Manufacturers Score Just 49 Out of 100 on Global Wellness Check — With Circular Economy and Shop-Floor Data the Weakest Spots

Nearly a thousand manufacturing companies around the world have been put through the same 28-question self-assessment, and the collective result lands below the halfway mark: 49 points out of a possible 100.

That figure comes from the first global Manufacturing Wellness Report published by Sandvik Coromant on 15 October 2026. The Swedish cutting-tools specialist designed the underlying diagnostic back in 2023 — a free online check that takes roughly ten minutes to complete and rates a plant's condition across eight core behaviours. What the latest batch of responses reveals is a sector wrestling with structural problems that predate any single technology cycle.

Sustainability ambitions outrun formal plans

Take the circular economy. Just 19 percent of the assessed manufacturers have a formal strategy for it. For everyone else, reusing resources remains an aspiration rather than a documented commitment — a gap that sits awkwardly alongside the sector's public sustainability messaging.

Operational visibility is no stronger. Close to one in four manufacturers has no access to manufacturing or process data at all. Without that window into how lines are actually running, spotting inefficiencies early — let alone fixing workflows — becomes guesswork.

Teams unclear on targets, automation stuck in first gear

Internal alignment shows similar strain. Almost half of the surveyed manufacturers say they do not adequately understand their own teams' performance goals, a blind spot that tends to breed friction and wasted effort on the floor.

On technology, the picture is mixed rather than bleak. Some 69 percent have automated at least isolated pockets of production. Extending that automation across multiple process steps, however, happens far less often.

One factor appears to separate stronger performers from weaker ones: outside relationships. According to the report, companies that maintain external partnerships post higher wellness scores than those that go it alone.

A workforce under mounting strain

These organisational shortfalls are unfolding against a backdrop of rising pressure on the people doing the work. Research from the ifo Institute, the Institute for Employment Research and the University of Konstanz found that production workers, tradespeople and logistics staff miss roughly 20 percent more days of work per year after digital technologies such as robotics and connected machinery arrive on site. Office employees, by contrast, do not call in sick more often.

An author of the ifo study attributed the pattern to a lack of prior experience with the new tools, noting that people in physically demanding roles and with lower formal education already contend with chronic complaints and psychological stress more frequently.

European-level data points the same direction. Surveys by EU-OSHA show that nearly half of workers across Europe report risks to their mental health, with 44 percent naming long hours and pressure to deliver results as the leading risk factor. Yet only 39 percent of European companies tackle stress prevention in any structured way.

Set against all of this, the idea of treating manufacturing processes and working conditions as one connected system — rather than two separate problems — is steadily moving toward the centre of industrial practice.