UK manufacturers boost predictive maintenance to 22%

Fluke has published survey findings showing that predictive maintenance adoption in UK manufacturing rose from 9% to 22%, while skills shortages now account for 77% of reported barriers to progress.

The data points to a broader shift in maintenance strategy as manufacturers move away from reactive models. Reactive maintenance fell from 42% to 26%, while proactive maintenance edged up from 48% to 50% among UK respondents.

Conducted by Censuswide, the survey covered more than 600 senior decision-makers and maintenance professionals across the US, the UK and Germany. The UK results suggest manufacturers are continuing to invest in digital tools even as confidence in rapid transformation weakens.

Nearly three-quarters of organisations said they now allocate 16% to 30% of maintenance budgets to new technologies. At the same time, investment priorities have shifted away from exploratory artificial intelligence projects towards areas more closely tied to day-to-day operations.

Generative AI drew interest from 38% of respondents, followed by cybersecurity at 37%, Industrial AI at 34% and data management at 32%. The findings suggest companies are prioritising projects with more direct applications in production and maintenance.

Workforce gap

Despite growth in spending and adoption, the survey suggests the main constraint is no longer access to funds. Instead, manufacturers face a shortage of people with the knowledge and experience needed to use the technology effectively.

Knowledge shortages made up 23% of reported barriers, broad workforce skills shortages 19%, lack of expertise 18% and skilled labour gaps 17%. Taken together, those issues made skills-related problems the dominant obstacle to progress.

The figures point to a mismatch between the pace of technology deployment and workforce readiness on factory floors and in maintenance teams. That tension is emerging as a central issue for manufacturers trying to turn digital investment into operational change.

Readiness outlook

The findings also show a more cautious view of Industry 5.0 timelines. The share of respondents expecting to reach that stage within six months fell from 31% to 20%, while 37% now expect it to take between one and four years.

That retreat in short-term expectations appears to be shaping where companies focus their efforts. Rather than pursuing broader transformation targets in the immediate term, many are concentrating on practical projects that can be introduced sooner.

Connected reliability was the clearest example of that approach. Some 45% of respondents said they plan to prioritise connected reliability initiatives over the next 12 months, suggesting companies see reliability programmes as a more immediate route to improving operations.

The results come as manufacturers face pressure to improve productivity, reduce downtime and justify technology spending with measurable outcomes. Maintenance functions have become an important testing ground for digital tools because failures and repairs are easier to track than broader organisational change.

Predictive maintenance has drawn attention because it promises earlier detection of equipment issues and less unplanned downtime than reactive approaches. The increase from 9% to 22% indicates wider adoption in the UK, though the survey suggests the model has not yet become the norm across the sector.

Proactive maintenance remains the largest single approach at 50%, showing that many manufacturers still favour scheduled and preventive work over fully predictive systems. The decline in reactive maintenance, however, points to a continued retreat from fix-on-failure models.

Parker Burke, President of Fluke, linked digital spending to the practical challenge of implementation. "Manufacturers are continuing to invest in digital technologies, but progress depends on how effectively those technologies are applied. Our findings show that reliability and workforce skills are now the critical factors in converting technology spend into measurable operational improvement. We need a solution to the skills shortage to supplement technology investment for the best results," Burke said.

Vineet Thuvara, Chief Product Officer at Fluke, said the shift in maintenance strategy is becoming harder to ignore. "The progress is encouraging, but it's not enough yet. Predictive maintenance is no longer a future ambition: it is the baseline. Manufacturers' next challenge is scaling adoption and integrating it across the organisation, ensuring these capabilities work in harmony across the organisation, not in isolation," Thuvara said.