What makes a good supplier today for manufacturers?
Greg Williams: Having a mindset that looks to move from‘ supplier’ to‘ partner’ is important. But being considered a partner must be earned, and that comes with time, consistent project delivery and deep knowledge of the industry and the customer ' s business. Customers also value ease of doing business which means things like simplified admin, timely and responsive communication and the ability to move from conversations to proof-ofconcept, site testing and full deployment without friction. Manufacturers are looking for partners who can offer a broad portfolio, which includes solutions offered by a technology company’ s own partner network. A partner with a broad portfolio and an ecosystem of partners gives the customer a one-stop shop with the advice and solutions needed.
Stephan Pottel: The need for intelligent automated workflows is high on the agenda. We know technology moves fast and manufacturers can struggle to keep up. There are multiple solutions on the market which make procurement time-consuming and hard to navigate. Specifically, manufacturers see great potential in modern machine vision solutions, radio frequency identification( RFID) and software suites that connect workers, machines and data on the frontline.
Jason Harvey: AI has to be part of today’ s manufacturerpartner conversation, whether that’ s deep learning, computer vision or multimodal models. AI is a powerful capability that sits as a layer across any number of hardware and software solutions. Manufacturers also need partners who can provide AI solutions while understanding concerns around data security and the need for high levels of quality and compliance. Which is why on-device AI is attractive – no data needs to leave the device. It reduces latency, adds a layer of security and can help cut cloud costs. AI solutions digitise physical industrial environments and operations and turn data into insight that frontline workers can use to improve operations.
82 April 2026