2019 Deloitte and Manufacturers Alliance Smart Factory Study

More than 85% of industrial manufacturers believe that smart factory initiatives will be the main driver of manufacturing competitiveness in the next five years, according to results of a joint study between Manufacturers Alliance and Deloitte. The research reveals that smart factory transformation has the potential to ignite the sector’s stalled labor productivity growth, and that smart factories are beginning to pay off for early adopters.

Smart factory transformation is not a “big bang,” but rather a concerted effort over a period of years to identify, invest in, implement, and refine specific use cases for applying advanced technology to existing processes and workstreams. The study quantifies the value of smart initiatives to inform the business case for investment, and identifies top use cases of smart factory technology, common adoption patterns, gains manufacturers are seeing, and how they measure value It reveals five major findings:

1. Every manufacturer—whether already “running smart” or yet to invest in smart factory technologies—can harvest business value from smart factory initiatives.
2. Smart factory initiatives typically accelerate business value creation. Companies report on average 10–12% gains in areas such as manufacturing output, factory utilization, and labor productivity after they invested in smart factory initiatives.
3. There is a direct and established connection—primarily through investment and use cases—between smart factory initiatives and the business value realized.
4. While there are risks, primarily operational and financial, they are generally outweighed by the smart factory’s value contribution. Also, most risks can be mitigated through rational stake-holder selection, an efficient change management strategy, measurable proofs-of-concept, and incremental investments.
5. An identified cohort—we call it Trailblazers—is outperforming with smart factory initiatives.

Discover in the report how three distinct cohorts of adopters—Trailblazers, Explorers, and Followers—each represent a different mindset toward smart factory adoption, and how their mindset and decisions in turn influence their maturity in smart factory initiatives. Wherever your company is in its smart manufacturing journey, Manufacturers Alliance and Deloitte invite you to apply the study findings to identify your adoption approach and consider pathways suggested in the “playbook” to further advance your efforts.

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