The second annual “State of Production Health” report reveals that manufacturers’ AI and workforce investments are paying off, capacity and supply chain have emerged as key focus areas
NEW YORK, July 16, 2024– Augury, a leading provider of industrial AI solutions that improve machine health and process health, today 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.”
View Augury’s second annual “The State of Production Health 2024” report. To learn more about Augury and its Production Health solutions, visit www.augury.com.
About The State of Production Health 2024 Report
Conducted in March 2024 by Endeavor Business Intelligence and commissioned by Augury, “The State of Production Health 2024” report features insights from over 700 U.S. and Europe-based manufacturing executives (director level or higher) at organizations with global revenues of $100M+ (including 40% with revenues exceeding $500B). Represented manufacturing verticals include building materials, cement, chemicals, consumer packaged goods, food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, metals and mining, oil and gas, paper and packaging and wood products. All respondents report their organizations have at least five manufacturing sites.
About Augury
A leader in Machine Health and Process Health solutions, Augury uses purpose-built AI technology, trained by industry experts and the world’s largest data library, to help manufacturing and industrial companies eliminate production downtime, improve process efficiency, maximize yield, and reduce waste and emissions. Our global customers achieve 3-10x ROI, often in a matter of months. Together with our customers, we are pioneering Production Health to build a world where the combined work of people and machines makes life better in every way.
