Software Advice, a company that offers a service of helping clients find the right manufacturing software, has spoken to more than 2,000 manufacturing software buyers in the last year and issued a “Manufacturing Software Buyer Trends Report.”
Most of the companies in the database are smaller firms. Interesting in that the smaller companies now see a value in automating data collection and analysis. I’ve seen how the appropriate use of manufacturing information has improved processes and profitability. Perhaps this is just more information to nudge manufacturing managers into the 21st Century.
Key questions analyzed by the report include:
- What method do you currently use to track manufacturing processes?
- What are the top reasons for a manufacturing software purchase?
- What is your top application requirements?
It recently analyzed its in-house data to find out why manufacturing companies look for new software. Here are a few of the key takeaways from the buyer trends report:
- 60 percent of buyers are replacing manual methods (e.g., spreadsheets or paper);
- California is the most active state for manufacturing software buyers in our sample; and,
- The most in-demand applications are MES and MRP software.
