Protolabs conducted a study with 108 manufacturing customers across 12 industries between June and July 2020 to determine how companies plan to implement digital manufacturing to survive the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
Here are some key takeaways:
1. How much has the COVID-19 crisis impacted your company?
● Very significantly – 35%
● Somewhat – 58%
● It has not really impacted my company – 6%
2. What is the largest overall change your industry is experiencing right now?
● How I work – 34% ● Demand down – 14% ● Demand up – 13% ● Supplier delays – 9% ● Projects on hold – 8%
3. What impacts are you seeing as a result of COVID-19?
● Supplied delays – 74% ● Delaying product launches – 47% ● Overall project funding reductions – 38% ● Slowed down new product development timeline – 38% ● Slowed down product innovation – 38% ● Working on COVID-19 specific projects – 29% ● Accelerated new product development timeline – 28% ● Accelerated product innovation – 23% ● Using new manufacturing suppliers – 19% ● Elevated manufacturing costs – 12% ● Manufacturing new products – 11% ● Working with a different mix of customers – 9%
4. How has the customer/market demand at your company changed over the past 2-3 months?
● Increased – 22% ● Flat – 44% ● Decreased – 33%
5. Which of the below rank in your Top 2 value propositions in a crisis?
● Quality – 64% ● Reliability – 49% ● Speed – 36% ● Price – 25% ● Agility – 12% ● Proximity – 8% ● Customer experience – 6%
6. How much do you agree or disagree with the following statements?
● My company has the ability to satisfy changing customer preferences. ○ Strongly agree – 26% ○ Agree – 60% ○ Neither agree nor disagree – 14% ○ Disagree – 0% ○ Strongly disagree – 0%
● My company has the ability to keep up with changing regulation. ○ Strongly agree – 28% ○ Agree – 58% ○ Neither agree nor disagree – 11% ○ Disagree – 3% ○ Strongly disagree – 0%
● I feel optimistic about the future of my business. ○ Strongly agree – 40% ○ Agree – 46% ○ Neither agree nor disagree – 7% ○ Disagree – 6% ○ Strongly disagree – 1%
● I expect my customers to return with more or less the same feature/function needs. ○ Strongly agree – 17% ○ Agree – 55% ○ Neither agree nor disagree – 20% ○ Disagree – 6% ○ Strongly disagree – 1%
● The pandemic has revealed opportunities for innovation. ○ Strongly agree – 22% ○ Agree – 43% ○ Neither agree nor disagree – 23% ○ Disagree – 11% ○ Strongly disagree – 1%
● My company has to adapt to a new product development process. ○ Strongly agree – 11% ○ Agree – 33% ○ Neither agree nor disagree – 31% ○ Disagree – 21% ○ Strongly disagree – 4%
● I expect more revenue opportunity in the post-COVID-19 market. ○ Strongly agree – 8% ○ Agree – 34% ○ Neither agree nor disagree – 40% ○ Disagree – 15% ○ Strongly disagree – 3%
● I expect to have to say yes to more custom demands from my customers. ○ Strongly agree – 6% ○ Agree – 29% ○ Neither agree nor disagree – 43% ○ Disagree – 21% ○ Strongly disagree – 1%
● The post-COVID-19 world will significantly change the types of product my company sells. ○ Strongly agree – 0% ○ Agree – 16% ○ Neither agree nor disagree – 23% ○ Disagree – 42% ○ Strongly disagree – 19%
● I expect to discontinue or close product lines and/or divisions. ○ Strongly agree – 2% ○ Agree – 7% ○ Neither agree nor disagree – 21% ○ Disagree – 46% ○ Strongly disagree – 24%
7. How much do you agree or disagree with the following statements?
● My business has faced supply chain risks in the past few months. ○ Strongly agree – 10% ○ Agree – 51% ○ Neither agree nor disagree – 26% ○ Disagree – 11% ○ Strongly disagree – 2%
● My supply chain was highly global before COVID-19. ○ Strongly agree – 15% ○ Agree – 41% ○ Neither agree nor disagree – 22% ○ Disagree – 14% ○ Strongly disagree – 8%
● I believe global supply chains are good. ○ Strongly agree – 6% ○ Agree – 44% ○ Neither agree nor disagree – 30% ○ Disagree – 17% ○ Strongly disagree – 3%
● My company will need to re-think our supply chain strategies in order to build more resilient and flexible procurement models going forward. ○ Strongly agree – 7% ○ Agree – 33% ○ Neither agree nor disagree – 34% ○ Disagree – 23% ○ Strongly disagree – 5%
● I anticipate shortages and outages across my supply chain that will impact my revenue. ○ Strongly agree – 4% ○ Agree – 32% ○ Neither agree nor disagree – 37% ○ Disagree – 22% ○ Strongly disagree – 5%
● My supply chain will change to be more domestic. ○ Strongly agree – 5% ○ Agree – 25% ○ Neither agree nor disagree – 53% ○ Disagree – 15% ○ Strongly disagree – 3%
● My supply chain will need to replace a vendor that went out of business. ○ Strongly agree – 1% ○ Agree – 12% ○ Neither agree nor disagree – 44% ○ Disagree – 31% ○ Strongly disagree – 11%
8. How soon do you foresee the below?
● Supply chain risk will reduce. ○ Now – 7% ○ Next 1-2 months – 13% ○ Next 3-6 months – 22% ○ Next 6-12 months – 28% ○ 12+ months – 14% ○ Never – 4% ○ N/A – 12%
● Inventory will be at a more predictable level. ○ Now – 11% ○ Next 1-2 months – 9% ○ Next 3-6 months – 22% ○ Next 6-12 months – 22% ○ 12+ months – 10% ○ Never – 2% ○ N/A – 23%
9. Which of the following are now true across your organization?
● Over 50% of your staff working from home – 67% ● You are personally working from home – 61% ● Reduced workforce – 18% ● Furloughs – 12% ● Working reduced hours – 11% ● Plants shut down – 7%
10. What challenges have you personally had with working from home?
● Don’t have access to all the hardware and software tools to be 100% productive – 53% ● Reduction in collaboration with team – 52% ● Keeping my personal and professional life separate – 43%
