Smart Factory Market Trends

Growth Drivers

• Penetration in the Automotive Industry- The smart factory market is greatly impacted by the growing use of smart factory technologies for producing complex automobiles. Smart factory solutions may successfully solve the challenging production needs in these industries, which call for high levels of precision, quality, and efficiency. In the automotive sector, it is used for seamless integration of automation and it also ensures the production of intricate automotive components. Currently, 30% of car factories are integrating smart factory automation.
• Increasing use in Medical devices - Medical equipment, implants, and other complex components need to be made using precision manufacturing techniques. Advanced automation, sophisticated quality control, and real-time analytics are all features of smart manufacturing systems, which guarantee the highest levels of accuracy and quality. Additionally, the incorporation of sophisticated traceability and serialization systems in smart factories aids in meeting medical industry regulatory compliance standards. Adopting smart factory solutions in these sectors also increases production effectiveness and empowers businesses to fulfill regulatory and quality criteria that are very strict. As a result, the demand for smart industrial technologies is increasing quickly, fuelling the growth of the market at a steady pace.
• Increasing Network Coverage- There will be a significant increase in the deployment of 5G networks in smart factories. This will accelerate the evolution of the industry's outlook. Several smart owners of factories have been around in recent years. With the aid of 5G technology, there has been a rise in usage of cellular technologies. Further, for the specific use cases, they will be personalized. Integration of sensors into 5G enabled devices equipment enables the data collection from manufacturing networks devoid of Connecting to the machines for efficient real-time optimization. Hence, the excessive deployment of 5G networks in smart manufacturing plants helps in the expansion of the global smart factory market.
• Increased Industrial Robot Adoption - As the need for automation continues to grow in industries, industrial robots are being deployed more and more. As per a survey conducted, there have been an estimated 3 million industrial robots in use across the globe. Growth in Industrial Robots was driven by the expansion of electronics, as well as rising production costs. This is likely to lead to an increase in demand for industrial robots during the study period, while also contributing to market expansion of smart factories.

 Challenges

• Cybersecurity Concerns – Some of the major cybersecurity concerns associated with smart factories are vulnerability in IoT devices, risk of unauthorized access, risk of data breaches, supply chain security threats and others. The manufacturing industry is frequently targeted by cyber-attacks. With smart factories which include industrial internet of things, automation, and integration of cloud computing in record management of manufacturing process, there is an eminent risk of that data getting hacked. As per reports, nearly 25 % of all attacks in the year 2022 have been against manufacturers. Also, the systems' interconnectedness can have a cascading effect that increases the severity of any cyberattack. In light of this, the cybersecurity concerns can be considered as  a major setback for the smart factory market.
• Initial high investment costs, restrain the growth of the market.
• Stringent government Policies, are restricting the industry’s growth.