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For product managers working across global manufacturing environments, understanding and measuring digital maturity isn’t optional - it’s essential. It informs smarter investment decisions, supports cross-site coordination, and helps build lasting competitive advantages in an increasingly digital-first world.
But, what does digital maturity mean?
Digital maturity refers to an organization’s ability to quickly adapt to technological developments and integrate digital technologies into its daily operations.
The bottom-line? Global manufacturing leaders must address digital maturity gaps to remain competitive in today's quickly-changing digital landscape.
In this guide, learn the importance of adopting a digital maturity model for your enterprise and discover adaptive product management software that will future-proof your operations.
What is Digital Maturity in Global Manufacturing?
Digital maturity in manufacturing refers to the extent to which an organization effectively integrates digital technologies and processes across its operations. In essence, the concept aims to create a cohesive digital ecosystem that optimizes performance and drives innovation at scale.
Integrated digital technologies such as robotics, artificial intelligence, and agile product roadmaps are necessary tools to achieve digital maturity in manufacturing. These valuable assets enable automation, data-driven decision-making, and enhanced operational capabilities.
What Signals Digital Maturity in an Enterprise?
For starters, the most digitally mature manufacturers don’t just deploy technology; they create synergistic systems where data flows seamlessly, insights drive action, and teams collaborate effectively across global boundaries.
Optimization of business processes is a key aspect of digital maturity, as it allows manufacturers to:
- Streamline operations
- Improve efficiency
- Respond quickly to market changes
- Align global teams
How Many Manufacturers Have Adopted Digital Maturity?
By 2025, 75% of manufacturers rate their smart-factory maturity at an intermediate level, a sharp rise from just 42% in 2024. This acceleration reflects not just technological advancement, but also the critical role of technological innovation in advancing digital maturity and maintaining a competitive edge. It also signals a fundamental shift in how global manufacturers approach digital transformation.
Why Digital Maturity Matters for Global Product Managers?
Global product managers face unique challenges that make digital maturity essential. You’re navigating time zones, aligning cross-functional teams, and driving product decisions that affect multiple facilities and markets at once. Without robust digital maturity, these challenges become exponentially harder to manage.
How Digital Maturity Impacts Manufacturing
Consider a global automotive parts manufacturer managing production across facilities in Germany, Mexico, and Thailand. When digital maturity is low, each facility operates in isolation, making it nearly impossible to respond quickly to demand fluctuations or implement consistent quality standards.
However, with high digital maturity, a customer-centric approach is enabled, allowing organizations to leverage real-time data sharing for dynamic production scheduling, predictive maintenance to reduce unplanned downtime, and integrated quality systems to ensure consistent standards across all locations.
Digital maturity directly impacts your ability to make data-driven decisions about:
- Capital expenditures
- Production optimization
- Resource allocation
Additionally, digital maturity enhances the integration and optimization of digital technologies within business operations, streamlining processes and supporting digital transformation initiatives.
A Practical Digital Maturity Model for Manufacturing Teams
A digital maturity model is a framework that product managers can use to assess their organization’s progress in integrating digital technologies across manufacturing operations. It helps teams understand their current capabilities and enables product-led organizations to build strategic roadmaps for digital transformation.
Benchmarking your maturity against industry standards is key. It highlights where you're leading — or falling behind — and helps prioritize improvement efforts.
Digital maturity is typically evaluated across core dimensions such as People, Technology, and Governance to ensure a holistic view of transformation. Before diving into the framework, let’s first explore the five levels of digital maturity.
The 5 Levels of Manufacturing Digital Maturity
Most manufacturing organizations progress through 5 distinct levels of digital maturity, each characterized by specific capabilities and outcomes:
- Basic (Level 1): Isolated digital tools with manual processes dominating operations and limited data sharing between systems. At this stage, data silos are common, acting as significant barriers to collaboration and digital maturity.
- Developing (Level 2): Some integrated systems with basic automation and departmental data sharing are beginning to emerge, but data silos may still hinder effective information flow.
- Defined (Level 3): Standardized digital processes across most functions with real-time monitoring and cross-functional data integration. As organizations progress, they implement several digital initiatives and begin aligning and improving business functions to support digital transformation.
- Advanced (Level 4): Predictive analytics driving decisions with automated optimization and seamless global coordination. Business functions are highly coordinated and continuously improved, supported by multiple digital initiatives.
- Optimized (Level 5): AI-driven autonomous operations, adaptive product management software tools, and fully integrated digital ecosystems, where digital maturity is embedded into day-to-day operations across all levels.
Research shows that only 38% of automotive and aerospace manufacturers achieved the intermediate stage (Level 3-4) on the Acatech/Onward Partners Industry 4.0 Maturity Index in 2024, and fewer than 12% reached the highest maturity tier (Level 5). This indicates a need for the manufacturing industry as a whole to adopt a more digital-centric approach to their product line operations.
Assessing your company's digital maturity will help you identify strengths and areas for improvement.
How to Measure Digital Maturity: A Step-by-Step Digital Maturity Assessment
Measuring digital maturity requires a systematic approach that evaluates both technological capabilities and organizational readiness. Organizations assess their digital maturity using established frameworks that help identify strengths and weaknesses across various dimensions. The process involves assessing current state, identifying gaps, and benchmarking against industry standards.
Let's break it down:
- Technology assessment evaluates your current systems, integration capabilities, and data infrastructure.
- Process assessment analyzes workflow efficiency, automation levels, and standardization across locations.
- People assessment considers digital skills, change readiness, and cultural factors that impact adoption.
- Data analysis plays a crucial role in interpreting the results of these assessments, providing actionable insights from surveys and interviews.
Consider a hypothetical global electronics manufacturer assessing its digital maturity. During the evaluation, the company found that its APAC facilities had advanced automation, while its European plants lacked integrated data systems. This created a major blind spot in global production planning.
By applying a digital acceleration index, the company was able to benchmark its performance against industry peers and pinpoint areas for improvement. These insights led to targeted investments in data integration platforms and cross-regional training programs, ultimately boosting efficiency and strengthening product lifecycle operations.
Essential Digital Maturity Assessment Components
A thorough digital maturity assessment should evaluate these critical areas to provide a comprehensive view of organizational readiness:
- Technology Infrastructure: System integration levels, data architecture quality, and scalability of current platforms
- Process Digitization: Automation coverage, workflow standardization, and real-time monitoring capabilities
- Data Analytics Capability: Data quality, analytics maturity, and decision-making integration across functions
- Organizational Readiness: Digital skills, change management capability, cultural alignment with digital transformation, and the effectiveness of human resources in supporting digital initiatives
- Governance and Security: Digital governance frameworks, cybersecurity maturity, and compliance management systems
First, it is essential to track the key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure progress in digital maturity. Then, the product manager can leverage the results of the assessment and enable the enterprise to maximize business value by strategically enhancing digital capabilities and data-driven insights.
The Importance of Digital Leadership & Company Culture
Leadership and company culture are the true engines of sustainable change. Digital leadership sets the vision and pace for digital transformation, ensuring that digital technologies and digital initiatives are not just implemented, but fully embraced across the organization.
A digitally mature organization is characterized by leaders, such as global product managers and PMOs, who champion innovation, foster cross-functional collaboration, and empower teams to experiment with new digital tools and processes. These leaders break down silos, encourage a culture of continuous learning, and align digital transformation initiatives with overall business strategy.
When leadership is committed to digital transformation, it signals to every business unit that digital innovation is a strategic priority, not just an IT project.
How to Implement Your Digital Maturity Model
Once you’ve completed your digital maturity assessment, the next step is to translate insights into actionable improvements.
A digital transformation model serves as a guide for implementation, helping to structure the sequence of initiatives and ensure alignment with business goals. Implementation requires careful planning, resource allocation, and change management across global operations.
Successful implementation starts with prioritization. Remember, not all improvements offer equal value, and resource constraints require strategic choices.
Implement Your Digital Maturity Model Across Borders
Global implementation may present unique challenges. Different regions may have varying technological infrastructure, regulatory requirements, and cultural readiness for change. A phased approach often works best, starting with pilot implementations in high-readiness locations before scaling successful approaches globally.
Critical Success Factors for Digital Maturity Improvement
Based on successful digital transformation initiatives across global manufacturing organizations, these factors significantly impact implementation success:
- Executive Sponsorship: Strong leadership commitment with clear vision and adequate resource allocation for transformation initiatives
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Breaking down silos between IT, operations, and business units to ensure integrated solutions
- Phased Implementation: Gradual rollout with pilot programs and iterative improvements rather than big-bang approaches
- Skills Development: Comprehensive training programs and talent acquisition to build digital capabilities across all levels
- Change Management: Structured approach to cultural transformation with clear communication and stakeholder engagement, while embedding digital maturity into the organizational culture to support ongoing development and agility
Remember that digital maturity improvement is a marathon, not a sprint. Organizations that achieve sustainable results focus on building capabilities systematically while maintaining operational excellence. An organization's ability to adapt to technological changes and innovate is critical for advancing digital maturity and gaining a competitive advantage.
Next Steps: From Assessment to Strategic Roadmapping
Digital maturity assessment is just the beginning. The real value comes from translating insights into strategic action that drives measurable business results. Whether you’re just starting your digital transformation journey or looking to accelerate existing initiatives, it is important to have the right product management software on your side. The proper tools can difference between success and costly missteps.
At Gocious, we help global manufacturing leaders navigate the complexities of digital maturity assessment and roadmap development. Our team understands the unique challenges of managing transformation across multiple sites, regulatory environments, and cultural contexts. If you’re ready to take your digital maturity to the next level, we’d love to discuss how our adaptive product portfolio roadmaps can accelerate your transformation journey.
Book a custom demo today to explore how we can help you build advanced roadmaps tailored to your global manufacturing operations.