Fictiv and MISUMI report on the state of manufacturing, supply chain digitalization

Synthetic intelligence and digitalization are reworking 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 section, the place high quality, compliance, and transparency are non-negotiable,” said 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 mentioned companies use its manufacturing facilities in India, Mexico, China, and the U.S. to entry high-quality manufacturing, optimize logistics, and mitigate provide chain threat. 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 quicker, unencumber assets, and develop income.

MISUMI Americas brings scale to machine elements, automation

In April 2025, MISUMI Group Inc. acquired Fictiv for $350 million. MISUMI Americas offers 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 company mentioned it delivers a unified digital manufacturing platform that connects design, engineering, and manufacturing with precision, pace, and reliability.

“MISUMI is a 70-year-old public Japanese firm and has been within the U.S. marketplace for over 20 years,” mentioned mentioned 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 bins a day — there’s a 747 that flies from Japan to Chicago each day,” he instructed The Robotic Report. “We get to plug on this superb expertise provide chain with all the pieces that Fictiv has completed over the previous 10-plus years.”

“I’ve toured facilities the place shelving, choose and place, and bundling of orders had been being automated,” he added. “You may’t get to excessive ranges of high quality, price, and time with out automation, and I’ve seen firsthand how robots don’t substitute jobs however drive productiveness.”

AI is changing into important to business, leaders inform MISUMI

Dimensional Analysis performed the survey of certified people on the director stage or increased who work in engineering, provide chain, manufacturing manufacturing, analysis and growth, or digital innovation roles. A lot of the corporations concerned produce items in clear vitality, electrical automobiles, 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 reworking manufacturing and provide chains: 95% off survey respondents mentioned implementing AI into their operations is important to their corporations’ future success.
• AI addresses workforce shortages: 95% mentioned AI and automation are serving to deal with labor shortages, however they acknowledged that they can’t substitute specialised experience.
• Digitalization can enhance manufacturing: 97% of business leaders mentioned digital manufacturing platforms are important for manufacturing.
• Reshoring is a prime precedence: 93% mentioned transferring manufacturing again to the U.S. is a prime precedence.
• Provider sourcing is difficult: 81% mentioned provider sourcing and manufacturing are too time-consuming and dear.
• Exterior tariff experience is required: 77% mentioned commerce compliance necessities are too advanced to handle with out exterior experience.

“This 12 months’s knowledge makes clear that pace, predictability, and resilience now outline aggressive benefit,” mentioned Evans. “The businesses which can be 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 a whole 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 essential that we don’t see robotics and AI as a aggressive benefit however as desk stakes,” Evans mentioned. “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 utility of AI.”

Supply: “State of Manufacturing & Provide Chain Report,” MISUMI and Fictiv

Manufacturing administration challenges stay

Practically all the 300+ manufacturing leaders surveyed, or 99%, mentioned provider tariff and commerce experience is now important in companion choice, mentioned 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 would ship the best impression, mentioned the corporate. At the moment, 83% of engineers spend 4 or extra hours per week on procurement-related workflows, whereas 93% of leaders mentioned productiveness improves when administrative duties are offloaded. Fictiv offers 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 price, high quality, and time to market, adopted by manufacturing, sourcing, design, and demand forecasting.

MISUMI famous that 81% of leaders mentioned that provider sourcing and administration is just too time-consuming and dear, up from 73% in 2025. The corporate mentioned 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, mentioned 97% of respondents.

As well as, 95% of the leaders mentioned they take into account AI a requirement fairly than an possibility. Lots of them anticipate AI-driven productiveness positive factors of fifty% or extra, with some projecting enhancements of two to 5 occasions as workflows are redesigned round automation and intelligence.

“Our perception at Fictiv is in people plus machines,” Evans mentioned. “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 the best way to make native manufacturing extra economically viable.”

“I used to be speaking with a supervisor at an SMB just a few weeks in the past, and he put a pedometer on his operators,” famous Evans. “When it handed three to 4 miles, he mentioned, ‘You’re a robotic.’ I considered it, and in factories, we must always take into consideration time wasted transferring fairly than working. In Asia, we’ve tackled that with vendor-managed stock machines.”

Nearly all of business leaders surveyed mentioned 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 centered on digital manufacturing platforms, with 97% saying they’re important, up from 86% in 2024. They’re additionally prioritizing providers that cut back handoffs and compress cycle occasions, in line with MISUMI Americas.

Ninety-three p.c reported that engineering productiveness would considerably or reasonably enhance by way of managed manufacturing or provide chain providers, the company added. Ninety-eight p.c noticed clear optimization alternatives— notably in high quality administration, provide chain design help, design for manufacturability (DFM), costing, and engineering providers.

“Over the previous few years, provider sourcing and administration have change into considerably extra advanced and useful resource‑intensive,” mentioned a senior sourcing supervisor at a worldwide automation integrator. “Elevated volatility, together with the necessity for higher visibility and resilience, has made managing suppliers way more difficult.”

The complete eleventh “Annual State of Manufacturing & Provide Chain Report” is available from Fictiv and MISUMI Americas.

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