PwC: Digital Factory Transformation Survey 2022

2022

Industrial manufacturing companies are going through a time of unprecedented crisis: the global COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted established supply chains, conflict in Eastern Europe has added to the strain, and the resulting shortage of key materials, from microchips to steel, means fewer finished products and significantly higher input costs.

These challenges are pushing manufacturers to rethink their operating models. The PwC Digital Factory Transformation Survey 2022 is based on the input of more than 700 manufacturing companies across the globe, and we found that worldwide, industrial companies are investing $1.1 trillion a year in digital transformation solutions.

The survey results show that the most effective companies – we call them Digital Champions – are implementing a full suite of factory-level digital technologies to drive manufacturing flexibility and resilience, as well as to reduce operational cost via factory automation. They are creating double-digit returns through a combination of cost efficiencies and greater flexibility. Yet the survey also shows that progress is slow: two thirds of companies are still close to the beginning of their digital journey.

The PwC Digital Factory Transformation Survey 2022 was conducted in the second half of 2021 and gathered responses from 700 global corporations from at least 23 different countries to find out about the status of their Smart Factory transformation, their priorities in technologies and use cases, as well as their general transformation approach.

Survey respondents were drawn equally from companies in six sectors: Retail & Consumer Goods, High Technology & Electronics, Chemicals & Process Industries, Pharmaceuticals & Medical Technology, Automotive & Transportation, and Industrial Manufacturing. Respondents were C-Suite executives or operations leaders, with 70% of companies represented having revenues in excess of €3 billion.