizations identify improvement opportunities.   

“Our 2024 findings paint a positive outlook for the industrial sector and technology adoption, as almost all (96%) leaders feel optimistic about manufacturing’s future,” said Saar Yoskovitz, Augury’s CEO and Co-Founder. “Manufacturers’ trust in the value of AI is rapidly growing as they enhance their organizations’ AI skills and achieve higher returns. While measuring AI’s influence on vital business objectives remains challenging for some, many industrial leaders have found their footing in 12 short months. This group of innovators will pull ahead as industry leaders and provide a blueprint for achieving the Industry 4.0 ideal.” 

Key insights from the report include: 

AI Proves Its Worth and Gains Trust for Production Health

As AI programs become more trusted, accessible, and scalable, over three-fourths (83%) of industrial leaders are investing more in AI in 2024, up from 63% in 2023, and the report shows a 300% increase YoY in the number of respondents citing no roadblocks to AI adoption. 

Since 2023, there has been a lot of success capitalizing on AI for production health use cases. Now, twice as many respondents say they can quantify benefits for machine health/downtime (36% vs. 16%), and three times as many report impact to process health/maximizing yield and capacity (40% vs. 13%).

Supply Chain and Capacity Emerge As Top Challenges

Nine in 10 (90%) of manufacturers anticipate more frequent supply chain disruptions over the next 12 months. Though AI demonstrates great promise in this arena, the report data reveals a complex relationship between supply chain hurdles and AI. While manufacturers rank the supply chain as the top production obstacle (cited by 25% of respondents) and a significant AI use case (43%), it remains industrial leaders’ lowest-ranked objective for leveraging AI. This discrepancy may indicate that manufacturers believe their existing investments in the supply chain are effective, or they have not yet fully realized AI's potential impact. Increasing capacity has now emerged as the number-one objective for leveraging AI, cited by 44% of respondents.

Workforce Concerns Require More Attention  

Most (91%) industrial leaders worry that retiring veterans exacerbate the knowledge gap in manufacturing. Luckily, the findings indicate that AI technologies have provided welcome relief in addressing the aging workforce and skilled-talent gap. In 2023, the top objective for leveraging AI was upskilling the workforce. One year later, while workforce constraints and upskilling remain concerns, the emphasis on investment in this area is decreasing. With near-unanimous agreement (97%) that AI and advanced technologies will help create new jobs in the manufacturing industry, shifting investments to areas like capacity may further mitigate resource issues by enabling AI-driven automation and workflow improvements.

“Though AI has started proving its effectiveness, nine out of ten industrial leaders say that just 11-50% of their AI pilots have reached scale,” Yoskovitz added. “To bridge this gap, manufacturers are increasing AI spending. It will be critical to target investments specifically around production health solutions to better visualize and act on data that connects machines, processes, and operations. Those who do will be better positioned to meet production goals while addressing today’s key challenges for manufacturers.”