Manufacturing Market Research
As the competition among manufacturers heats up, innovation powered by new technologies becomes the only way to retain market share and grow.
That said, it’s not really about who moves fastest but who makes the right move. Manufacturing market research will optimize your company’s growth and profitability.
Importance of Manufacturing Market Research
Due to the effects of a global disruption in trade, more and more manufacturers are seeing the need to diversify or expand into new markets. Expanding and launching new products requires market knowledge. With a team of experts across the globe, our manufacturing market research initiatives help manufacturers by providing insights like:
- Suitable new markets for their products
- Data-backed buyer personas of initiators and decision-makers
- Market intelligence to help understand the market dynamics
- Market entry strategies that guarantee a sizable market share
- Competitive research and analysis
- Marketing channels and messages that resonate with the target audience
- Up-selling and cross-selling opportunities
Opportunities and Trends in the Manufacturing Sector
Manufacturers are working hard to diversify their products and establish alternative supply chains. This has opened up manufacturing opportunities in new locations. With India, Malaysia, Singapore, and Vietnam taking the lead in the APAC region, Mexico is rising up as a potential manufacturing hub in the LATAM area.
While the APAC hubs are competing against China through business-friendly government policies and cheap labor, Mexico is competing on the basis of its proximity to the US.
Top Trends in Manufacturing
To increase revenue and experience growth, manufacturers are adopting new tactics. These are meant to either reduce costs or grow their revenue channels.
Here are some of the trends manufacturers are embracing.
1. Improving visibility
Visibility is a critical part of the manufacturing business as it helps in decision making. To improve visibility, manufacturers are investing in digital solutions for data capture and analysis across the entire manufacturing ecosystem. This will help them identify breakpoints and opportunities for improvement.
2. Smart manufacturing
Forward-thinking manufacturers are working on “smart factories” where everything revolves around data. These manufacturers are moving from concept to reality by combining the power of data as well as different technologies and solutions to optimize the entire manufacturing process.
3. Automation
In manufacturing, automation is the ultimate solution. Although all efforts are moving in this direction, the biggest challenge is the skills shortage. Manufacturers are dealing with this by training their staff on new technologies, data analytics, and problem-solving while creating flexible and dynamic work environments.
4. Predictive maintenance
One of the biggest causes of downtime in manufacturing is equipment breakdown. With the loss of productivity comes huge costs and potential losses even as customer experience suffers due to delays in delivering OEM parts and final products. Manufacturers are turning to predictive analytics and maintenance to monitor equipment performance and reduce unplanned outages.
5. Agile manufacturing
Manufacturers are also looking for ways to quickly respond to customer needs and business challenges. Many CIOs and CTOs have found that adding a layer of agile solutions to their existing ERPs helps them achieve results faster. Data-driven insights are leading to system integrations and process upgrades, resulting in a faster time to value.
6. Cybersecurity in manufacturing
With data being the most critical asset for manufacturers, cybersecurity is receiving special attention. With the rising cases of ransomware, manufacturers are looking to invest in the right solutions. The best option will be to hire skilled cyber talents while partnering with vendors who have proven solutions and dedicated R&D programs.
New Technologies in Manufacturing
Manufacturers are adopting new technologies and solutions to reduce costs, improve efficiency and increase profitability. Some of these include:
1. Robots in manufacturing
Although robots have been a part of manufacturing for some time, some innovations are bringing about changes. For example, collaborative robots (cobots) are taking over dangerous and repetitive tasks, allowing humans to work on creative solutions and other more satisfying jobs.
Robots as a Service (RaaS) is lowering the costs of automation by providing robots for hire. Through RaaS, established manufacturers can expect disruptions coming from startups just as it happened in the software world when PaaS and IaaS became a reality.
2. Blockchain in the manufacturing industry
Blockchain is quite a new technology in manufacturing. It’s however being actively developed for use in manufacturing ecosystems by companies such as IBM, GE, and Samsung.
Blockchain will be used to enforce quality control regulations from the raw materials stage to the final product. It will also be used to provide transparency and additional visibility to ecosystem stakeholders across the entire value chain.
3. Artificial Intelligence in manufacturing
Artificial Intelligence is finding application in manufacturing due to the availability of data. In many cases, AI is being implemented alongside robotics. Robots with AI capability will be the new frontier of competition. AI-capable robots are able to make perception-based decisions, making them far superior to traditional robots which are limited to rule-based algorithms.
4. Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)
With the launch of 5G networks, manufacturers can finally start implementing IIoT. Some manufacturers are already getting started by upgrading their internal network infrastructure.
As chip and sensor manufacturers, as well as software developers, work on making IIoT a reality, the manufacturers who are planning ahead will be able to adapt fastest once all parts of the puzzle are available.
Benefits of Conducting Manufacturing Market Research
Market research is key to business growth. Whether you’re looking to re-establish yourself or expand into new markets, understanding the market is a must. Considering the ever-changing customer needs and high competition, as a manufacturer, market research can provide you with benefits such as:
- Primary insights which cannot be attained through secondary sources
- Knowledge of emerging industry and customer trends
- Strategies for market capture by uncovering competitor strengths and weaknesses
- Risk mitigation
- Customer engagement ideas to help stay relevant
- Benchmarking to evaluate and improve productivity and growth
- Planning and execution of strategy for market entry and marketing success
About Manufacturing Market Research
As an investment meant to shed light on your growth potential, market research needs to be conducted by experienced experts. At SIS International Research, we’ve worked with top brands across the globe who always trust us to carry out market research for them.
With research strategies that include focus groups, in-depth interviews, ethnography, market segmentation, competitive benchmarking, and choice modeling, we unearth the kind of insights you need to make the right business decision.