Easier design and extra use of AI for administration can enhance manufacturing, stated survey respondents. Supply: MISUMI Americas
Synthetic intelligence and digitalization are remodeling international business in response to persistent volatility, in line with a the “eleventh Annual State of Manufacturing & Provide Chain Report” by Fictiv and MISUMI World. The businesses surveyed greater than 300 senior provide chain and manufacturing leaders.
“World manufacturing has entered a brand new part, the place high quality, compliance, and transparency are non-negotiable,” acknowledged Ryusei Ono, consultant director and president of MISUMI. “This analysis displays what we see throughout our buyer base: a rising expectation for constant efficiency at scale amid rising regional, regulatory, and technological complexity.”
Fictiv stated companies use its manufacturing facilities in India, Mexico, China, and the U.S. to entry high-quality manufacturing, optimize logistics, and mitigate provide chain danger. The San Francisco-based firm has delivered greater than 39 million prototype and industrial elements and assemblies for early-stage corporations and huge enterprises alike, serving to them innovate sooner, unlock assets, and develop earnings.
MISUMI Americas brings scale to machine elements, automation
In April 2025, MISUMI Group Inc. acquired Fictiv for $350 million. MISUMI Americas gives configurable elements, customary elements, and customized manufacturing for automation, robotics, medical, automotive, electronics, aerospace, and industrial tools markets throughout the U.S. and Mexico.
The mixed firm stated it delivers a unified digital manufacturing platform that connects design, engineering, and manufacturing with precision, velocity, and reliability.
“MISUMI is a 70-year-old public Japanese firm and has been within the U.S. marketplace for over 20 years,” stated stated Dave Evans, CEO of Fictiv and now president and CEO of MISUMI Americas. “It’s differentiated from different customary elements suppliers in simplifying the bull of supplies by [also] offering configurable and customized elements.”
“We ship 200,000 packing containers a day — there’s a 747 that flies from Japan to Chicago day-after-day,” he informed The Robotic Report. “We get to plug on this wonderful expertise provide chain with every little thing that Fictiv has performed over the previous 10-plus years.”
“I’ve toured facilities the place shelving, choose and place, and bundling of orders have been being automated,” he added. “You’ll be able to’t get to excessive ranges of high quality, value, and time with out automation, and I’ve seen firsthand how robots don’t substitute jobs however drive productiveness.”
AI is turning into important to business, leaders inform MISUMI
Dimensional Analysis carried out the survey of certified people on the director degree or larger who work in engineering, provide chain, manufacturing manufacturing, analysis and improvement, or digital innovation roles. Many of the corporations concerned produce items in clear vitality, electrical autos, robotics, or medtech industries.
The 2026 “State of Manufacturing and Provide Chain Report” discovered that expertise and provide chain experience at the moment are important to staying aggressive.
- AI is remodeling manufacturing and provide chains: 95% off survey respondents stated implementing AI into their operations is important to their corporations’ future success.
- AI addresses workforce shortages: 95% stated AI and automation are serving to deal with labor shortages, however they acknowledged that they can not substitute specialised experience.
- Digitalization can enhance manufacturing: 97% of business leaders stated digital manufacturing platforms are important for manufacturing.
- Reshoring is a high precedence: 93% stated transferring manufacturing again to the U.S. is a high precedence.
- Provider sourcing is difficult: 81% stated provider sourcing and manufacturing are too time-consuming and dear.
- Exterior tariff experience is required: 77% stated commerce compliance necessities are too advanced to handle with out exterior experience.
“This yr’s knowledge makes clear that velocity, predictability, and resilience now outline aggressive benefit,” stated Evans. “The businesses which are pulling forward are those leveraging AI and digital manufacturing platforms, sturdy international networks, and embedding high quality into their operations.”
“Abroad is already closely automated. I visited a manufacturing unit in China with 450 high-precision CNC machines and perhaps a dozen or two staff,” he recalled. “There are quite a lot of locations for robots to drive innovation — from cobots in machine tending, welding, and grinding and sanding, all the way in which to general-purpose humanoid robots.”
“It’s vital that we don’t see robotics and AI as a aggressive benefit however as desk stakes,” Evans stated. “We’ve seen an explosion in funding in AI, primarily round basis fashions and LLMs [large language models], as market leaders acknowledge the necessity to transfer from the digital area to the bodily software of AI.”
Supply: “State of Manufacturing & Provide Chain Report,” MISUMI and Fictiv
Manufacturing administration challenges stay
Almost the entire 300+ manufacturing leaders surveyed, or 99%, stated provider tariff and commerce experience is now important in associate choice, stated MISUMI Americas. Ninety-eight p.c reported that rising raw-material prices are actively informing methods for extra resilient sourcing.
On the identical time, business leaders are figuring out the operational enhancements that might ship the best affect, stated the corporate. As we speak, 83% of engineers spend 4 or extra hours per week on procurement-related workflows, whereas 93% of leaders stated productiveness improves when administrative duties are offloaded. Fictiv affords tariff administration help.
Additionally, rising complexity is intensifying provide chain administration pressures throughout the manufacturing lifecycle, discovered the survey. Manufacturing planning was cited as the highest problem for balancing value, high quality, and time to market, adopted by manufacturing, sourcing, design, and demand forecasting.
MISUMI famous that 81% of leaders stated that provider sourcing and administration is simply too time-consuming and dear, up from 73% in 2025. The corporate stated this factors to a rising want for extra built-in working fashions.
AI adoption has additionally moved from experimentation to execution. AI is already embedded throughout core manufacturing and provide chain workflows, stated 97% of respondents.
As well as, 95% of the leaders stated they think about AI a requirement somewhat than an possibility. Lots of them anticipate AI-driven productiveness good points of fifty% or extra, with some projecting enhancements of two to 5 instances as workflows are redesigned round automation and intelligence.
“Our perception at Fictiv is in people plus machines,” Evans stated. “As we simplify sourcing for advanced mechanical merchandise, dashing time to income, we’ll see extra innovation. Small and midsize companies [SMBs] and producers have been struggling for years — not with lights-out automation, however methods to make native manufacturing extra economically viable.”
“I used to be speaking with a supervisor at an SMB a number of weeks in the past, and he put a pedometer on his operators,” famous Evans. “When it handed three to 4 miles, he stated, ‘You’re a robotic.’ I thought of it, and in factories, we must always take into consideration time wasted transferring somewhat than working. In Asia, we’ve tackled that with vendor-managed stock machines.”
The vast majority of business leaders surveyed stated they count on AI and reshoring to enhance their provide chains. Supply: MISUMI Americas
The way forward for manufacturing is digital
An rising variety of business leaders are targeted on digital manufacturing platforms, with 97% saying they’re important, up from 86% in 2024. They’re additionally prioritizing companies that scale back handoffs and compress cycle instances, in line with MISUMI Americas.
Ninety-three p.c reported that engineering productiveness would considerably or reasonably enhance by means of managed manufacturing or provide chain companies, the firm added. Ninety-eight p.c noticed clear optimization alternatives— notably in high quality administration, provide chain design assist, design for manufacturability (DFM), costing, and engineering companies.
“Over the previous few years, provider sourcing and administration have turn into considerably extra advanced and useful resource‑intensive,” stated a senior sourcing supervisor at a world automation integrator. “Elevated volatility, together with the necessity for better visibility and resilience, has made managing suppliers rather more difficult.”
The total eleventh “Annual State of Manufacturing & Provide Chain Report” is obtainable from Fictiv and MISUMI Americas.
