Manufacturing 2025

AI promise vs shop-floor reality. Vendors lead with AI, but manufacturers talk performance management and continuous improvement. This doesn't mean that the customer doesn't see the potential in AI, but they're looking for ideas on the art of the possible. But there is uncertainty on what AI means in a practical sense for shop floor operations.

The skills gap of our 'greatest asset'. It's easy to find stats on retiring boomers and open demand for skilled labour in 'physical operations' type companies. A running theme in my talk track is on one of the great lies of working life, that 'people are our greatest asset'. All companies say this, but not all companies actually believe this. This is especially true in manufacturing. Many manufacturers claim to value workers yet exclude them from basic digital tools (email, LMS, ERP, Teams). If frontline teams aren’t trusted with systems, how can they drive improvement?

An increasingly VUCA world. Tariffs and geopolitical instability are no longer boardroom abstractions—they’re disrupting daily operations. There's a high degree of concern with larger manufacturers on what this uncertainty means at a shop-floor level - costs, productivity, worker engagement and so on. Manufacturing is the most targeted sector for ransomware (source: Palo Alto Networks). Cybersecurity (especially state-sponsored threats) has jumped from IT’s problem to the COO’s desk. For manufacturers on their Industry 4.0 journey, this exposure seems a wake-up call.

The Build vs Buy dilemma. Low-code and AI hype have fuelled a surge in homegrown shop-floor tools. But after seeing 15+ examples this past year, I'm confident in saying that most should have been bought, not built. There were a lot of 'ugly babies'! In any case, custom systems often become technical debt—poorly scaled, insecure, difficult to support and impossible to retire.

The convergence of Field Service and Connected Workers. It seems that they are increasingly trying to do the same thing - empower frontline workers with real-time, location-sensitive guidance, whether this is for new product installation, AM/PM-driven workflows, continuous improvement or problem solving. Field Service solutions started out as many jobs in a day, and trying to solve the 'travelling salesman' problem in routing resources. But as the ability of mobile apps to drive configurable 'if this, then that' workflows becomes better, this is aspiring to the capability of Connected Worker solutions. I wonder if there will be some consolidation of vendors.

In summary, it seems to me that manufacturing’s challenges aren’t just about technology—they’re about alignment. Vendors must bridge the ROI gap for AI offerings, companies must operationalize their "people-first" rhetoric, and leaders must weigh build-vs-buy decisions against long-term flexibility.

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