Zebra Technologies Corporation, a global leader in digitising and automating workflows to deliver intelligent operations, reveals that strategic investments to create a connected frontline are delivering significant productivity, revenue, and profit returns for manufacturers, driven by improved operations.
The “Impact of Intelligent Operations: Manufacturing” report by Zebra in collaboration with Oxford Economics underscores a critical shift. A connected frontline should not be an operational afterthought but a top strategic imperative for c-suite and other senior leaders. The findings come as a growing number of forward-thinking CEOs around the world signal the importance of securing the future of frontline work.
“The narrative around the frontline workforce is undergoing a profound shift within global c-suites”, said Stephan Pottel, Manufacturing Strategy Director EMEA, Zebra Technologies. “With so much focus on AI and white collar desk jobs, we risk overlooking the urgent problems and missing the immense potential of the roughly 80% of the global workforce in blue collar and frontline roles”.
“Our research, coupled with sentiment from other industry leaders, clearly demonstrates things are changing. Addressing labour and skills shortages, boosting productivity through AI and automation, and shaping the future of work for the frontline are no longer operational concerns but strategic imperatives defining the future of industries and economies”.
In October, Zebra launched its inaugural Frontline AI Summit for senior business leaders who share Zebra’s vision for the frontline, where AI connects workers, customers, data and machines to make work better every day.
The Zebra report, which surveyed business leaders across various sectors, uncovers critical insights into how targeted investments in a more connected frontline are driving tangible business results:
- Significant employee productivity gains: Manufacturers who improved their frontline workflows over the past two years noted, on average, a 19% increase in employee productivity.
- Boosted revenue and profitability: Organisations across the entire supply chain that reported meaningful workflow improvements saw, on average, 2-percentage-point higher revenue growth and 1.7-percentage-point higher profitability than peers over the last year.
- Quality control impact: Manufacturers that achieved improvements in their quality control and assurance workflows over the last two years increased product quality (73%), decreased likelihood for human error (52%), and improved line adjustments without production interruptions (44%). These enhancements led to a 2.4-percentage-point higher revenue growth and 1.4-percentage-point higher profitability.
- Material movement efficiency: Leaders are looking to improve inventory access and control (79%), increase efficiency and throughput (51%), and reduce operational costs (36%) and material damage and waste (35%). Twenty percent say they need AI for their improvement efforts today. Those improving frontline material movement and handling reported, on average, 1.8-percentage-point higher revenue growth compared to those who did not make meaningful improvements in this area.
Intelligent Automation: A Strategic Imperative, not a Tactic
The research also reveals evolving perspectives on automation, highlighting the need for a more strategic mindset. While roughly four in 10 business leaders define automation as streamlining workflows with software and digital tools, one-third see it as optimising decision-making and performance with advanced analytics and AI/ML. Only 11% emphasise the use of robotics and hardware for physical tasks previously carried out by humans.
“The finding that really needs addressing is that only one-fifth of leaders define automation as a broad, strategic concept encompassing different technological solutions to improve productivity and efficiency”, said Pottel. “This figure is too low. Leaders should be supported to view intelligent automation strategically, as a fundamental component of an organisation’s vision for a more connected frontline and long-term growth”.
The full report can be read here.
Image Credit: Zebra Technologies
