Manufacturing complexity has increased in the last five years, and is expected to continue to rise during the next three years, according to a global survey of 378 manufacturers in the automotive, aerospace, high-tech electronics, and industrial equipment industries, undertaken by IDC Manufacturing Insights and sponsored by Infor. The white paper, In Pursuit of Operational Excellence: Accelerating Business Change Through Next Generation ERP, highlights the need for manufacturers to not only confront the complexity challenge but to embrace the opportunity presented by rapid innovation to secure competitive advantage. However, manufacturers across all industries and all regions claim that they are not equipped with adequate tools to achieve this goal.

According to the white paper, manufacturers recognize and acknowledge the increase in complexity, and strategies to manage it vary widely across industry sectors according to their unique industry challenges. Automotive and aerospace look toward improved demand planning (60% and 57%, respectively) to improve operational efficiencies; while high-tech electronics opts for increased sourcing from lower cost countries (49%) and better alignment of IT with the business (49%). Meanwhile, the industrial machinery sector is seeking to adopt strategies focused mostly on improved customer fulfilment (53%). However, the common denominator, according to two-thirds of manufacturers, is that business processes and IT systems fall short of dealing with current levels of complexity.

Conducted in October 2011 the research included manufacturers in the United States, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Brazil, Australia, China, India, Japan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Russia.

News Points
Drawing upon a similar white paper sponsored by Infor, the current findings unveil that complexity has risen in the last five years, according to 53% of manufacturers, with the majority of manufacturers (57%) claiming that it will continue to rise during the next three years. The remainder expects complexity levels to remain the same, with none anticipating it to reduce.

All industry sectors anticipate complexity to grow fastest in their respective markets, closely followed by their internal processes. Aerospace, industrial machinery, and high-tech electronics rank technology as the third area likely to become more complex, while automotive companies put increased supply chain complexity third.

Looking to business strategies to embrace complexity during the next three years, automotive and aerospace companies point to improved demand planning and forecasting (60% and 57% respectively), and customer fulfillment (49% and 50%), followed by lean/six sigma programs (45%) as their top initiatives. Industrial machinery companies mirror this trend, but rank customer fulfillment (53%) higher than improved demand planning (51%), while high-tech electronics companies favor increased sourcing from lower cost countries (49%) as their primary initiative in harnessing complexity, along with better alignment of IT with the business (49%) and improved customer fulfillment (44%) third.

When asked about barriers to harnessing complexity and improving operational excellence, findings point to a lack of agility in adapting business processes to change (66%), and ineffective or inadequate IT systems (61%).

Additional weaknesses of IT systems include poor integration with existing applications (44%), limited operational capabilities (28%), and complexity and expense in upgrading (24%).

IDC Manufacturing Insights Quote "Manufacturers all around the world must maintain strict discipline over their operations management in order to improve profitability," says Pierfrancesco Manenti, head of IDC Manufacturing Insights, Europe, Middle East, & Africa. "Companies must directly address key challenges such as harnessing and embracing the complexity that surrounds their operations while reducing internal complications by having consistent processes, better informed people, and open lines of communication. There is a huge requirement for modern applications that can support new, customer driven operating models to help manufacturers exploit innovation and profitable growth."

Infor Quote "Similar to the 2010 survey, complexity remains high on the list of priorities for manufacturers, who recognize that their need to offer choice and differentiated service also creates increased operational complexity and a hidden cost to manage it," said Andrew Kinder, director, product marketing, Infor. "The right enterprise applications and technology strategy have a big part to play in confronting the complexity challenge with solutions that facilitate better, faster decision making, support an increasingly mobile workforce and equip manufacturers with business agility rather than rigidity."

Additional Resources To download the full IDC Manufacturing Insights white paper sponsored by Infor click here (note: registration is required).