As many as 83 percent of surveyed manufacturers believe that digital technologies will change the way their companies operate in the next five years, according to a Deloitte report. The companies themselves are also more willing to reach for new solutions.
The 2024 Manufacturing Outlook report showed that after several difficult years marked by instability and supply chain disruptions, the global industrial sector is returning to growth, which is an important signal for the Polish industry, which has been growing at a rate three times higher than the EU average since 2004, and its share in the national GDP is one of the highest among all EU countries.
The structural factors behind the success of Polish industry in recent decades – opening up to the EU market, increasing productivity, a large number of sub-suppliers and the availability of qualified workers, as well as price competitiveness – still favour us.
– written in the report.
According to Deloitte experts, manufacturers looking for new development opportunities are increasingly reaching for tools used in digital transformation, such as the Internet of Things, generative AI or the metaverse. Entrepreneurs consider the main advantages of digitizing processes in companies to be improved efficiency, increased resilience of supply chains, increased competitiveness and reduced emissions from production.
In turn, the authors of the report believe that the use of the latest technologies has a positive impact on, among other things, the flexibility of the production process and the efficiency of the organization, and as an example, the fact is given that manufacturers who have so far used intelligent solutions have reduced production costs by one third and improved the quality of manufactured products by 20 percent.
Manufacturing companies also want to prevent potential future disruptions to supply chains, and as many as 76 percent of respondents are analyzing their supply ecosystems using the latest technologies to identify sensitive areas of activity. The so-called digital twin, a virtual model of, for example, a supply chain or production line, is particularly popular.
Another challenge for manufacturing companies is reducing emissions, and digital technologies can also help here. In order to decarbonize, the industrial sector must focus on low-emission energy sources, which will have a positive impact on the competitiveness of Polish companies in the long term.