2026 Manufacturing Outlook Survey: Will Cost Control Sink Growing Optimism?

That positive mindset trickled its way into respondents’ predictions about their companies forecasted production plans in 2026. More plant operators (40%) expect their companies to expand production this coming year by opening or adding lines or plants, up from 30% last year.

Meanwhile, the number of survey takers who thought their companies would shut down lines or plants in the new year slid by 9 percentage points — from 16% to 7% — and the group who believes things will stay the same dropped 11 percentage points, from 47% to 36%.

Overall, 16% shared some type of pessimism about the 12 months ahead (compared to 12% last year) — though it should be noted that the “very pessimistic” group shrank by a few percentage points this year versus last (2% vs. 5%).

Two things appear certain from these results, however: change and conviction. Fewer respondents think 2026 will be a straight continuation of 2025, with only 15% saying they felt neutral or unsure about what 2026 will bring (way down from 30% a year ago).

Continuing to control costs

Cost control maintained its place atop the list of priorities driving plant operations for 2026 for the second year in a row (and for only the second time in the Manufacturing Outlook Survey’s 25-year history). Until last year, food safety held the top spot in the minds of survey respondents, who were asked, “Please rank … the importance to your plant of each of the following manufacturing issues.”

Food safety still ranked second on weighted score and racked up the most first-place votes (26 this year, compared to only 10 first-place votes for cost control). So, while cost control may not be the most important issue for most plants, it is very important for almost all of them; and food safety is the most important issue for about a quarter of those surveyed but maybe not as high a priority as it is for other respondents.

Automation and capacity expansion ranked third and fourth respectively on the list again this year, and each gained some ground with higher weighted scores and more first-place votes than last year. Sustainability jumped back into the top five this year, showing last year’s drop to eighth place may have been a blip in the longer-term trends — although energy efficiency repeated last year’s last-place finish.

Despite plenty of talk and often handwringing over the economy and tariffs, the issues of inflation and ability to source supplies didn’t seem to have many respondents super-concerned, placing eighth and ninth this year. That said, inflation did pull in eight first-place votes, so some processors remain attuned to the economic environment.

When we asked respondents what vital issues were not included in the 10 we supplied, about a dozen specifically listed tariffs, imports or cost/price of goods as critical. Other issues mentioned covered a very wide range, from worker safety, recruitment and motivation to finding and affording parts for equipment. Another few mentioned addressing the skills gap in the workforce, and at least one was concerned with how artificial intelligence compared to human skills.

Working on workforce

Speaking of humans, for those looking for work at the plant level, 2026 appears to be another year in which most processors will be maintaining their payrolls rather than adding workers. Although this isn’t a structural change from last year, nearly half of respondents (48%) plan to maintain staffing levels this coming year, up from 41% last year.

We asked what plants would be doing to optimize asset use (see the bonus charts available online for full data on this question), and about half said they’d be adding on-the-job training programs to expand maintenance workers’ skill sets -- so plant operators remain committed to improving efficiency through investment in their workers. To that end, at least one respondent noted they were implementing Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) principles around autonomous maintenance as part of their overall training of staff.

Only 22% plan to add to the workforce this year, a drop of 11 percentage points from last year. When asked how their organizations were addressing staffing needs, 33% said they were recruiting maintenance technicians, 28% were planning to hire line operators for semi-automated tasks, and 22% were adding in-house engineering capabilities. All three of those groups, however, were smaller than last year.

Meanwhile, 15% believe their workforce will be reduced through attrition. Three percent said they’d be actively reducing staff sizes at their plants.

Filling the gaps

To fill the workforce gaps, 39% plan to expand in-house technical training, which is in line with last year’s plans. Fewer respondents said they were outsourcing more job functions this year than last (19% vs. 24%), and only 12% were putting in the effort to develop technical curricula with nearby schools to start the recruitment and training process earlier.

This year, we changed how we asked about the influence of AI and machine learning (ML), from a simple yes/no to an open-ended question. A subjective count of the answers we received showed that roughly 15% more respondents this year than last were somewhere along the curve of pursuing and implementing AI into their plants (see the bonus charts online for the tally). Confirmations ran the gamut from “some, cautiously” to “yes, make AI make money.”

Others were using AI and ML for inspection via enhanced vision technologies or planning and administrative work, while others mentioned supply-chain monitoring tasks and employee identification as well.

Regardless, plant operators relayed that digital technology continues to have an impact on their facilities, albeit not at much greater a scale than last year. Only 20% are still taking a wait-and-see approach (down from 22% last year), but other processors are replacing paper records with electronic records (30%), shifting to cloud computing (22%) and granting OEMs access to machine controls (7%, up from 3% last year) — all slightly higher percentages than last year.

In this posting, we've included just three of the 11 infographics resulting from survey answers. See all 11 infographics at www.foodprocessing.com/55341099 - registration required.