{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Factory Field Notes","title":"Ep. 3 | Rockwell State of Smart Manufacturing Report 2026: What Executives Should Actually Believe [Review]","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":3522,"description":"The Rockwell State of Smart Manufacturing Report 2026 is the most cited smart manufacturing study of the year. This executive review pulls apart which findings hold up on the plant floor.\nRockwell Automation surveyed 1,560 decision makers across 17 countries for the eleventh annual edition, with 62 percent holding spend authority.\nSubscribe for executive analysis of industry research, capital allocation, and the operational reality behind digital transformation.\nLearn more at Joltek:- Digital Transformation in Manufacturing: https://www.joltek.com/blog/digital-transformation-in-manufacturing- Industry 4.0 and Smart Manufacturing: https://www.joltek.com/blog/industry-4-0-smart-manufacturing- Industrial Cybersecurity (ICS): https://www.joltek.com/blog/industrial-cybersecurity-ics- Unlocking Industrial Data in Manufacturing: https://www.joltek.com/blog/unlocking-industrial-data-in-manufacturing\nThe report frames 2026 as the start of an execution era, with smart manufacturing moving from pilot to production. The directional read is right. The specific numbers behind it deserve closer scrutiny from anyone carrying P&L responsibility for a plant or a portfolio of plants.\nThe most generous figure in the report is the claim that 43 percent of collected manufacturing data is now used effectively. In dozens of plant walks across food and beverage, CPG, life sciences, and pharmaceuticals, the realistic number looks closer to 5 to 7 percent once \"effectively\" is defined as data that is captured, contextualized, and actively moving OEE, quality, yield, or cost. Most production data still dies at the PLC and DCS layer, never reaching a historian, never landing in a database, and never informing a decision. The companion claim that 34 percent of operations are AI augmented today is similarly soft. Microsoft Copilot helping a quality engineer write a better email is not the same as a machine learning model closing a vision loop on a packaging line, and the survey does not...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/bLSthDC6mLkQ3vEghIEbytYZBvBBofsfsFEpsA-BvSs/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS83ZDg0/MTRlOGJkNzQxN2Ex/M2NlNjg4N2EwMzI1/MmM4NS5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}