The shortage of skilled workers represents the greatest challenge for medium-sized companies in the manufacturing sector, followed by challenges such as digitization, competitive pressure and the ability to innovate. The pandemic, on the other hand, has lost some of its threat potential. However, this has increased competition on the markets for raw materials and intermediate products. These are the results of the survey of executives, which was carried out in autumn 2021 as part of the research project "Digitization processes of SMEs in the manufacturing sector".