Tacton has published new research showing that only 7% of manufacturers use the same product configuration rules across every team and system involved in selling and building products.
The company’s 2026 State of Manufacturing report, based on a survey of 280 manufacturing leaders across North America and Europe, shows how rising product complexity is outpacing many manufacturers’ ability to connect commercial, engineering, and operational processes. Tacton found that 67% of respondents now describe their products as “very” or “extremely” complex, a 20-point increase in one year.
Complexity is now affecting the full value chain rather than sitting mainly inside engineering teams. The research found that 43% of manufacturers cite customisation as their top quoting challenge, while 62% report moderate to severe margin erosion between quote and delivery. At quote stage, only 40% are “not very” or “only somewhat” confident in their delivery commitments.
“Digital transformation laid the foundation, but many manufacturers are still operating with disconnected systems, fragmented data and inconsistent processes,” said Klaus Andersen, CEO of Tacton. “The companies leading the next phase of industrial growth are those treating configuration logic as the backbone of their entire lifecycle. As AI adoption accelerates, the organisations seeing the greatest impact are building on a connected foundation of shared data, consistent processes, and lifecycle-wide visibility.”
Duplicated and inconsistent configuration logic is creating a heavy operational burden. Tacton said 93% of engineering teams spend moderate to very high effort maintaining configuration logic across disconnected systems, while only 23% of manufacturers automatically generate valid manufacturing Bills of Material directly from sales quotes.
AI investment is rising against that background. The report found that 79% of manufacturers are actively investing in or exploring AI, up from 64% in 2025, with AI-driven automation and optimisation ranked as the top digital transformation priority. US manufacturers were more likely to be heavily investing in AI than European manufacturers, at 34% compared with 20%.
When configuration rules differ between sales, engineering, production, and supply chain systems, automation has a weak foundation to build on. Tacton’s findings show that manufacturers are trying to advance AI adoption while still wrestling with the basic lifecycle connectivity needed to protect margins, reduce rework, and make delivery commitments more reliable.
The full State of Manufacturing 2026 report is available from Tacton.
