How industrial manufacturers prioritise product development

According to a new study from Qt Group, industrial manufacturers are feeling the effects of macroeconomic conditions and are adapting to deliver competitive advantages.

Software company Qt Group is headquartered in Espoo, Finland, has 700 employees and is present in more than 180 countries. 

The biggest impacts on manufacturing product development

In its survey, Qt Group asked manufacturers:

Which factors have affected product development the most?

• 39% said connectivity
• 31% answered interoperability 
• 33% hailed AI/ML

Why are you advancing UI and UX: 

• 28% cited the potential financial gains 
• 28% pointed to the technology advancements and the importance of keeping uptodate
• 26% said they wanted to increase their market share
• 19% pointed to innovation from competitors 

What have been the biggest impacts on your product development:

• 47% said increased product prices 
• 47% also said lower profit margins 
• 41% cited increased time-to-market 
• 40% pointed to the adoption of cross-platform development tools and acquiring new talent
• 37% answered streamlining product lines 
• 36% said rewriting software.

Demand for powerful, low-cost manufacturing hardware

Patrick Dalez, Product Business Line Director at Qt, sees that connectivity is becoming more important to manufacturers across the world.

“The division among industrial OEMs over which technologies to invest in is not entirely unexpected. It's clear that technologies like over-the-air updates are extremely divisive, particularly in places like Europe where many factories have network barriers - not even your cell phone will work there, so naturally, they don't want any over-the-air-updates," said Dalez. "They look for stable software and secure applications to run long-term on the machine, or that would be managed or updated via cable or local USB port. On the whole, around the world, we're seeing connectivity becoming more important, but to quite varying degrees. There are, of course, big vendors trying to shape the narratives of which technologies will matter most for industrial automation, but in general, we're hearing that more powerful, low-cost hardware is a focus."

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