Key Trends and Insights from Deloitte's 2025 Manufacturing Industry Outlook

We highly recommend reading this insightful article by Deloitte, 2025 Manufacturing Industry Outlook. It provides a comprehensive look at the key trends and challenges expected to shape the manufacturing industry in the coming years, offering valuable insights for businesses aiming to stay competitive in an evolving landscape. The article covers several important topics such as generative AI, supply chain resilience, smart operations, and clean technology manufacturing.

Find below a summary of the key takeaways.

Key Trends and Insights from Deloitte's 2025 Manufacturing Industry Outlook

1. AI and Generative AI in Manufacturing

Manufacturers focus on high-ROI use cases like customer service and product innovation, leveraging AI for efficiency and cost savings. Companies are also prioritizing investments in data lifecycle management to overcome challenges with data quality and access.

2. Supply Chain Agility and Resilience

Supply chain challenges continue, with elevated costs, shipping delays, labor shortages, and geopolitical tensions still posing risks. Investments in digital tools like planning software and analytics improve visibility and help address costs, delays, and disruptions.

3. Smart Operations and Digital Transformation

Manufacturers continue their digital transformation journey, investing in core technologies like cloud, AI, 5G, and XR to improve operational efficiency and innovation. Key areas of investment include smart operations systems that connect the enterprise with the shop floor, the Unified Namespace for streamlined data integration, and XR technologies for training and workforce support.

4. Clean Technology Manufacturing: Strategic Focus Amid Uncertainty

Manufacturers stay committed to electrification and emissions goals, guided by incentives and evolving regulations. Government incentives and changing regulations will continue to impact decisions in this area.

Conclusion: Preparing for the Future

In 2025, manufacturers will need to navigate familiar challenges, but with the right technology investments and a clear strategy, they can achieve enhanced efficiency, greater resilience, and a competitive edge in a rapidly changing market. By focusing on digital and data foundations, AI applications, and smart operations, manufacturers can position themselves for success. To read the full 2025 Manufacturing Industry Outlook by Deloitte, click [here].

Our reflection:
No Data - No Party. Bad Data - Bad Party.

At Crosser, we have every year thousands of interactions with customers, partners and suppliers in the digital manufacturing ecosystem.

A common theme that goes across the key trends reported in the Deloitte article as well as what we see in the market boils down to the ability to break data siloes and provide real-time access to high quality data.

Every use case whether it’s about increased insights, data and AI driven automations, optimized supply chain or Smart Operations needs the right data at the right time as well as the ability to act on the data with intelligent processing.

Relevant content

Interested in learning more about how Unified Namespace can drive operational efficiency in manufacturing? Check out this article written by Crosser’s CTO [here].

12 Dec 2024

About the author

Goran Appelquist (Ph.D) | CTO

Göran has 20 years experience in leading technology teams. He’s the lead architect of our end-to-end solution and is extremely focused in securing the lowest possible Total Cost of Ownership for our customers.

"Hidden Lifecycle (employee) cost can account for 5-10 times the purchase price of software. Our goal is to offer a solution that automates and removes most of the tasks that is costly over the lifecycle.

My career started in the academic world where I got a PhD in physics by researching large scale data acquisition systems for physics experiments, such as the LHC at CERN. After leaving academia I have been working in several tech startups in different management positions over the last 20 years.

In most of these positions I have stood with one foot in the R&D team and another in the product/business teams. My passion is learning new technologies, use it to develop innovative products and explain the solutions to end users, technical or non-technical."