As 2025 draws to a close, many businesses are taking time to reflect and assess how they can stand their business in good stead for the year ahead. RSM Australia national manufacturing lead, Louis Quintal, explains why future-proofing your business should be your 2026 new year’s resolution.
A tumultuous 2025 has seen the manufacturing sector forced to mitigate the effects of broad sector challenges such as ongoing skills shortage, supply chain disruptions which have imposed ingredient shortages, packaging delays, transport bottlenecks and compliance constraints.
With customer sentiment shifting in favour of locally sourced and sustainable products, manufacturing businesses must also balance the added pressure to meet standards of both efficient and ethical production amid an uncertain economic environment.
As businesses hope to offset the ongoing sector challenges for the year ahead and beyond, the question on every manufacturer’s mind should be, ‘how can I prepare my organisation to withstand unforeseen business pressures in 2026?’
Why now?
Advances in automation, data analytics and sustainability standards are driving change across the sector as manufacturers turn to connected technologies, predictive analytics and traceability systems to manage risk and improve the speed and quality of decision making.
By investing in flexible production models, innovation and workforce capability, businesses can equip themselves with the resilience and agility needed to gain, and then maintain, global competitiveness.
With the appropriate digital systems and processes in place to ensure a business can respond quickly to market shifts, regulatory change, and evolving demands, manufacturers can strive toward long-term stability and growth – two traits that stand out in a saturated market.
What first?
To avoid fatigue from an all-at-once system overhaul, an agile and incremental approach is ideal. We often recommend our clients start with these three steps towards building resilience and ‘future-proofing’ their business.
1. Assess the current state
To begin, a clear picture of where your business stands is essential. Identify inefficiencies, technology gaps, or areas where production and decision-making are slowed by manual processes.
To unpack the state of operations, consider mapping production flows, examining equipment utilisation and evaluating data availability. This assessment will be foundational for a structured transformation, highlighting the opportunities where technology can deliver immediate value.
2. Start small
When taking the leap towards automated processes, gradual implementation is ideal. Starting steps may include piloting programs designed to automate key bottlenecks or introducing real-time monitoring for critical production lines.
As a first step into automation, look to include predictive maintenance, quality control analytics, or digital traceability for compliance and waste reduction.
Starting small will allow confidence in these new programs to grow within a business over time, with best results seen when a business establishes a framework which promises a gradual upscale of automated processes.
3. Invest in people and processes
It is important to understand that in today’s context, digital transformation is as much about people as technology. It is imperative to upskill staff to work effectively alongside new systems, fostering a culture of continuous improvement.Encouraging cross-functional collaboration enables insights from data and automation to feed directly into strategic and operational planning.
By investing in workforce capabilities and leadership development, businesses can put themselves in prime position to adapt to rapid market changes in 2026 and beyond.
These three steps towards incremental digital transformation work to improve operational efficiency, reduce waste, and ensure consistency in product quality – all of which are critical differentiators in an increasingly competitive food and beverage market.
Too often businesses get in their own way when it comes to building their long-term resilience, letting competing short-term priorities overshadow investment into long-term strategy. Concerns about upfront costs or fear that teams will not embrace new technologies are common roadblocks when implementing automation.
It is essential to understand that transformation does not require an all-at-once overhaul – the most successful manufacturers start small, collaborate broadly and lead decisively.
By engaging teams early, leveraging partnerships, and seeking expert financial and operational guidance, your business can turn uncertainty into opportunity, safeguarding security and stability in 2026 and beyond.
Louis Quintal is the National Leader, Manufacturing and a Partner in the Audit and Assurance division in Sydney for RSM Australia, one of Australia’s leading professional services firms. Manufacturers can reach him via email.
