Smart manufacturing trends in Asia beyond 2024

On the face of it, Asia remains a manufacturing hub to the world, even as governments in regions like North America and Europe look to spruce up local capabilities.

Forrester vice president and principal analyst, Paul Miller, says manufacturing sites in Asia are affected by two shifts: lower-cost manufacturing moves from China to other countries in the region as Chinese wages rise, while some Chinese manufacturers are successfully moving from low-cost manufacture of other companies' products to making their higher-value finished goods.

Asia can no longer rely solely on low labour costs as a competitive advantage. Praveen Hariharan, IBM Consulting partner and sector leader for industrial & distribution, and sustainability in ASEAN, says advancements in technology, robotics, artificial intelligence (AI) and automation are also reducing dependency on labour cost as an arbitrage and the broad levers of competitive advantage could change in the coming years. 

The Covid-19 pandemic may have revealed weaknesses in the supply chain, digitalization or modernisation by some manufacturers has shown that it is possible to rise above disruptions successfully.

Shashank Luthra, vice president for Southeast Asia at AVEVA, asserts that while manufacturers may diversify their supply chains, the Asian region is likely to remain the world's manufacturing hub.

Responses to changing market dynamics

Asked how manufacturers in Asia are responding to changes in market forces, Hariharan says manufacturers have increasingly infused technology in their operations while focusing on optimising costs and improving the quality of their products.

“To stay on top of their game, many have also invested in sustainability initiatives, providing their global buyers a more transparent and open view of these practices, and forged innovative partnerships with both their ecosystems and academia,” he continued.

Forrester’s Miller observes that successful manufacturers are keen to shift from low-cost supply of commodity components to more profitable – and defensible – product offerings that (as in Europe and North America) increasingly combine physical products with digital services.

Strategies that work

IBM’s Hariharan opines that to maintain their competitiveness and overcome today’s challenges, manufacturers have had to make agility and adaptability their top priorities.

Luthra suggests that manufacturers develop a roadmap to guide their adoption journey. “We often recommend starting with building out an industrial information infrastructure for a single source of truth,” he continued.

From there, he suggests that manufacturers can accelerate value creation by incorporating suitable solutions into engineering and operations. “Next, employees must be enabled to make data-driven decisions with information and insights through a single-pane-of-glass. Lastly, information sharing with partners and suppliers can foster collaboration within and beyond the organisation,” he added.

Favoured technologies

Forrester’s Miller believes that no single technology is going to transform manufacturing in Asia, but several do deliver value.

Chiming in on the topic, Hariharan the manufacturing bases are now looking at connected IoT devices leveraging cognitive capabilities to align workflows and processes. “This moves them up the curve towards being intelligent manufacturing plants,” he added. He agrees with Miller that smart plants are bringing together combinations of robotics, IoT, edge computing, AI, cloud, 5G and digital twins to transform their operations.

“They are realising that there needs to be a combination of IT & OT skills and there is growing convergence between the two, especially in aspects of cybersecurity and hybrid cloud-led transformation.”

Praveen Hariharan

All these efforts are geared towards achieving resiliency and efficiency, opined Luthra. He stressed that to fully realise the full transformative potential of digitalisation, a unified strategy driven by insights and intelligence, needs to be in place.

“Having an industrial intelligence platform that helps you bring together all these technologies can future-proof operations, unlock efficiencies and drive greater sustainability. Moreover, it can boost collaboration across the ecosystem — a key facet of the transformation,” he added.

Leading the modernisation of manufacturing

IDC says companies are going through massive cultural changes, with the role of manufacturing operations transforming from key enablers of the fulfilment process to key enablers of business transformation and reinvention.

However, companies are finding themselves with so much available technology that they cannot even identify the right business cases. Instead of inadequate technology, they face the problem of inadequate business, IT, and digital strategy definitions, observes the analyst.

To succeed, Forrester’s Miller says the modernisation and digitisation of manufacturing must be owned from the top. The CEO and (for public companies) the board need to set the vision, own the vision and drive the vision throughout the company.

“It's too complex – and important – to be done any other way. It also touches a lot of roles, across IT, OT (operational technology) and the wider business, meaning that many different executive functions will need to play their part.”

Paul Miller

Luthra acknowledges that the digital transformation of manufacturing operations can be challenging, with enterprises often lagging on technology adoption until maturity – leaving benefits untapped and advantages wasted.

He suggests that manufacturers appoint a Chief Digital Officer (CDO) to oversee research and implementation efforts. “It is important to note that this transformation is an undertaking that the entire organisation needs to commit to – not just by one individual,” he continued.

“While the CDO leads the initiative, the CEO and leadership team need to actively encourage support and buy-in from across the organisation, particularly from manufacturing operations leaders who stand to benefit directly from this transformation,” concluded Luthra.