Industrial automation technology has set off a profound transformation in the global manufacturing
industry, but its penetration is far from evenly distributed. The level of automation shows significant
differences between different countries, industries and sizes of enterprises. Understanding the breadth
and depth of the current automation application is crucial to grasp the trend of industrial upgrading.
First, the global perspective: automation penetration rate presents
obvious echelon differentiation
Observed from a global perspective, the degree of automation in manufacturing industry presents distinctive
national and regional echelons:
Leading echelon (deep penetration):
Germany, Japan, South Korea, the United States and other industrial powers as a representative of its automobile
manufacturing, electronics and semiconductor, precision instruments and other high-end industry automation
degree is extremely high.
Core features: Industrial robot density (number of robots per 10,000 workers) is an important indicator. The density
of robots in these countries is generally more than 300, and the automation rate of key process sections in some
automobile factories is close to 100%. PLC, SCADA and MES systems have become the standard equipment in factories,
and data-driven production has become the norm.
Rapid catch-up echelon (focus on breakthrough):
Emerging manufacturing countries represented by China, automation investment has shown explosive growth in recent years.
Core features: national level vigorously promote intelligent manufacturing, industrial robot installation volume for many years
ranked first in the world. However, the overall penetration rate is still significantly behind the first tier, the density of robots is
currently at a medium level (about 200-300 units range). The application of automation presents a “key breakthrough” situation:
large leading enterprises, foreign-funded enterprises, and automotive, 3C electronics, new energy and other advantageous or
emerging industries to popularize faster, a large number of traditional industries and small and medium-sized enterprises are
still in the early stages of automation.
Starting and developing echelon (localized application):
Numerous developing countries and regions.
Core features: Automation applications are mainly concentrated in a small number of foreign-funded factories or key links
of resource-based enterprises (such as packaging, palletizing), or rely on basic automation functions attached to imported
equipment. The density of industrial robots is generally less than 100 units, and the overall manufacturing industry is still
mainly labor-intensive.
Second, industry differences: technical characteristics and economics
determine the depth of penetration
Automation penetration rate in the manufacturing industry within the industries there is a huge gap:
Highly automated industry (>70% of the key processes):
Automobile manufacturing industry: welding, painting, assembly and other core process automation rate is extremely
high, is the largest application area of industrial robots. OEMs generally realize highly automated assembly lines.
Electronics and semiconductor: chip manufacturing (wafer processing, packaging and testing) rely on a high degree of
clean environment, precision automation equipment, SMT mounting, precision assembly link widely used SCARA robots
and high-speed automation equipment.
Electrical / Battery Manufacturing: Lithium battery production on the consistency of the stringent requirements, electrode
manufacturing, winding, liquid injection, chemical processes such as automation is rapidly increasing.
Medium automation industry (30%-70%):
General equipment manufacturing: CNC machining centers, sheet metal processing, part of the assembly process is
widely used, but complex assembly, debugging still rely on manual.
Food and beverage: back-end packaging (cartoning, palletizing, labeling) automation maturity, front-end raw material
handling, cooking / fermentation and other processes with varying degrees of automation.
Plastics & Rubber: Automation of injection molding machines for picking and shearing is common, but automation
of complex post-processing (e.g., spraying, assembly) is low.
Pharmaceuticals/Medical Devices: High automation requirements for aseptic filling and packaging, but still relies on
skilled craftsmen for some testing and complex device assembly.
Low automation industry (<30%):
Textile and apparel: fabric processing, cutting with automation applications, but sewing due to the difficulty of handling
flexible materials, automation breakthroughs are limited (although there is progress), still mainly manual.
Furniture manufacturing: opening, sealing and other woodworking machinery with basic automation, but sanding,
painting (especially shaped parts), assembly is highly dependent on manual labor.
Metal products (part): small batch, multi-species, complex metal processing (such as hardware), automation import
economic challenges.
Crafts / leather: strong personalization, complicated processes, automation application is difficult.
Third, enterprise scale fault: resources and ability to build application barriers
Enterprise scale is one of the core factors affecting the popularization of automation, the formation of significant fault:
Large enterprises / groups:
General situation: is the absolute main force of automation applications. Have strong financial strength, technical team, scale
effect to support automation investment. Usually set up a specialized automation department to promote the whole line or
even the whole plant planning.
Current situation: high automation rate of core production lines, active layout of intelligent manufacturing (IoT, big data analysis),
part of the construction of “lighthouse factory” or “black light factory”.
Medium-sized enterprises:
General situation: The application of automation shows a state of “middle depression”. Although there is an urgent need to improve
efficiency and quality, but limited by capital, technical talent reserves and uncertainty of return on investment, decision-making is more cautious.
Current situation: Most of them adopt the strategy of “pain point drive”, and take the lead in introducing automation in single-point
processes or workstations that are difficult to recruit, highly dangerous, highly repetitive, and have very high requirements for
quality consistency (e.g., welding, handling, and inspection). The whole line is less automated.
Small/micro enterprises:
General situation: Very low automation penetration. The primary goal is survival and flexibility in responding to orders. High initial
investment and complex maintenance are difficult thresholds to overcome.
Current situation: A small number of semi-automated machines or basic machinery (e.g. small CNCs, simple robots) may be used.
Collaborative robots have become the main entry point for small businesses to try automation (e.g., simple loading and
unloading, inspection assistance) due to their flexible deployment, high safety, and easy programming.
Key Bottlenecks: Deeper Challenges to Universalization
Despite the continuous technological advances, the manufacturing industry still faces multiple constraints to fully realize automation:
Initial investment threshold: The initial investment in automation systems (equipment + integration + transformation) is
still a heavy burden for many enterprises, especially SMEs.
Uncertainty of return on investment: complex application scenarios (such as small batch, multi-species, non-standard workpiece
processing), ROI is difficult to accurately measure and the recovery cycle may be longer, affecting decision-making.
Technology and talent gap:
Integration complexity: Especially for non-standard, high flexibility requirements of the scene, the system design, integration,
debugging technology threshold is high.
Talent Shortage: There is a serious lack of both process and automation, robotics, programming, and skilled maintenance engineers.
Process adaptability issues:
traditional processes are difficult to direct automation transformation (such as complex assembly, flexible materials, fine processing).
Product design does not take into account manufacturability (DFM) and automation (DFA), increasing the difficulty and cost of
automation implementation.
Flexibility Challenge: Traditional automation systems are not flexible enough and have high adjustment costs when dealing with
rapid production changeover and multi-species small-lot production.
SME service ecology is not perfect: for small and medium-sized low-cost, easy to deploy, easy to maintain standardized, modular
automation solutions and service support is still inadequate.
Fifth, the future path of penetration: from a single point of breakthrough
to the depth of integration
Automation penetration will continue to deepen, showing the following trends:
Technology-driven cost down and ease of use:
Accelerated domestic substitution: the performance of domestic core components (controllers, gearboxes, servo systems)
and the robot body will be improved, costs will fall, and the threshold of entry will be lowered.
Collaborative robots become more popular: safer and easier to program and deploy, becoming the “icebreaker” for
automation in SMBs and the key to human-robot collaboration in large factories.
Modular/standardized solutions: standardized workstations for common scenarios (e.g., handling, sorting, inspection)
reduce integration complexity.
“AI + Automation” for complex scenarios:
Machine vision (especially 3D and AI vision) solves complex identification and guidance problems.
Force control technology combined with AI algorithms empowers robots to perform finer operations (e.g. precision
assembly, deburring, sanding).
Adaptive control to cope with uncertainty in production.
Cloud-based and low-code/no-code platform:
lowers the technical threshold for programming and maintenance, enabling even frontline engineers to
participate in automation application development.
Cloud platforms provide remote monitoring, data analytics, and predictive maintenance services.
Continuous promotion of policy and ecology:
Governments continue to introduce smart manufacturing subsidies, tax incentives and technical support policies.
Integrators, equipment vendors, platform vendors to build a better SME service ecosystem.
Conclusion: the road to popularization is long, but the direction is clear
Manufacturing automation is no longer a question of “whether” it is needed, but ‘how’ to promote, “at what speed
and depth” of the problem of landing. At present, the global and Chinese manufacturing industry automation
popularization presents ** “pyramid” structure **: the top of the industry and enterprise high automation, the bottom
there are still a lot of dependence on artificial low automation field. Industry differences, enterprise scale fault, technology
and economic bottlenecks are the key to impede the full popularization.
In the future, as the cost of technology declines, ease of use improves, AI deep integration and the policy ecosystem
continues to be optimized, automation technology will accelerate from the medium-high penetration field to the
broader manufacturing hinterland penetration. For enterprises, the key is to accurately assess their own foundation,
identify core pain points, choose the appropriate technology path, and advance pragmatically in stages. Embracing
automation has been an irreversible strategic choice from “manufacturing” to “smart manufacturing”.