Westpac's industry economist Paul Clark has authored a great paper, that explicitly states what manufacturers need to be looking to do to prosper in the future. Put simply, the adoption of new digital technologies is what Westpac are calling for. Consider this, there are only 55 robots per 10,000 manufacturing workers in New Zealand. In Germany there are 371 and in Korea there are a whopping 934 robots! Digital twinning and smart factories leveraging the power of AI, robotics, automation, IoT are what is needed to compete and drive more efficient operations.

We also need to make supply more resilient by making them smarter. The supply chain of the future needs to be agile, flexible, resilient, and digitally networked for improved visibility. GDP stats show the sector has been in a long-term decline. This is what the sector needs to do; those that don't head down this path face being swept aside or taken over by those that do.

Westpac Industry Insight Manufacturing Report 15Feb24