IDC noted that China is expected to undergo waves of automation and digitization due to inflation of wages and given its focus on making manufacturing world-class according to its visionary 'Made in China 2025" initiative. The shutdown of the automotive industry in Australia will have a negative impact on the IT spending in this sector.

In addition, China will see an 8.5% year-on-year growth in software spending due to government initiatives such as Industry 4.0 and Internet Plus integrating IT with manufacturing. 46 pilot projects proposed by the ministry will focus on innovation to implement smart manufacturing.

Supply chain management will be the most growing area in Indian manufacturing with close to 14% CAGR between 2015 and 2019, in areas such as modern warehouses, improved logistic services and new software applications to operate them and integrate with the rest of the ecosystem.

'Make in India' and its associated policies is creating interest in supply chain management making it the top area of growth replacing 'security' due to the expected passing of Goods and Services Tax (GST) bill in 2016. Singapore is becoming a 'connected society' improving the day-to-day lives of citizens.

Australia will see a 5 year growth of 2.7% in manufacturing IT spending, slowed down primarily because of the auto industry shut down.

IDC recommends that organizations should leverage upcoming trends in IT such as XaaS, usage-based models, strategic partnerships and connected enterprises to take a look at their IT spending patterns.

These trends offer several benefits from cost reduction, agility, quick deployment, proven practices and additional capabilities. Software will grow the most at 7.5% CAGR between 2015 and 2019 as enterprises get comfortable with XaaS models. Hardware spend will be flat at less than 1% since companies have already invested on basic infrastructure for storage and computing.

“Technology spend in manufacturing continues to grow, however we see a shift as to where the spend is going. We are seeing companies take stock of existing investments to ensure they have delivered value. New spend is being focused towards operational efficiencies, such as factory of the future investment and new business models, such as product as a service”, said Dr. Christopher Holmes, Managing Director, IDC Insights, Asia Pacific.

“Legacy systems cannot be shut down in the near term while investment of money, time and effort is a must on the 3rd Platform and Innovation Accelerators making it a strategic decision making with buy-in from stakeholders across the enterprise", adds Dr. Holmes.