More than human: How digital transformation in manufacturing connects expertise with automation

When a critical assembly line at a major automotive plant suddenly stopped at 2 AM, production manager Sarah faced a potential disaster. But instead of scrambling technicians across three states or watching thousands in revenue evaporate hourly, she opened her laptop and connected remotely to the facility's systems. Within minutes, she diagnosed the issue, reset the appropriate controllers, and had production flowing again—all from her home office.

Thanks to digital transformation, this once-impossible scenario is increasingly standard in the world of manufacturing. Because in the face of sizable challenges—including labor shortages, supply chain disruptions, and pressure to modernize aging facilities—manufacturers are looking for digital solutions. Specially, digital transformation strategies to connect and power human expertise with technology. Let’s explore that now.

In this article:

• The new manufacturing boom requires digital innovation
• The challenging global context of manufacturing
• How Framas made remote connectivity the backbone of manufacturing
• How remote connectivity addresses manufacturing challenges
• The AI opportunity in manufacturing
• Summary: Building the connected factory of the future

The challenging global context of manufacturing  

The global manufacturing sector is a complex and shifting landscape shaped by economic uncertainty, geopolitical tensions, and rapid technological change. While overall output grew modestly—rising 0.6% in 2024—this figure masks deeper regional and sectoral disparities. Excluding China, global manufacturing contracted by 0.9%, highlighting the extent to which China's dominance is reshaping the global industrial balance.

In contrast, European manufacturing has faced persistent headwinds. Energy shortages, inflation, and ongoing geopolitical instability—especially the war in Ukraine—have disrupted production and investment. Meanwhile, parts of Asia outside China, including South Korea and Taiwan, have seen renewed growth driven by the recovery of the semiconductor industry.

At the same time, technology continues to be a double-edged sword for manufacturers. One survey found that 48% of manufacturers are considering investing in AI and machine learning in 2024 and 2025, boosting efficiency but also requiring significant investment and workforce reskilling. Sustainability has also become a priority, with over 70% of manufacturers pursuing green initiatives to meet rising environmental standards and consumer expectations.

However, the biggest challenge in early 2025 has come from escalating trade tensions. At the time of this writing, new tariffs introduced by the US have pushed its effective tariff rate to 22%, triggering retaliatory measures from major economies including China and the EU. These actions have already begun to drag down global trade volumes and erode business confidence, with factory activity declining across multiple regions.

In this context, the path forward for global manufacturers will depend on how well they adapt to external pressures—balancing innovation, resilience, and sustainability while navigating an increasingly fragmented global economy.

From manual labor to skilled monitoring  

In light of the above challenges, the modern manufacturing workforce is evolving. Instead of relying primarily on physical labor to operate machinery, today's manufacturing environment demands highly skilled workers who can:

• Monitor and secure automated systems
• Detect and resolve production issues before they escalate
• Manage complex digital ecosystems
• Maintain production continuity across global operations
  

This shift requires more connectivity between people and technology—enabling remote monitoring, diagnosis, and resolution of production challenges before they impact output.

Nonetheless, this shift has also contributed to a skills gap in manufacturing. Put simply, manufacturing’s growing reliance on IT and software has not been matched by an increase in the number of workers with these skills.

This is a serious problem, with some estimating 10 million global vacancies in manufacturing worldwide. And while the skills gap does not alone create global staff shortages—other factors like an ageing workforce and the diminishing desirability of manufacturing work also play a role—tackling this issue would go a long way in driving global productivity. As we’ll see from the next example, remote technologies can play a decisive role in this.

How framas made remote connectivity the backbone of its manufacturing

Connecting human expertise with technology is essential for making the most of today's expanding ecosystem of networks, devices, and data sources. Secure device and network access has never been more critical to production continuity.

Consider framas, a leading supplier for the sports shoe industry with approximately 3,300 employees across 13 global locations. The challenges faced by the company’s IT department were twofold. On the one hand, it needed to prevent machine downtime, maintain production continuity, and ultimately customer satisfaction. On the other hand, it needed to deliver efficient and secure IT support for employee devices at all locations worldwide.

Amid faltering supply chains and skill shortages, framas wanted to provide its customers with consistent high-quality products, to be an industry innovator, and to meet its sustainability goals. For all these reasons, it turned to TeamViewer Tensor.

As a result of implementing Tensor, framas has transformed how its IT team and production technicians address manufacturing challenges:

• Teams at headquarters can remotely fix malfunctions between machines and the company's ERP system.
• Downtime is minimized without requiring hours of travel time.
• A small workforce can efficiently maintain hundreds of terminals globally, mitigating skilled worker shortages.

How remote connectivity addresses manufacturing challenges  

Digital transformation in manufacturing requires solutions that provide comprehensive remote access and control capabilities. This approach makes it easier to maintain, update, and configure all endpoints from a distance, reducing IT callouts while minimizing operational downtime.

With the right remote connectivity solution, IT and Operational Technology (OT) teams can instantly access and control any endpoint, including unattended, headless, and physically inaccessible devices as well as embedded platforms.

This capability helps manufacturers address common challenges:

• Accessing and controlling machines on the factory floor without sending technicians on site
• Keeping connected devices updated and protected with real-time endpoint status visibility
• Organizing, maintaining, and orchestrating software and services across the manufacturing ecosystem
  

And while these capabilities alone cannot counteract the tough conditions of today’s global manufacturing environment, they can go a long way toward driving efficiency and competitiveness in your business.

The AI opportunity in manufacturing  

Towards the end of 2024, we spoke with 1,400 IT decision makers across a range of industries to gauge their perception and use of AI. And in manufacturing, as in all other industries, the answer was clear: AI and automation more broadly are taking a central role across business operations.

In fact, 78% of manufacturing decision makers use AI for work at least weekly, with 30% using it daily—a huge jump from 2024, when only 46% used AI weekly and 8% daily. Its most common uses within manufacturing are customer support automation (28%), data analysis (23%), process automation (19%), and supply chain optimization (19%).

This shift is profound. Seventy-seven per cent of the surveyed manufacturing decision makers now believe that AI is critical for improving an organization's efficiency, while 71% also believe that AI will deliver the biggest productivity boom in a century.

This is supported by respondents estimating that AI is already saving employees in manufacturing 10 hours per month—a figure we can expect to see increase as manufacturing’s use of AI grows.

Looking ahead, we should anticipate growth for manufacturing leaders who leverage AI within their processes to mitigate the skills gap and drive efficiency across their operations. As our Chief Product and Technology Officer Mei Dent put it: