Evidence from IDC’s European Vertical Markets Survey
On average, 65% of European manufacturers have deployed some sort of cloud solution, although SMBs slightly lag in this trend . Overall, cloud is a mature technology in the sector.
Source: European Vertical Markets Survey 2017, Manufacturing N = 226
The use of Big Data & analtics is far less pervasive among SMBs, and this is not expected to change anytime soon.
Source: European Vertical Markets Survey 2017, Manufacturing N = 226
One in three SMBs have already adopted IoT, and are slightly ahead of the game.
Source: European Vertical Markets Survey 2017, Manufacturing N = 137
SMBs are also more advanced with respect to the monetization of IoT data. Among adopters, 8% use it for creating new value streams.
Source: European Vertical Markets Survey 2017, Manufacturing N = 226 | Note: Respondents include only IoT adopters
The most common application areas for SMBs are for the improvement of customer service/predictive maintenance, sensor-based control and coordination of shop floor devices, as well as remote asset surveillance. Customer service improvement is the use case with the biggest growth potential in the short term.
Source: European Vertical Markets Survey 2017, Manufacturing N = 137
Cognitive systems/AI is still a novelty technology for European manufactures, and SMBs are particularly conservative adopters.
Source: European Vertical Markets Survey 2017, Manufacturing N = 226
This is also reflected by the use cases deployed. The stand-out use case for SMBs are intelligent assistants for the purpose of customer interactions.
Source: European Vertical Markets Survey 2017, Manufacturing N = 137
Larger European manufacturers make use of more application areas, with cyber security being the biggest growth area
Source: European Vertical Markets Survey 2017, Manufacturing N = 89
Overall, robotics has made good headway into European manufacturing companies, but again, SMBs are slightly behind the curve
Source: European Vertical Markets Survey 2017, Manufacturing N = 226
For SMBs, test inspection & quality and machine tending are currently the key use cases, although interest is growing for warehouse purposes
Source: European Vertical Markets Survey 2017, Manufacturing N = 137
In pursuit of productivity gains on the shop floor, larger companies concentrate their robotics investments into their (global) factories
Source: European Vertical Markets Survey 2017, Manufacturing N = 89
3D printing or additive manufacturing is playing an increasing role in manufacturing, proving strong time-to-market and cost efficiencies in high volume product development. SMBs are not far behind larger players in using this technology.
Source: European Vertical Markets Survey 2017, Manufacturing N = 226
SMBs show stronger interest in collaborative and shared 3D printing networks to improve customer experience and optimize logistics cost
Source: European Vertical Markets Survey 2017, Manufacturing N = 226
Another emerging innovation accelerator, AR/VR is already demonstrating promising ROI across the entire manufacturing processes, even at SMBs
Source: European Vertical Markets Survey 2017, Manufacturing N = 226
SMBs are currently using AR/VR for a mix of use cases including marketing/sales, shop floor support and testing servicability of new prodcuts. However, we see the intention of leveraging the technology for remote training purposes.
Source: European Vertical Markets Survey 2017, Manufacturing N = 137
Larger manufacturers use AR/VR predominantly to support shop floor employeers, however they sense the opportunity to increasingly use it for creating engaging customer experiences
Source: European Vertical Markets Survey 2017, Manufacturing N = 89
