Nearly half of Asia-Pacific manufacturers to have smart factories by 2022: Study

By OEM Update Editorial October 9, 2017 3:13 pm

Zebra Technologies unveils high-performance industrial printers as manufacturers seek to increase operational visibility and productivity.

Nearly half of Asia-Pacific manufacturers to have smart factories by 2022, revealed Zebra’s 2017 Asia Pacific Manufacturing Vision Study. The regional study discovered that the number of manufacturers supporting a fully connected factory would nearly triple by 2022. This means 46 per cent anticipate having the capability in five years’ time.

The study reveals that workers will use a combination of radio frequency identification (RFID), wearable technologies, automated systems and other emerging technologies to monitor the physical processes of the plant and enable companies to make decentralised decisions. APAC manufacturers will lead the way globally, with 77 per cent of respondents expecting to collect data from production, supply chain, and workers in a holistic manner by 2020, compared to 46 per cent doing so today.

Executives across APAC cited achieving quality assurance as their top priority over the next five years. Forward-looking manufacturers are embracing a quality-minded philosophy to drive growth, throughput and profitability. In a sign that improvements made by both suppliers and manufacturers will ultimately boost the quality of finished goods, fewer respondents say quality-related issues will be a top concern in the future. Today, 55 per cent of manufacturers see quality as a top concern, but this falls to 35 per cent in 2022.

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