Survey: 63.5% Of Manufacturers Rank Boosting Cybersecurity as Most Important Investment

Global technology intelligence firm ABI Research recently completed its semiannual Manufacturers’ Technology Adoption & Attitudes Survey, a comprehensive survey of 458 manufacturing decision-makers across the United States, Malaysia, and Germany to uncover real-world attitudes, adoption trends, and valuable insights that reflect the current technological landscape within the manufacturing industry. Key findings from the survey, presented in The State of Technology in the Manufacturing Industry report, reveal that manufacturers overwhelmingly view strengthening their cybersecurity posture as the most important investment for improving productivity.

“An interesting find from the survey is that 63.5% of manufacturers surveyed now say that improving their cybersecurity posture is the top investment necessary for improving productivity. When asked in the first wave of the survey in 2024, that number was only 21.9%. The recent CrowdStrike update, which caused a massive IT outage that crashed millions of Windows systems, brought security vulnerabilities to the fore. Increasing geopolitical tensions certainly play a part as well,” explains Michael Larner, Distinguished Analyst at ABI Research.

Other high-level findings from The State of Technology in the Manufacturing Industry report:

84% of Germany’s Greenfield facilities have achieved Modern Factory Maturity. Malaysian Brownfield facilities lag behind other regions at 31%, which reflects Malaysia’s heavy investments in advanced areas with fewer investments in traditional or legacy areas.
Manufacturers are increasingly embracing cloud solutions. 79% of manufacturers agree that cloud solutions offer clear benefits around decision-making, remote monitoring, and supply chain coordination.
44% of manufacturers are devising an implementation program or already rolling out private 5G, proving that Private 5G is beginning to take hold in the manufacturing space.
66% of respondents believe that Generative AI can help to optimize their production lines, and 74% believe Generative AI can accelerate the creation of worker instructions.
78% of respondents believe in the industrial metaverse’s ability to fuel Research and Development (R&D) in conjunction with strategy, but belief in onboarding capabilities may be waning.
76% of Malaysian manufacturers agree that Private cellular technology enhances connectivity, ensuring reliability and secure communications.
78% of U.S. manufacturers see operational efficiencies and productivity as a strong benefit, reflective of labor savings and reduction of input costs, whether components or raw materials.
53.9% of manufacturers are increasingly prioritizing QMS systems as a priority investment to improve quality levels, firming up their view of which technologies can improve quality.
48% of manufacturers view the lack of expertise to fully grasp the potential of new technologies as a primary barrier to digital transformation.

“Innovation is the cornerstone of success in the manufacturing Industry, and making a robust technology strategy is essential. The survey results are arming technology vendors and end users with real-world and current technology attitudes, adoption rates, and insights to gain a competitive advantage in the rapidly evolving industrial and manufacturing landscape,” Larner concludes.

Download the report, The State of Technology in the Manufacturing Industry, for Survey highlights.