APAC Manufacturing Industry Gets Smart for Growth, Says Frost & Sullivan

SINGAPORE, July 7 /PRNewswire/ -- In 2009, most countries in the Asia Pacific region saw a dip in the investment in Information Technology (IT) Services. However, with a slow global economic recovery underway, this trend is expected to reverse in the coming year.

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Investments in IT have shown direct relevance to increasing the business value of an organization as it leads to the increase in productivity levels. The APAC IT Services market was estimated to be USD150 billion in 2008 and is expected to increase to USD170 billion in 2012 at a CAGR of 6.2%.  

According to Frost & Sullivan's Vice President of Industrial Technologies Satish Lele, the pressure for ever higher levels of productivity will never cease and IT will be the key differentiator that separates companies that are primed to succeed from those that struggle and fail.

"The shape of global manufacturing is changing as manufacturing becomes more knowledge intensive as opposed to resource intensive. The global manufacturing market is also shifting from mass production to mass customization, where product development cycles are becoming shorter, and companies will grow through innovation instead of through higher volumes as in the past," he says.

He continues, "In the manufacturing sector, the presence of IT will result in faster data processing, better quality control, overall equipment efficiency and lower costs. With increasing IT penetration, as manufacturers move up the value chain, they will experience higher levels of innovation and a shorter time needed to market the products."

However, adoption of IT in manufacturing has been slow in the region. "Some of the factors that are constraining enhanced IT adoption in many companies are a lack of a fast and reliable connectivity, high infrastructure cost, the lack of skilled staff, and the lack of strategy, among others," says Satish.

"Still," he continues, "the IT outlook for 2010 is very promising especially with new, encouraging policies by governments. The Singaporean government has budgeted SGD2 billion through their National Productivity Fund to promote industry-wide productivity improvements."

According to Satish, the coming decade will demand greater focus on innovative products and solutions. Some of the key trends in the industry include sustainable IT, which are services that help reduce carbon footprint.

"The growing importance of Green manufacturing will drive the investment in IT solutions which support efficient management of resources. Sustainable IT manufacturing refers to methods of producing products in a way that does not harm the environment; it encompasses everything from reducing the amount of harmful chemicals used in products to making them more energy efficient and packaging them with recycled materials," Satish explains.

Other trends include services such as 'cloud computing' which will make it easier for end-users to move into a cloud environment and data centers which covers services such as management of power, technologies such as virtualization, optimization, data de-duplication, and co-location / full-managed services.

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SOURCE Frost & Sullivan