Nearly six in 10 workers in Australia’s food and beverage manufacturing sector believe their organisations are becoming less productive despite ongoing investment in workplace technology, according to research commissioned by management consultancy Argon & Co.
The survey of 500 people working across the sector found that 58.4% reported declining productivity, while 81.8% said they spend more than a quarter of their working week on repetitive or manual tasks. For 40.8% of respondents, such work accounts for more than half of their week.
The research also found widespread duplication of work, with 95.8% of respondents saying tasks are duplicated across systems, teams or processes. Some 75.8% said duplication occurs to a moderate or significant degree, including through repeated data entry, maintaining spreadsheets alongside enterprise systems and manually reconciling production information.
“Food and beverage manufacturers are investing in technology to improve productivity, but many employees are still spending too much time on manual admin, repeating checks or moving between different systems,” said Paul Eastwood, Managing Partner at Argon & Co.
“Technology alone won’t fix an inefficient process. If you introduce a new system without changing how the work gets done, you risk adding another layer of complexity rather than making people’s jobs easier,” he said.
According to the research, 76.4% of respondents said new technology is typically introduced without corresponding changes to processes, responsibilities or broader ways of working. Six in 10 identified outdated processes or poor integration with existing systems as the biggest barrier to gaining greater value from technology, including 34% who said underlying business processes are never updated.
By comparison, 14% identified a lack of leadership support as the biggest obstacle.
AI adoption also remains limited across the sector, with 82.4% of respondents saying their organisation had introduced AI to only a limited extent or not at all. Its reported productivity impact was mixed, with 41.8% saying AI had produced no noticeable improvement or had made their work more difficult, compared with 14.4% who reported a significant productivity boost.
The research identified production, supply chain and inventory management as the areas with the greatest potential for productivity improvement, nominated by 63.2% of respondents. Reducing repetitive tasks, errors and rework was the leading technology priority for 52.2%, while 30.4% prioritised improved planning and scheduling.
“Manufacturers won’t solve productivity challenges by adding another tool to an existing process,” Eastwood said. “Before introducing AI, businesses need to look at where work is getting held up, what could be done differently and where technology can genuinely make the job easier.”
Argon & Co said the findings indicate that technology adoption alone does not necessarily translate into productivity improvements, with the effectiveness of AI also dependent on how well it supports existing processes, information and workplace requirements.
