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Zebra Technologies Corp. is an interesting case study of a company building on a rather mundane, albeit useful, technology in a classic MBA strategy sort of way. I knew it for years as a label printer company—even sold a few in an earlier career. Now its technologies are found in many industries.
Along with the current meme of all God’s children doing research and reports (where have all the industry analysts gone?), here is a report Zebra compiled regarding attitudes and expectations of both consumers and managers in the automotive industry.
A couple of quick highlights:
- Consumers are driving a growing environmental imperative in automotive manufacturing that decision-makers need to address: Eight-in-10 consumers say sustainability and eco-friendliness are key priorities in their vehicle purchase and lease decisions.
- Navigating the increasing demand for EVs: More than half of consumers indicate their future preference is for a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV). However, navigating the growing demand comes with challenges as 68% of automotive industry decision-makers say they are under high pressure to produce next-generation (i.e., electric) vehicles.
- Trust and transparency in automotive manufacturing is a must: Approximately 80% of consumers and fleet managers want to have end-to-end visibility during the manufacturing process.
Zebra Technologies Corporation released the findings of its Automotive Ecosystem Vision Study which confirmed automotive manufacturers are under pressure to accommodate growing consumer demands for sustainability and transparency throughout the manufacturing process and fleet managers’ need for the digitization of operations and supply chain.
- Despite a fluctuating economy, automotive manufacturers are ready to invest in technology innovation as seven-in-10 expect to increase their tech spend and six-in-10 plan to increase their manufacturing infrastructure spend in 2023.
- Spanning multiple generations, consumers are a driving force behind automotive manufacturers’ acceleration to technology innovation as eight-in-10 say sustainability and eco-friendliness are key priorities in their vehicle purchase and lease decisions.
- Consumers are also driving the growing emphasis on personalization – the ability to customize a vehicle to their liking. Nearly four-in-five consumers say personalization options factor into their decision to purchase a vehicle, and eight-in-10 fleet managers share these same requirements for sustainability and personalization.
- Three-fourths of automotive manufacturers say a top priority is to build strategic partnerships with tech companies for their next generation of production.
- Data and information transparency is highly important to consumers and fleet managers alike, and they’re seeking more visibility into the automotive ecosystem. When considering a vehicle for purchase or lease, 81% of consumers and 86% of fleet managers indicate they want to understand the origin of materials and parts on their vehicle.
- Beyond gaining greater visibility into the automotive manufacturing process, once they have their vehicles, 88% of consumers and 86% of fleet managers want to understand how the data from their vehicles will be used by the automotive ecosystem. After a vehicle purchase, 83% of consumers and 84% of fleet managers expect ownership and control of the data their vehicle generates.
- A majority of consumers and fleet managers (80%) want end-to-end visibility during the manufacturing process. However, only about three-in-10 automotive industry decision-makers say they will prioritize connecting real-time data systems to enable a holistic view of operations and increase visibility across production and throughout the supply chain over the next five years.
- About one-third of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) said autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), RFID, rugged handheld mobile computers and scanners as well as industrial machine vision will improve supply chain management while about one-third of suppliers cite mobile barcode label/thermal printers, wearable computers and location technology as the technologies to do so.
- Overall, seven-in-10 automotive industry decision-makers agree digital transformation is a strategic priority for their organization. In the next five years, they anticipate expanding their use of technology with 47% focused on additive manufacturing/3D printing and 45% on supply chain planning solutions.
