Trends in production planning 2025

Trend 1: Digital twin – optimizing production processes virtually

• The digital twin model will continue to grow in importance in 2025 and further, as it helps to make production processes more flexible, efficient and sustainable. Thanks to its ability to identify risks at an early stage and optimize processes, it offers companies decisive competitive advantages. 
• The market for digital twins is growing rapidly: In 2023, the market volume amounted to USD 16.75 billion, and an annual growth rate of 35.7% is expected until 2030.¹ 

Practical benefits:  

By using digital twins, companies simulate various production scenarios before implementing changes in real production. This significantly reduces risks, as potential errors and bottlenecks are identified in advance. For example, companies can run through new layouts, material flows or alternative production strategies and check their effectiveness.  

This not only saves costs, but also minimizes the time required for modifications. At the same time, the digital twin enables better utilization of machines and systems, as downtimes are reduced through more precise planning. As a result, companies gain flexibility and can react more quickly to changes in the market or in the supply chain. 

Trend 2: AI-supported production planning – automated intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing production planning by analysing data in real time, identifying patterns and deriving optimal decisions. This enables companies to react quickly to unforeseen events such as delivery bottlenecks or machine downtime. 

Practice example:  

In the event of an unplanned machine downtime, AI analyses the impact on the entire production process within minutes and calculates optimized material flows. It considers available resources, alternative production routes and possible delivery delays. This comprehensive analysis allows production to be rescheduled quickly, reducing time losses and lowering operating costs. AI also identifies potential bottlenecks in the supply chain and suggests measures to avoid similar failures in the future.  

This not only saves valuable time but also increases the productivity and stability of the entire production environment in the long term.²

Trend 3: Sustainability – efficient and environmentally friendly planning

Sustainability will become a decisive competitive factor in 2025. Legal requirements and social expectations are forcing companies to make their production processes more sustainable. However, sustainability has long been more than just an image issue – it contributes directly to reducing costs and increasing efficiency.  

A survey by Fero Labs Industry Survey 2024 shows that 64% of managers surveyed cite increasing profits as the most important goal, but only 41% attach great importance to reducing emissions. AI-supported solutions help to combine both: increasing profits and reducing the ecological footprint.³

Practical benefits: 

Sustainability is becoming increasingly important in production planning as it offers long-term economic benefits while reducing the environmental footprint. Companies that design their processes sustainably benefit from better resource utilization, which leads to less material waste and lower energy costs. In practical terms, this means that production steps are optimized and waste is avoided, which reduces operating costs. Sustainable processes also ensure greater stability in the supply chain, for example by promoting local sources of supply and reducing dependency on uncertain global markets.  

Sustainability also pays off in the form of increased competitiveness: Customers and business partners are paying more attention to environmentally friendly and legally compliant production methods. By integrating sustainable measures, companies can meet legal requirements and at the same time strengthen their reputation as a responsible player. Sustainability thus becomes a key lever not only for saving costs, but also for operating on the market in a future-viable manner.⁴

Figure 2: A review of green artificial intelligence: Towards a more sustainable future (2024).

Trend 4: Data-driven planning – decisions based on data

In an increasingly networked and complex world, experience and gut instinct alone are no longer sufficient to control production processes efficiently.  

Production decisions based purely on intuition can quickly lead to costly mistakes, especially in volatile market environments. Data-driven planning, on the other hand, is based on the evaluation of real production data and provides a solid foundation for strategic decisions. Not only historical data can be used, but also real-time information from ongoing processes.  

This approach enables companies to react more quickly to changes, identify optimization potential at an early stage and avoid bottlenecks. In addition, data-based planning improves transparency along the entire value chain, leading to more efficient use of resources, more precise forecasts and ultimately greater competitiveness. 

A survey by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) shows that 72% of managers in the manufacturing industry consider advanced analytics to be more important today than three years ago.⁵

Practical benefits: 

Data-based analyses not only enable companies to make more accurate forecasts but also help to identify and avoid potential bottlenecks at an early stage. By using existing production data, companies gain valuable insights into their processes and can react better to changes. 

This leads to more precise planning and more efficient processes, as decisions are based on facts rather than assumptions. At the same time, data-driven approaches allow potential sources of error to be identified in advance before they disrupt operations. This saves time, reduces costs and increases the stability of the entire supply chain – a decisive advantage in an increasingly dynamic market environment.⁶ 

Trend 5: Human-centric planning – putting people back at the center