The US industrial staffing and strategic solutions market slowed down in 2024 due to persistent economic headwinds, including inventory destocking, elevated interest rates, and a cooling manufacturing PMI. Recent labor regulation changes have added operational complexities for providers managing shift-based workforces. Although market demand remained below pre-2022 levels, the pace of decline moderated compared to 2023, indicating early signs of stabilization. Labor shortages, especially in skilled trades, continued to pose fulfillment challenges. However, resilient sectors such as aerospace and defense, semiconductors, infrastructure, logistics, and food processing sustained hiring needs. High-performing providers prioritized these segments while investing in digital staffing platforms, upskilling and safety programs, and outcome-based delivery models such as onsite and cost-per-unit solutions. This report explores the industrial contingent staffing provider landscape in the US and its market impact in 2024. It provides the market’s overview and analyzes how different industrial contingent talent and strategic solutions providers differentiate based on the Everest Group PEAK Matrix® evaluation.  

Smart manufacturing, the cornerstone of Industry 4.0, empowers factories to think, adapt, and act autonomously. Yet, most enterprises remain stuck in a loop of fragmented insights, rigid automation, and siloed systems. Systems of Execution (SoE) offer the missing operational layer that transforms smart manufacturing from a digital aspiration into an autonomous reality. Unlike traditional Systems of Record, such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES), or Systems of Engagement, such as mobile dashboards and human-machine interfaces, SoE activate real-time intelligence. They autonomously orchestrate decisions and adapt workflows across the factory ecosystem, resulting in predictive, agile, and resilient manufacturing operations. This Viewpoint explores SoE’s strategic necessity in smart manufacturing and offers a blueprint for manufacturing leaders to build adaptive, intelligent, and hyper-efficient production environments. Scope Industry: manufacturing Geography: global Content In this report, we: Define SoE in the manufacturing context Identify traditional manufacturing system limitations Examine the business case for SoE in smart manufacturing Recommend a roadmap to execute the SoE vision Memberships Engineering Research and Development Sourcing and Vendor Management

Enterprises and service providers in the aerospace and defense sector are undergoing significant transformations, aligning themselves with emerging technologies and addressing the dynamic challenges in the industry. The industry is broadly divided into three segments – commercial aviation Business Units (BUs), defense, space, and security serving units, and the services BUs. Each BU has its own business priorities laid out, which then translate into engineering priorities. The report provides an overview of each BU’s actionable and associated use cases merging with an overall view of the A&D engineering resilience, followed by the top enterprise spenders in the space. Our study provides a detailed view of the key investment priorities, while highlighting each enterprise’s degree of strategic focus in the respective technology-cum-spend area. For each of the spend areas focused, relevant, and the latest use cases are provided to ensure 100% coverage of the ongoing work while delineating new business opportunities for the enterprises and service providers. A section is dedicated to the outsourcing market, which covers the market overview – size, outsourced services, key delivery locations, investments, and partnerships. Scope Geographies: all geographies Services: aerospace and defense engineering services Contents The study is divided into the following three sections: Market spending overview: provides one-to-one mapping of business and engineering priorities across business units, enterprise spend trend, top spenders, and spend intensity Evolving trends for key investment priorities: details investment drivers and their use cases with associated impact and implementation challenges Outsourcing landscape: includes spend analysis, areas of engagement, delivery presence and competitive investments from service providers Membership (s) Engineering Research and Development Sourcing and Vendor Management

The talent market has evolved rapidly following the pandemic, impacting every industry. The manufacturing industry which was already grappling with issues such as labor shortage and skill gaps, candidate misconceptions, and lacking employee engagement had to face newer challenges when the pandemic struck. However, the Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) industry demonstrated strong resilience during this period of global disruption. It rapidly evolved to become more dynamic and reliable and significantly more agile in driving and shaping clients’ next-generation talent needs. This evolution paved the way for the future of RPO – RPO 4.0. This report examines RPO 4.0 and its key levers to address talent acquisition-related challenges. Scope Industry: Manufacturing Domain: RPO Geography: global Contents In this report, we look at: Talent- and talent acquisition-related challenges facing the manufacturing industry The role of RPO and its evolution RPO 4.0’s value proposition and its key levers Key levers to address talent acquisition-related challenges Membership(s) Recruitment Sourcing and Vendor Management

On March 25, Everest Group hosted a webinar titled, "Industry 4.0: Driving Manufacturing Excellence Through Cyber-Physical Convergence." Industry 4.0 — the latest phase in the industrial revolution driven by the transformation and convergence of cyber and physical systems — has experienced rapid growth globally. Enterprises are looking to enhance visibility, predictability, and productivity in their operations as themes such as interconnectivity, digitalization, and automation become more ubiquitous. In this webinar, Everest Group’s Michel Janssen, Chief Research Officer, Mayank Maria, Practice Director, and Akshat Vaid, Vice President, discuss the current adoption rates of Industry 4.0, key value levers for enterprises, and the role that service providers play in accelerating enterprise adoption. Our experts answer the following questions: What are the current levels of Industry 4.0 adoption across verticals and geographies? What are the key themes that will accelerate Industry 4.0 journeys? What impact has the pandemic had on Industry 4.0 investments, and what enabling investments are service providers making? What role are service providers playing in accelerating enterprise Industry 4.0 adoption, and how should enterprises select an outsourcing partner?