The wheels of ecommerce production and digital transformation are turning slowly for many manufacturers.

Despite the rapid pace of new ecommerce technology, such as headless commerce, and mounting pressure from digital-first customers, progress is mixed at best for many companies, according to a new survey of 600 manufacturing executives from Epicor Software Corp.

For example, only about 44% of manufacturers are spending more on new digital technologies, while 49% will keep paying the same amount as the prior year.

Although nearly half of all companies describe their company as “somewhat” to “very” modern, only 13% are fully digitized. Nearly 60% still use a mix of ecommerce, electronic business software and paper and manual procedures to conduct business.

“The shift to all-digital workplaces is slowly happening,” the report says. “31% (of manufacturing companies) are still using all paper.”

Other findings include:

• Big data: 41% of companies are gathering and analyzing data company-wide to gain insight into operations.
• Robotics and artificial intelligence: 36% of organizations are using robots and AI to automate manufacturing.
• Augmented reality: 32% of manufacturers are using AR to better see, understand and track data to improve manufacturing efficiency and productivity.

“Those who say their company is ‘very modern’ are more likely to say their company is eager to embrace new technology,” the report says. “Those companies who say their company is not very modern are more likely to say their company is hesitant to embrace technology.”

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