IDC has revealed its forecast on technology spending by global manufacturers for 2018 and beyond.
By the end of 2021, 25 percent of global manufacturers will apply machine learning todata across product development, supply chain, manufacturing, and service for more rapid decision support, improved quality, differentiated products, and innovative business models.
By the end of 2019, only 25 percent of global manufacturers will have reached the managed stage of omni-experience transformation by sensing and responding to customer needs more effectively, and the remaining 75 percent risk customer attrition, revenue decline, and slower growth.
By the end of 2019, 50 percent of manufacturers will be collaborating directly with customers and consumers regarding new and improved product designs through cloud-based crowdsourcing, virtual reality, and product virtualization, thus realizing up to a 5 percent year-overyear increase in revenue.
By 2019, 60 percent of manufacturers will have integrated their PLM and PIM systemsfor the continuous improvement of product design and customer experience, thus increasing their customer satisfaction scores.
By the end of 2020, 65 percent of manufacturers will be using simulation and digital twins to operate products and/or assets, reducing the cost of quality defects and service delivery by up to 25 percent.
By 2019, generative design and biomimicry will be used by 25 percent of G2000 manufacturers to augment design and engineering decisions, resulting in an improvement of up to 30 percent in product development cycle time and up to a 5 percentage point gain in market share.
By 2020, global manufacturers deploying blockchains for product design and service delivery will have improved NPI cycles by up to 30 percent and will have increased service contract sales by up to 25 percent.
By 2020, 50 percent of global OEMs with connected service offerings will have incorporated augmented service execution and/or remote management, thus improving service margins by up to 30 percent.
Through 2020, augmented reality and mobile devices will drive the transition to the gig economy in the service industry, with “experts for hire” replacing 20 percent of dedicated customer- and field-service workers, starting with consumer durables and electronics.
By the end of 2018, global manufacturers, through the use of service bots throughout the service life cycle, will have reduced customer service costs by up to 10 percent and will have improved CSAT scores by up to 3 points.