Priorities focus on optimizing operations and expanding footprints

We met with 202 manufacturing executives to understand their top priorities and how they are preparing for and adapting to key trends shaping their organizations. This year, executives identify the following:

Business priorities

  • Expanding footprint through diversification and market growth
  • Focusing on cost control and optimization
  • Enabling smart manufacturing through data and digital continuity

IT priorities

  • Accelerating digital transformation across the organization for digital continuity
  • Offering stable and secure IT/OT
  • Consolidating, streamlining and modernizing the IT landscape

 

 

Female and male engineers in a lab

Focus on data-driven decision-making deepens, but more data groundwork is needed.

90%
say operational decision-making is their top data priority
79%
are exploring GenAI, while traditional AI implementations are up
14%
have a highly mature data strategy

Artificial intelligence is cited as the top emerging macro trend overall, but priorities vary at a sub-industry level.

  • Aerospace cites accelerated defense production as top emerging macro trend.
  • Automotive manufacturers are most impacted by technology acceleration (79%) yet lead in producing expected results from digital strategies.
  • Metals and mining, and pulp and paper industries are most impacted by climate change (89%) and sustainability (80%).
  • Across the board, organizations seek deeper and stronger strategic relationships with 84% of clients having 10 or fewer strategic external partners.
Monitor at digital factory

What digital leaders do to accelerate results

Organizations generating expected results from their digitization strategies—the digital leaders—share common attributes that enable them to accelerate outcomes compared to others. For example, digital leaders in manufacturing:

padlock icon

Focus on security

+59pp

vs. others*

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Have highly aligned
IT and business strategies

+29pp

vs. others*

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Use managed services

+32pp

vs. others*

* those building or launching digitization strategies
pp = percentage points

Recommendations for improving data and operations to drive innovation

1

Build strong data foundations to turn data into actionable insights that deliver business outcomes.

2

Build resilient and agile supply chains to prepare for opportunity and growth. 

3

Optimize your IT landscape while leveraging managed services to drive down costs. 

4

Strengthen IT-business alignment to maximize diversification opportunities and quickly respond to change.

5

Analyze AI use cases to identify opportunities that support optimization and innovation.

6

Implement an end-to-end IT-OT security strategy to continue securing and safeguarding the business.

Engineer collecting data on a notepad

 

 

At CGI, we empower the creation of resilient futures, through unified manufacturing operations within the business and across the supply chain. Learn more about:

 

Unified Manufacturing    Data-driven Manufacturing    Supply Chain Consulting   Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES)  Cybersecurity

 

 

Client stories and thought leadership