Manufacturers Use Low-Code Software to Improve Operations and Reduce AI Risks
The move toward low-code and no-code software in industry has gained a lot of traction in the past few years for several reasons. Most notably in that it helps manufacturing domain experts — not IT specialists — develop apps to help optimize production processes and guide new workers through complex procedures.
This move to extend low-code software beyond the IT realm, where it is better known and widely used, represents a big change for the technology. As Ray Kok, CEO at Mendix (Siemens’ low-code software business) explained: “We've extended the reach of Mendix so that it goes beyond enterprise IT. If you look at the heritage of Mendix, it really started in enterprise IT to close the gap between business and IT in terms of capacity. Then, we decided that, given all the IT/OT (operations technology) convergence going on that it would be nice to also be able to develop applications that can run on the shop floor. So now, you can build apps to deploy very close to a production line or wherever that application might be relevant.”
Read more of the interview with Kok explaining why low-code software is no longer just an IT tool.
Since this meeting with Kok last year, Mendix research has found that low-code platforms are becoming a strategic enterprise enabler to support industry’s digital transformation.
Mendix’s report on this research — The Low-Code Perspective: Insights from Enterprise IT Leaders — provides an overview of the key trends shaping the low-code market based on responses from 2,000 technology C-suite executives and senior IT decision-makers in Benelux, Germany, Japan, the U.K. and the U.S.
Findings from the research include:
- 99% of manufacturing organizations surveyed are using low-code as part of their development process. The majority of respondents (75%) cite low-code as a key means of improving their organization’s ability to innovate at scale.
- 80% say that low-code improves productivity on technical teams.
- 76% agree that low-code streamlines the development process.
- 84% agree that combining AI and low-code helps their organization innovate faster.
Half of manufacturing organizations surveyed state the COO (50%) and the CEO (51%) are both heavily involved in decision-making surrounding low-code adoption. These numbers for the manufacturing industry mark the highest amount of CEO involvement compared to the other sectors surveyed, according to Mendix.
This finding about low-code software use in manufacturing also correlates to Mendix’s expectations based on their interactions with manufacturers, as respondents indicated they are using low-code software to digitally transform (52%), improve legacy processes (48%) and reduce operational costs (43%).
Furthermore, 77% of respondents stated that executives see low-code as the principal option for coding in the future as part of their companies’ need to manage costs as they look to build better, future-proofed apps faster.
How low-code is being used in industry to reduce AI risk
Getting into specifics beyond low-code software’s general process optimization applications, respondents to the Mendix survey noted several coding management-specific issues. This is a potentially concerning aspect for manufacturers as AI is increasingly used to aid coding tasks, which still requires review by human programmers and engineers prior to implementation.
According to the survey:
- 69% of technical leaders are concerned about the governance of AI-assisted coding.
- 86% agree that more training needs to take place to ensure developers are using AI-assisted coding properly.
- 82% agree that the C-suite understands the need to upskill technical staff to capitalize on the potential of low-code.
- 70% agree that the C-suite understands the need to upskill non-technical staff to capitalize on the potential of low-code. Despite these concerns, most senior IT decision-makers agree that low-code platforms help reduce risk:
- 68% agree that low-code reduces risk/increases compliance with the latest regulations.
- 42% ranked governance and security as one of their three defining criteria for vetting a low-code platform.
“We have always believed that low-code had the potential to be much more than a tool to automate manual processes,” said Kok. “This survey shows that the market agrees. Used wisely, low-code is about rethinking entire business processes from the ground up. Low-code also opens new avenues for fusion [IT/OT] teams to think bigger when it comes to using tech to transform their organization for the future, as long as they are prioritizing upskilling users to maximize the potential of low-code for their unique use cases.”
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