Fictiv released its fourth annual State of Hardware Report, exposing the added burden of tariffs on an industry already struggling to quickly and affordably bring products to market. The detailed data-driven insights from this year’s survey found that companies across America, from large enterprises to small startups, have encountered exaggerated supply chain and resource constraints when trying to get to market as a result of tension between the U.S. and its trade partners. To compensate, product development teams said they are leveraging multiple tariff engineering tactics to circumvent manufacturing obstacles and sculpt more agile supply chains.
Top level findings from the 2019 report include:
• 62% said tariffs have resulted in increased cost of materials and components;
• 30% of projects are over budget, and 38% behind schedule;
•43％的受访者没有足够的资源来管理其制造业务;
• As a result, 61% of employees are working outside of their designated job responsibilities.
“It’s clear from this year’s survey that recent changes in trade policy have complicated and exacerbated inherent inefficiencies in manufacturing and the global supply chain,” said Dave Evans, co-founder and CEO of Fictiv. “But it’s reassuring to see the continued resourcefulness and ingenuity of product teams as they counter these enhanced challenges by embracing new manufacturing platforms and technologies, ramping up near-shoring, and assembling final products locally.”
Increased challenges bringingproductto market
这份报告详细说明了传统的e tensions have inflamed some of the industry’s core long-term challenges, and made it even more difficult for respondents now bringing products to market:
• Agility to scale: The process from prototype to production continues to strain product teams with many saying that they have difficulty finding partners that can adjust production volumes. One in five (20%) respondents were “dissatisfied” or “very dissatisfied” with their manufacturer’s ability to ramp production volumes up or down.
• Teams: Added complexity and costs are undermining employee focus and productivity with 43% of respondents reporting they are understaffed and/or don’t have adequate resources to handle new supply chain management issues and 61% of employees taking on work outside of their normal responsibilities to make up for the resource gap.
• Quality: Product developers rely on manufacturers to manage quality, but only 26% of respondents were “very satisfied” with their supplier’s level of quality management. Seventy one percent (71%) of survey respondents were “somewhat satisfied” or “dissatisfied.”
• Time: Time is a product development team’s most precious asset. Twenty four percent (24%) of respondents listed the pressures of rapid product development as a critical risk for development teams, including the tradeoffs between speed and quality and costs.
Tariff engineering and bridging the production gap
To counter these troubling trends and ensure supply chains remain agile in uncertain times, supply chain managers are engaging in creative tariff engineering efforts. Most often this means leveraging local manufacturing resources as much as possible and using a combination of solutions in an effort to gain more speed and control.
According to respondents, 51% use local manufacturers and 47% use manufacturing platforms for prototyping. Once in production, 65% have started to assemble products locally.
即使在精简原型过程的最新进展方面，拓展原型和生产之间的差距，成功地将新产品带到尺度上的市场仍然存在挑战和风险。为了帮助，产品团队报告在关税生效之前在关键部分上放养，而其他人在国外制造零件，但在家组装最终产品以避免关税。
“As Industry 4.0 unfolds and the digitization of manufacturing matures, we believe product teams will be better equipped to combat the onslaught of geopolitical forces that impact their ability to get to market,” continued Evans. “At Fictiv, we’re creating a world where technology transforms manufacturing to be faster, more affordable and more reliable — making companies more resilient against the changing tides of trade wars and tariffs.”
Silver lining: Job satisfaction
Despite the demands of managing the manufacturing process and supply chains in the face of changing trade policies, teams still reported a profound sense of satisfaction when jobs are completed successfully. The report also found that smaller companies seem to have higher job satisfaction. 70% of people who reported high happiness levels are employed by companies with 100 people or less.
2019 State of Hardware Report Demographics & Methodology
今年的调查调查了711个开发商和制造商跨越53个行业。大多数参与者都经验丰富，在各自的领域拥有超过10年的专业经验。在拥有100多名员工的公司和拥有500多名员工的公司的公司有34％（34％）。
To view the entire Fictiv’s 2019 State of Hardware Report and learn more about Fictiv, visitwww.fictiv.com/2019-state-of-hardware-report.
Fictiv
www.fictiv.com
On May 21, 2019, Fictiv will host a webinar on the State of Hardware 2019 report. Fictiv will welcome Adam Benzion, co-founder of hackster.io, to discuss how product developers are adjusting their development and manufacturing processes to meet the challenges of bringing products to marketing in 2019.
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