Six trends driving change in industrial manufacturing

Manufacturing Global takes a look at Accenture’s six trends driving change in the industrial equipment industry.

Georgia Wilson
Manufacturing Global
2 min readMay 11, 2020

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“Intelligent equipment and services, advanced analytics, remote monitoring, and predictive maintenance. These technology-driven trends are redefining customer demand for industrial equipment and platforms,” comments Accenture.

As a result “industrial equipment companies are facing unprecedented challenges today. Customer engagement no longer hangs on competitive prices and diligent maintenance,” adds Accenture.

With this in mind we look at the six trends that are changing the mindsets of organisations within the industrial equipment industry:

  1. Hyperconnected customers, demanding personalised industrial equipment products, services and experiences
  2. The increased need for higher productivity via targeted investments in growth levers such as technological investments in robotics, automation, artificial intelligence and machine learning
  3. The challenges of digital disruption, with digital technologies such as blockchain, evolving the industry
  4. The demand for sustainable operations, and the need to implement circular material management and greenfield plant designs
  5. The evolution of ecosystems, established company are changing mindsets to work with startups, competitors and customers to drive innovation instead of working against them
  6. The politics of economics, views on trade and internationalism are being challenged, which is resulting in new rules and regulations

Within its report, Accenture also highlights that due to these changing trends the manufacturing mindsets of industrial equipment leadrs are evolving into three distinctive ways:

  • Considering innovation costs as an investment and have strong commitments
  • Achieveing tangible and timely returns on the investments they have made
  • Making unique, differentiated investments in growth levers to enhance productivity and agility

“These leaders view innovation and the associated costs differently, spending more time and money than their peers to design and build differentiated products,” comments Accenture.

“They have the courage to scale new digital innovation at the right pace so that they neither miss the moment nor overreach themselves. It is their progressive mindsets that allow them to pivot their organization to new value propositions and earn higher returns on digital investments.”

However, in order “to make good on these new value propositions, industrial equipment companies must digitally reimagine the products and services they offer. Not only must they innovate to create value across key business functions, but also scale their proof of concepts (POCs) and ensure higher returns on digital investments (RODI),” adds Accenture.

To read the full report, click here!

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