A poll conducted by business mobility firm Catavolt found a majority of manufacturers plan to increase their use of mobile apps this year.
Of the 111 manufacturing professionals responding to the Georgia-based company's survey, taken between September and December 2014, 55 percent indicated their organizations would increase their use of mobility, while 43 percent said they did not expect any changes. Eight-five percent of respondents also said their businesses planned to increase investments in their operations this year compared to 2014.
The Catavolt report said the trend is likely to steadily increase beyond 2015 due to the increased accessibility and cost-effectiveness of mobile technologies.
"Increased competition in the market, meeting customer expectations, rapidly changing plant floor conditions, and the need to increase revenue are pushing manufacturing organizations across all industries towards more efficient operational processes," said Catavolt CEO George Mashini.
Still, the survey found the same margin of respondents — 55 percent — are not using mobile apps for marketing and operational purposes.
Nearly all respondents, however, believed mobile technology could add some level of productivity to their businesses, and more than 80 percent indicated mobile apps could provide a productivity increase of at least 6 percent.
The health care, transportation, aerospace and energy were the most prominent manufacturing sectors represented in the poll. Nearly two-thirds of respondents came from companies with more than 1,000 employees; more than one-third of respondents came from those in excess of 10,000 workers.
