Factory automation keeps rising, according to Ericsson survey

Manufacturers around the world estimate that the level of automation of their production rose from an average of 57% 10 years ago to 69% currently, and expect it keep rising to 79% 10 years from now, according to an online survey conducted by Ericsson.

However, over half of surveyed production employees believe that more people will be needed to play similar roles by 2030, and 20% think that fewer people will be needed.

About 70% of surveyed manufacturers expect to have deployed at least five ICT-enabled production tools within the next five years, and 74% expect to have deployed seven or more such tools within the next 10 years. And 75% of them think advanced wireless technology such as 5G and Wi-Fi 6 is very important for such tools, and 80% have deployed 5G networks or plan to do so within the next five years.

More than half of surveyed manufacturers believe manufacturing as a service and pop-up factories to be commonplace by 2030, and many of them agree that additive manufacturing/3D printing will be an important part of their production process.

In Taiwan, high-tech manufacturers, such as semiconductor fabd, have relatively highly automated production while traditional manufacturers lag behind in automation, according to CTO Dann Yao for Ericsson Taiwan.

Ericsson undertook online interviews with 8,657 respondents, consisting of 5,443 production employees and 3,214 decision makers working with selected manufacturers in 22 countries including the US, China, India, Germany, Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea, during June-September 2021.

Source: Ericsson, compiled by DIGITIMES, July 2022

Article translated by Adam Hwang