Why Manufacturers Must Invest in Tech, Training

Why Manufacturers Must Invest in Tech, Training

Why Manufacturers Must Invest in Tech, Training

Manufacturers are falling short in security, aren’t doing enough to protect intellectual property and sensitive data, and need to invest in a skilled workforce.

Economic Outlook

While only 29% of manufacturers are more optimistic about the U.S. economy than they were in the last 12 months, a slightly bigger percentage (31%) expect the world economy to grow in the next 12 months.

Growth Opportunities

More than two-fifths (44%) of manufacturers expect organic growth in the domestic market in the next 12 to 18 months, while 14% see M&A activity as an opportunity for growth during this period.

Lack of Skilled Workers

51% of manufacturers expect the lack of qualified workers to be a major barrier to business growth.

Limited Workforce Investment

Few are making an effort “in developing skilled laborers by involvement in” community colleges (1%), universities (4%), vocational schools (10%) and high schools (4%).

Rising Employee Costs

A full 85% of manufacturers expect labor costs to rise by 1% to 4%, and 49% expect average wages for employees to grow by 1% to 2%.

Cutting Operational Costs Is Key

43% of respondents said cutting operational costs is a top priority.

Rising Incidents

The report points to data from Verizon attributing more than 60% of 525 security incidents in the manufacturing industry to some form of cyber-espionage.

Security Vulnerability

44% of manufacturers do not perform annual penetration testing within their IT group, and 25% are not sure if they perform this annual test.

Business Drivers

Improving customer service and response time (51%) and reducing costs (38%) are the top drivers apt have an impact on manufacturing’s technology strategy in 2016.

R&D Investments

18% of manufacturers are investing more than 5% in R&D, and 82% are investing less than 5% in R&D.