Over the last two years, the turbulence in manufacturing and the supply chain has underscored the need for manufacturers to accelerate the shift in focus from mass production and economies of scale to market and customer responsiveness. “High-tech manufacturers are increasingly directing their technology investments to secure and optimize operations while addressing data privacy and security concerns, even as they build greater resilience for the long term,” says Mark Verbloot, senior director, Product, Solutions and Systems Engineering, Asia Pacific Region at Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company.

Recently, Aruba embarked on a study to shed light on the challenges high-tech manufacturers are facing and better understand their priorities amidst the unpredictability of market forces. The study, High-Tech Manufacturing Begins with High-Performance Networking and Security Solutions, by Forrester Consulting found three in four manufacturers in the Asia Pacific prioritized innovation and automation for greater operational efficiency and resilience over the past 12 months.

The study surveyed more than 270 business and IT decision-makers from high-tech manufacturers in Australia, India, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand in the first quarter of 2022. It found that edge solutions, IoT applications, and networks were essential to driving innovation for 63% of the respondents, with 61% indicating they had optimized manufacturing processes with automation and robots and 69% saying they were either piloting or already using cloud-managed networking and security solutions.

66% of respondents saw a rise in the importance of consistent network operation and remote monitoring, while a similar percentage said modern, resilient operations were just as necessary.

WHAT FINDINGS SAY

— 73% of decision-makers in APAC say optimizing operational efficiency is a top business priority
— 52% rank data privacy and security concerns among their top five challenges
— 63% cite edge solutions, IoT applications, and networks as essential to driving innovation
— 61% indicate they have optimized manufacturing processes with automation and robots

This content was originally published here.